Splendid Isolation #9

摘要

Big and small - one possible way of describing the contents of our March issue, which presents our annual focus on the single-family house. This time we leave out the "exotics" and instead investigate the state of things in the field of private housing in Austria, Bavaria, and Switzerland. In the process we encounter an unconventional small house for a retired farmer, houses on a slope, and houses on a lake - very representative of Alpine regions. This selection of private worlds is augmented by and contrasts with two large public projects: the recently opened Musee des Confluences in Lyon by Coop Himmelb(l)au and the Innsbruck Transport Authority headquarters by Peter Lorenz. Steel plays a decisive role in both, albeit in very different ways: in the former it is used for the construction, in the latter for the facades and fitting-out. In our special issue on the theme of competitions we present a comprehensive report on Austria's currently most prominent public project, which is based on a complex application procedure: the general renovation of Theophil Hansen's famous parliament building in Vienna.