Description

Thom Mayne won the American “Progressive Architecture Award” in 1997 for the head offices of the Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank in the eastern part of Klagenfurt two years before completion. With his spectacular architecture, he created a striking image for Kaernten’s national bank, expanding in Austria, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. Two of the three work stages – which contain an event venue, rental office units, a kindergarten and residential units as well as the head offices – have been completed so far.

The expressive, almost sculptural building complex stands out above all for the commercial appeal it has brought to the bank. Formally, it marks the perimeter of the city and at the same time, attempts to constitute a transition to the adjacent landscape. The fields next to the building were taken up and continued by

a low, flat element, a roof landscape rising out of the ground. In contrast, the urban structure is continued in a long, four-storey building segment. This complex ‘building sculpture’ folded in upon itself, consists of one building mass rooted to the soil, and another raised one; attention alternates from one to the other. In the intervening space is a publicly accessible, triangular atrium spanned by footbridges that connect the two building segments with each other. The bank branch is located here, and from here one also reaches the event venue in the third building mass further away. The office areas were planned by the architect as flexible, open-plan layouts. However, at the request of the client, who attaches great importance to discretion, cell-like offices were realised initially for the most part. At the same time, since in the banking sector there is also an increasing tendency toward teamwork, and parts of the far too rigid cell-like structure have been turned into group offices.

Thom Mayne attaches importance to personalised room atmospheres and therefore the offices were realised in irregular sizes and with different ceiling heights. The lighting system enables the proportions of direct and indirect light to be controlled individually. A second skin of materials of varying translucence, consisting of glass, perforated metal and louvres, directs the light both inward and outward, so that the building’s appearance changes over the course of the day. In combination with natural ventilation, conventional fan coil units (a component of the partial air-conditioning) enable individual control of the internal climate.

The inimitable architecture generates a striking look that corresponds to the bank’s forward-looking strategy. In comparison, however, the interior, with its rather conventional room structure and its not very innovative energy concept, falls short of expectations.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.