Article source: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Industrial culture can only come about when existing economic and functional practical constraints are successfully transformed into multidimensional design.

The Funder Werk factory building, a paper coating factory, is functionally determined by the process of production. It was to be metamorphosed into “expressive architecture.” The design concept was based on the idea of dismantling the production hall into sculpturally shaped elements. During the design process, the power station with its chimneys, the media bridge, the flying roof, the office and laboratory areas, and the entrances emerged as differentiated, interconnected architectural elements that endow the complex as a whole with an unmistakable head and body. The playful sculptural evocation of the power station with the “dancing chimneys,” the media bridge as a connection between energy and production, the free design of the flying roof as “wings,” the shaped canopies of the entrances, and the corner of the laboratory and office areas dissolved in glass towards the south, all stand out against the hall, which has been consciously kept white and simple.

Image Courtesy © Gerald Zugmann

• Architects: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
• Project: Funder Werk 3
• Location: Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria
• Client: Funder Industries, St. Veit/Glan, Österreich
• Design Principals: Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky
• Project Architect: Markus Pillhofer
• Landscape Architect: J.B. Koppandy, Graz, Austria
• General Planner: Achammer & Tritthart, Innsbruck, Austria
• Site Area: 150,000 m²
• Total Floor Area: 6,450 m²
• Design: 1987-1988
• Construction: 1988-1989

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