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Opera House Bregenz with a new skin made of fibreC

Festspielhaus Bregenz, the cultural and conference centre in Bregenz in Austria now nearing completion after its conversion to accommodate new functions, is characterised by the bold building volumes connecting the different parts of the unique theatre and opera house in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, by the entrance area with its expanses of glass that for the first time open the building up to the lake, as well as the new concrete skin by Rieder Smart Elements.

“The diagrammatic shafts that seem to float effortlessly at high level and intersect the other building volumes not only serve to create the long longed for identity but also provide the right orientation in this complex festival structure”, writes Wojtek Czaja in his contribution to the commemorative bulletin. He gives the architects Helmut Dietrich and Much Untertrifaller credit for recognising the need for a design of the outer skin of the building. In doing so they “have stripped large parts of the aged skin from the seventies and designed a new façade concept to take its place” (©Czaja). 

The new cloak consists of an innovative concrete cladding material – a concrete skin branded fibreC. The glass fibre reinforced concrete is produced by Rieder who have their head office in Maishofen in the Salzburger Pinzgau region. The new material is produced in a new factory near Rosenheim in Bavaria. Rieder Smart Elements has obtained several patents for fibreC, which derives its name from the word fibre and C for ‘concrete’. Most recently, the new high-tech product has been used in several interesting buildings: apart from the Festspielhaus in Bregenz also on the Nordbahnhof (northern station) and Stadthalle (town hall) in Vienna and the Frank Stronach Institute in Graz. 

What attracted the designers to the system is not least the unique ‘flow’ of the material. Façades can be draped across U-shapes, arches and other geometric forms to extend the outer skin of the building to merge with outside paving or planted areas. 

More and more architects discover the brilliant material – also for decisive style elements in interiors (like the Dietrich/Untertrifaller partnership) – because this can create an uninterrupted transition from the outside to the inside. It creates a symbiotic language of shapes, patterns and colours in the different application areas. Longevity, authenticity and individuality are combined to forge the uniqueness of fibreC. At the Festspielhaus Bregenz, 2700 sqm of the new ‘concrete skin’ were laid outside the building in a shimmering ivory colour, with a rough surface finish (ferro), and another 600 sqm on the inside in ‘liquid black’.

With the skin in glass fibre reinforced concrete combined with other materials such as glass and metal, the Festspielhaus Bregenz has been given a clear new structure. fibreC by Rieder underscores the clear architectural pattern language of architecture. Material in its own characteristic combines with the design idea to optimum effect. Inside as outside, the new Festspielhaus impresses by the well tempered archi – tech – ture, as Wojtek Czaja puts it.

Files:

PT Festspielhaus Bregenz DE

PT Festspielhaus Bregenz DE

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