architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

Next to Perrault’s City Hall and mall, a private investor commissioned an apartment and office building on Anichstraße, the ground floor passage also serves as the southern entrance to the mall. Here, Perrault designed a tower in different shades of dark colours, with a 20 m golden metal curtain in front - an allusion, of course, to the famous Golden Roof - that stages a striking entrance to the mall, since this was not possible on Maria-Theresien-Straße, out of respect for the conservation of monuments.

Dominique Perrault was the first architect not resident in Tyrol to be entrusted with the setting up of, in the meantime, three supermarkets by MPREIS, two in Wattens and one in Zirl. The SuperM on the main road to Wattens is situated in the middle of a heterogeneous built-up-area. Perrault reacted to this with a materiality and constructively light and open building with a yard type recess, which together with the small protruding square, forms an urban centre.

What formerly used to be just a parking lot in the back of the old City Hall now has become an exciting mix of heterogeneous functions: city administration, city council, shopping mall, a hotel and various restaurants and cafés. Intelligently graded heights, a glass roof for the mall, plus a central "Campanile” – these are the main characteristics of an unpretentious and still very outspoken ensemble that easily and fluently manages to integrate the pre-existing older buildings and to connect to the cityscape around it.

Here, Dominique Perrault, architect of the new City Hall and mall, created a public space over the roofs of the city. With glass walls all around, nothing interferes with the perfect view over the roofs and cupolas of the city centre, over old and new towers, to the mountain tops. Not an everyday sight, but a place to rest for a while.

The Penz design-hotel with its interior design by the Vienne office Jiszda & Partner, forms the northwest completion of the Town Hall area planned by Dominique Perrault. The completely glazed north façade provides the rooms with a lovely panorama view; from the outside the dark glass reflects the images of the buildings around the square. A restaurant with an American bar and terrace can be found on the completely glazed top floor.

Dominique Perrault set up his first MPREIS opposite Swarovski Kristallwelten, which was designed by André Heller – a solitary building based on minimalism with an opaque shimmering glass façade. A biomorphic scaffolding surrounding nine pines permeates the rectangular building allowing the border between the inside and outside to merge where visible truss-girders, OSB boards and black floor slabs create a market hall atmosphere.