Tyorlean Timber Building Prize
Nomination, Holzgau Educational Center, Lechtal, AT
Holzgau Educational Center, which was designed by ATP Innsbruck, is one of the 34 extraordinary and exemplary projects nominated by proHolz, Tyrol’s timber industry association, for the 2019 Tyrolean Timber Building Prize. The prize is awarded together with the Chamber of Architects and Engineering Consultants, Arch+Ing, in Tyrol and Vorarlberg.
The Educational Center, which consists of a nursery, kindergarten and school and has already received the Iconic Award, is a strikingly modern interpretation of the traditional alpine approach of building a serene wooden volume on a stone base. The interaction between materiality and color demonstrates timber’s capacity for being skillfully combined with other materials. The central role of wood in the building is embodied by the exposed solid timber walls, the roof structure sailing above the spaces of the upper floor, the silver fir slats of the acoustic cladding and the floor boards of local larch. The generous glazed openings in the façade of untreated larchwood planks draw the surroundings deep within the building. The adoption of local building methods enables the Educational Center to blend harmoniously into the Nature Park region and offers the children a means of identification.
The association proHolz Tirol awards the well-known Timber Building Prize every year with the aim of encouraging the use of wood as an ecologically and economically valuable natural material. The award focusses on the role of wood at the interface between business, society and culture and in the debates surrounding regional value creation, the craft tradition and our approach to natural resources.
