Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron has completed a building in Austria, an arched structure raised behind a neo-baroque facade from the early 20th century, containing an apartment and hotel.

The building looks onto Kornmarktplatz, (historically an agricultural trading site, one of the largest grain exchange places in the region) which is the Bregenz city's cultural centre and sits between the edge of Lake Constance and the Pfänder mountain.

The eight-metre-wide and twenty-three-long building sits on a site formerly occupied by a 17th-century building used with various programs including a cinema, bank, deli, nightclub, and clothing store, that fell into disrepair after a roof fire.

After a series of massing studies, Herzog & de Meuron designed a building with a barrel-vaulted roof,  (a wood structure wrapped in a white metal skin), as a clear and distinct expression of the new building, rising behind the preserved façade.

The ground floor hosts a publicly accessible salon serving as the hotel lobby and a breakfast room. These spaces are flexible – they can be reconfigured through curtains, mobile furniture and lighting, for events. Light-coloured and reflective materials such as Venetian plaster bring light deep into the space.

The floors are dedicated to the hotel and a private apartment. The hotel rooms and bedrooms above are oriented to face the activity of the square, or the inside courtyard, with framed views of the lake or mountain.

The walls which divide the bedrooms – for both the hotel and the apartment – are conceived as full-height furniture elements that conceal storage, ventilation and connecting doors.


Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.
Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.

Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.
Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.

Project description by Herzog & de Meuron

The new townhouse on the centrally located Kornmarktplatz in Bregenz is intended to make an independent contribution to the cultural and public life of the city on Lake Constance. The new five-story building houses a small hotel, a function room for cultural events, and a private apartment, preserving the original historic façade so that the building fits seamlessly into the existing context of the city.

Built-in the 17th century, the building has housed various programs; it has been a brewery, a movie theater, a bank, a furniture store, and more recently a bar and club, all the while undergoing significant alterations with these transformations. The façade facing Kornmarktplatz has also been changed several times to reflect its respective use. The building’s neo-baroque appearance dates to its use as a bank at the beginning of the 20th century. Following a roof fire, the building remained empty for years, consequently, the building fabric suffered greatly and could no longer be preserved.

Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.
Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Daisuke Hirabayashi.

The historic Kornmarktplatz represents the social and cultural center of the city between Lake Constance and the local mountain Pfänder. Key institutions including the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the Vorarlberg Museum, the Vorarlberger Landestheater as well as shops, cafés and restaurants are located here. The Kornmarktplatz was originally active as a supra-regional transport hub for the grain trade, later transforming into the city’s central traffic hub. In 2013, it was traffic-calmed and has since returned to its original function as a marketplace.

The front and back of the 8-meter-wide and nearly 23-meter-deep parcel each possess different characteristics: The north-facing end towards the square has a very public presence while the south end towards the inner courtyard is more private. Two firewalls close off the building running along its sides in the urban bloc connected by a barrel-shaped roof. The fire walls and the arched roof are uniformly clad forming a white metal skin, which is color-coordinated with the existing facade in light blue with white ornamentation.

Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Robert Hösl.
Kleiner loewe in Kornmarktplatz by Herzog & de Meuron. Photograph by Robert Hösl.

Generous glazing provides an unobstructed view of the lake and over the roofs to the ridge of the Pfänder – with living spaces and hotel rooms oriented toward the narrow sides of the building accordingly. The center of the building houses a vertical access and roof terrace, bringing daylight in through a roof cutout. The multifunctional salon on the ground floor spans the entire depth of the building but can be divided into two separate rooms by a movable partition.

More information

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Architects
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Herzog & de Meuron. Architects.- Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Robert Hösl (Partner in Charge).
Partner Architect.- Metzler.Schelling Architekten ZT (Lukas Schelling, Eva Meisinger, Michael Petschulat), Dornbirn, Austria.

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Project team
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Lion Haag (Project Manager), Florian Stroh (Project Manager Concept Study), Ömer Acar, Silja Ebert (Lead Interiors), Leo Filser, Anna Kranitz, Dennis Marsch, Marius Oneta, Tim Simonet, Valentina Teruzzi (Interiors).

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Collaborators
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Construction Management.- Architekt Lukas Schelling ZT.
Structural Engineering.- M+G Ingenieure.
Building Physics.- Bauphysik Hafner Weithas.
Fire Protection.- K&M Brandschutztechnik GmbH.
Electrical Engineering.- Kremmel & Schneider GmbH.
HVAC.- Hörburger GmbH.
Façade Engineering.- PLG Fassadentechnik GmbH.
Landscape Architecture.- Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten.
Lighting Design.- PSLab.
Geotechnicians.- 3P Geotechnik.
 

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Client
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Johannes Glatz, Lisa Rümmele.

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Contractor / Builder
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Building Contractor.- Zimmermann Bau GmbH.
Geothermal Probes.- Plankel Bohrungen.
Master Carpenter.- Flatz Holzbau.
Tinsmiths.- Ing. Gunter Rusch GmbH.
Drywall Construction.- Formart Juen KG.
Façade Construction.- Metallbau Wilhelmer.
Heating.- Dieter Schneider GmbH.
Ventilation.- Dietrich Luft+Klima GmbH.
Chimney Construction.- Müller Ofenbau GmbH.
Elevator.- Weigl-Aufzüge GmbH.
Access Control.- Gantner Group.
Screed Work.-Vigl & Strolz GmbH.
Interior Fittings.- Tischlerei Rüscher GmbH.
Scaffolding.- Pfeiffer Gerüstbau.
Floorer.- Stipo Fussböden.
Doors.- Tischlerei Alex Beer.
Drainage.- Rudhardt Gasser Pfefferkorn ZT.
Tiler.- Meusburger Fliesen.
Upholsterer.- Mohr Polster.
Plasterwork.- VBS - Verputz und Bauservice GmbH.
Locksmith.- Kunstschmiede Figer & Schlosserei Kalb.
Painter.- Fetz Malerei GmbH.
Landscaping.- Gartengestaltung Christoph Ibele.
Solar Protection.- Massivholzschreinerei Holzweg GmbH.
Wooden Handrails.- K. Winkler AG Holzbiegewerk.
 

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Area / Dimensions
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Site area.- 190 m².
GFA.- 1,140 m².
GFA above ground.- 1,000 m².
GFA below ground.- 140 m².
Net floor area.- 824 m².
Number of levels.- 5.
Length.- 23 m.
Width.- 8 m.
Height.- 20 m.
Gross volume (GV).- 4,043 m³.

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Dates
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2024.

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Location
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kleiner Löwe, Stadthotel Bregenz. Kornmarktplatz, 5. 6900 - Bregenz, Austria.

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Photography
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Christian Schramm, Daisuke Hirabayashi, Robert Hösl.

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Herzog & de Meuron Architekten is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 (and in 1989) and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999. They are co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, which started a research programme on processes of transformation in the urban domain.

Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by five Senior Partners – Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. An international team of 38 Associates and about 362 collaborators.

Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988).  The firm’s breakthrough project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987).  Renown in the United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the Küppersmühle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999). Their most recognized buildings include Prada Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan (2003); Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany (2005); the new Cottbus Library for the BTU Cottbus, Germany (2005); the National Stadium Beijing, the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China; VitraHaus, a building to present Vitra’s “Home Collection“, Weil am Rhein, Germany (2010); and 1111 Lincoln Road, a multi-storey mixed-use structure for parking, retail, a restaurant and a private residence in Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2010), the Actelion Business Center in Allschwil/Basel, Switzerland (2010). In recent years, Herzog & de Meuron have also completed projects such as the New Hall for Messe Basel Switzerland (2013), the Ricola Kräuterzentrum in Laufen (2014), which is the seventh building in a series of collaborations with Ricola, with whom Herzog & de Meuron began to work in the 1980s; and the Naturbad Riehen (2014), a public natural swimming pool. In April 2014, the practice completed its first project in Brazil: the Arena do Morro in the neighbourhood of Mãe Luiza, Natal, is the pioneering project within the wider urban proposal “A Vision for Mãe Luiza”.

Herzog & de Meuron have completed 6 projects since the beginning of 2015: a new mountain station including a restaurant on top of the Chäserrugg (2262 metres above sea level) in Toggenburg, Switzerland; Helsinki Dreispitz, a residential development and archive in Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland; Asklepios 8 – an office building on the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland; the Slow Food Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy; the new Bordeaux stadium, a 42’000 seat multifunctional stadium for Bordeaux, France; Miu Miu Aoyama, a 720 m² boutique for the Prada-owned brand located on Miyuki Street, across the road from Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of that practice being the collaboration with Rémy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael Craig-Martin.

Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, “We work in teams, but the teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.”

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