Wifi Campus Dornbirn, Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut, Austria Building, Vorarlberg Project News, Images

Wifi Campus Dornbirn

Vorarlberg Building Development, Austria design by Caramel Architekten

21 Jul 2009

Date built: 2008

Design: Caramel Architekten

Location: Vorarlberg, Upper Austria

Photos: Marcel Hagen

Wifi Campus Dornbirn, Vorarlberg

New construction and expansion of the Wifi Campus (Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut Bildungs- und Wissenszentrum) Dornbirn, Vorarlberg

Dornbirn Building

By adding on to the extant Wifi building, the “Wifi Campus” project creates a new urban structure between the railway station and the city center. Tracing the border of the building site between Grabenweg and Bahnhofsstrasse, the campus is formed by two dynamically bent, sickle-shaped building volumes.

Executed in part as floating building volumes and left open at the center, the permeable exterior space between the building volumes of the new campus gives rise to a new public-urban open area. In their folded surface, the exterior spaces trace the folded principle of the building volumes and in this way allow the user to perceive and experience the open spaces between the buildings on different levels.

On the Bahnhofstrasse side, a two-story open space enclosed by the building volume creates a generous entry gesture that leads into the complex. This “portal area” serves as an outdoor café and as a central hub that directs visitors to the Wifi, restaurant, and tenant-partner entrances.

The inside of the complex echoes the folded design of the structure in its urban planning context. At the center are the function room and the two-story restaurant. The transitions of one-and-a-half and two-story spatial volumes on different levels let the user experience interior and exterior spaces from multiple angles, affording an overall impression of coherency of the interior spaces.

In allusion to the dynamics of the spatial elements, the basic design pattern of a dynamic linear barcode runs along the building shell and the expansive wall elements in the restaurant and function room. Analogous to the framing gesture of the “portal,” the entire volume of the centrally located restaurant area is enclosed by a vast ceiling-and-wall encompassing seating element.

Wifi Campus Dornbirn – Building Information

open eu-wide competition: 2002 – 1st prize

Architecture: Caramel architekten zt gmbh
Assistant: Oliver Berlinghoff

Structural engineering: Mader + Flatz, Bregenz
Building physics: Bau Dämm Technik, Karlheinz Wille, Frastanz
Building services: Müllner GmbH, Dornbirn
Ventilation: Klimaplan GmbH & Co KEG, Hohenems
Electrical planning: Schagginger Gmbh, Weiler
Façade planning: Mosbacher + Roll, Schwarzach

Seminar rooms plus office areas of the Wifi Campus Dornbirn

Net useable area above ground total: approx. 6,500 m²;
below ground: approx. 10,000 m² underground garage three levels: 250 cars )
Cubage: 28,000 m³

Start of planning: 2003
Start of construction: Jun 2005
Completion: Jun 2008

User: Wifi + Partner

Wifi Campus Dornbirn images / information from Caramel Architekten

Wifi Campus Austria architect : Caramel Architekten

Location: Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, Austria, central Europe