architecture
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Tip: Buildings worth visiting museums Angelika Kauffmann Museum, Schwarzenberg; Juppenwerkstatt, Riefensberg; Women’s Museum, Hittisau; Franz Michel Felder Museum, Schoppernau. inns and hotels Gasthof Adler, Schwarzenberg; Hotel Krone, Hittisau; Hotel Gams, Bezau; Hotel Post, Bezau; Hotel Sonne and Metzgerstüble, Mellau; Hotel Steffisalp, Warth. schools & kindergarten Bizau; Doren; Egg; Warth. commercial buildings Molke Metzler, Egg; Wood workshop Faißt, Hittisau; Cheese cellar, Lingenau. municipal buildings Village halls in Sulzberg, Langenegg, Andelsbuch, Bizau. churches Alpe Niedere chapel, Andelsbuch
active summer
Worth a visit It is hard to list remarkable buildings, since many of them are private residential buildings which are not accessible. However, a walk through Hittisau or Schwarzenberg for example, can satisfy your curiosity. The village of Bizau is p articularly suitable for such a walk: it boasts residential buildings from all epochs, estates, buildings for industrial, educational and local authority purposes, as well as inns: together, they form an ensemble which was awarded the ArGeAlp prize.
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Landscape and wooden buildings Located somewhat off the beaten track, the Bregenzerwald was part of this development, although in a way of its own. In contrast to the densely populated, industrial and commercial Rhine Valley with its mainly suburban structure, landscape, nature and rural craftsmanship culture is of great importance in the Bregenzerwald. Outside of the Bregenzerwald, groups of houses and farms dominate, whereas inside the Bregenzerwald it is the single-ridge house (farmers’ palace and parlour → page 72); outside of the Bregenzerwald it is households which commission the building, whereas inside the Bregenzerwald it is the young craftsmen. The Bregenzerwälder have a greater affinity for craftsmanship in general (werkraum → page 68): for example, it is in the carpentry trade that the Kaufmann family of architects has its roots. While, following the initial years, the formal experiment is in demand outside, the tendency towards stringency and sobriety increases inside. Rural pragmatism and the discipline of construction with timber, which is now state-of-theart, appears to be more effective here. Recently, examining the old buildings is also gaining in importance. Above all, however, the new buildings fit in with the surrounding landscape with regard to material, size and proportion. Is it this attitude that shies at the eccentric and that searches for the typical rather than the unique which guarantees this way of building a wide basis? In any case, good carpentry firms now build residential build-
ings which architects in other places wouldn’t be capable of building: it is these houses which graze casually in the field like the cattle which are as typical of the region as the farmhouses and the churches.
land & lives
Dietrich, Kaufmann and Ritsch have long since become international stars with chairs at renowned universities.
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