After successful completion of the course, students are able to research and design large historical buildings, because every design work on a listed building requires specific knowledge and requires strategies appropriate to the existing building.
The exercise offers the students the opportunity to deal with the diverse requirements that have to be met when preserving, repairing and carefully developing a monument. The students also learn to include the spatial context and the actors in the planning process in the theoretical and practical debates on monuments.
From the late 19th century to the new millennium, the industrial history of Vorarlberg was shaped by the textile industry. After working from home in the middle of the 18th century, the first manufactories for spinning, weaving and embroidery followed in buildings intended for this purpose.
The mechanical factory developed from the manufactory. The Vorarlberg rivers and streams made the technical and economic restructuring possible. Their water power drove the mechanical machines and led to production processes based on the division of labour, which led to increases in production.
One of the leading so-called Ferggers (middleman between the textile trade and the trade) was Franz Martin Hämmerle. The Vorarlberg textile company F. M. Hämmerle based in Dornbirn existed from 1836 to 2016 and was the largest textile company in Austria with more than 2,200 employees in the mid-1980s. At its location in Feldkirch, the company not only shaped the construction of a spinning mill in 1893 (architect: Josef Anton Albrich; designer: Sequin Bronner), but also the urban and infrastructural development of the Gisingen district. A newly built hydroelectric power station provided the drive for the spinning machines, the power was initially transmitted mechanically via transmission belts and from the 1930s electrically. The first electrically operated standard-gauge railway in Austria was used as a works railway (1894) for the supply of raw cotton and the yarn transport to Dornbirn.
Next to the factory building, the “Hämmerle Colony”, today “Hämmerle Settlement” (architect: Otto Mallaun) was built with a company kindergarten for the working class families. Part of the settlement are the foreman’s houses and the director’s villas, which are listed monuments.
After the closure of the spinning mill F.M. Hämmerle 2017 is about to use the remaining area of around 71,000 m². We will primarily deal with the existing buildings over an area of around 41,000 m² (EZ 725). There is great potential for a new district center in Gisingen. A first stage of development has already taken place with the implementation of a large supermarket, several residential buildings and a playground.
Hall 1 (100 x 110m, single storey), the cotton store, the workshop building and the turbine house are listed monuments. In addition, the complex is characterized by several attachments and connecting buildings from the post-war period.
General information
- The design course will be held in German.
- Introduction: Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023, 9 a.m.; seminar room 257
- Project and correction dates: Tuesday 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., seminar room 257
Excursion
A mandatory excursion from November 6th to 10th in Feldkirch will bring us closer to the Hämmerle area and its properties and enable us to work on and in the object. Visits to Dornbirn, Bregenz with the Vorarlberg Museum and other locations are planned. Arrival is on November 6th, 2023, 2p.m. meeting point in Feldkirch. Departure on November 11th, 2023 from 2 p.m.
Students have to organize and pay for their own travel to and from Feldkirch. The accommodation is organized by the chair and is in the Feldkirch youth hostel, 5-8 bed rooms including breakfast. An excursion fee of €300 is charged accordingly.
The course is linked to the excursion (LVA 251.180).
