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Death of Fred Achammer, the founder of ATP
Architect, visionary, innovator and role model for a whole generation of architects of industrial buildings
Innsbruck, 14th August 2015 – Fred Achammer, the founder and, for many years, the managing partner of ATP architects engineers is recognized as a pioneer of the interdisciplinary cooperation between architects and engineers in the German-speaking region of Europe.
Born on the 28th January 1924 as the son of a Tyrolean wine producer and wholesaler and the daughter of a South Tyrolean wine grower, Fred Achammer was raised in Innsbruck. His background and the resulting knowledge of the needs of the food industry underpinned his inherent understanding for industrial processes. Throughout his career he had great success as the architect of industrial buildings across the German-speaking countries.
In 1951, after the completion of his architectural studies (1949) at the ETH Zurich, Achammer established an architectural office in Innsbruck specializing in industrial building. A passionate glider pilot, he was also President of the Austrian Ski Federation (ÖSV) between 1951 and 1956.
From a one-man office to Austria’s largest architectural company
Achammer designed for numerous clients from, for instance, the food and automotive sectors in Austria and Germany. Together with the building engineer Sigfrid Tritthart and the mechanical engineer Gunther Fröhlich he developed the idea of “Total Design” – the precursor of today’s “Integrated Design”. The modern production techniques of his industrial clients had inspired him to structure the design processes of his offices in a similar, interdisciplinary, manner. This cooperation laid the foundation for the current success of ATP architects engineers as a pioneer of Integrated Design. Fred Achammer withdrew from his operational role upon the entry of his son Christoph into the company in 1987. At this point ATP was already Austria’s largest architectural company with more than 100 employees.
Today, ATP architects engineers is Europe’s leading Integrated Design company. Still based in Innsbruck the ATP Group now has over 550 employees and eight European offices (Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Zagreb, Budapest and Moscow).
