2_1_DiscoverGermany_Issue32_November2015:Scan Magazine 1
26/10/15
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Crinkled perfection How Wiesflecker architects put their buildings in context with the environment By adjusting blueprints to surroundings, Wiesflecker stand for a modern approach to enhance life quality through architecture. TEXT: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI | PHOTOS: DAVIS SCHREYER/ MARKUS BSTIELER
Regularly collaborating with artists is one of the ways Austria-based Johannes Wiesflecker mixes up traditional ideas in architecture. Such is the case with the Wiesflecker high school annex in Kufstein, which offers a highly philosophical statement. A wall looking like crinkled paper, designed by artist Karl-Heinz Klopf, stands not only for the struggle of academic growth, but also for the trial and error principle of writing something down, then crumbling up the paper and beginning anew. Wiesflecker's own architectural philosophy to a large part also comprises of integrating the new into the old, to settle the
82 | Issue 32 | November 2015
building well into its surroundings, both into landscape and urban space alike. In the case of the Kufstein high school, the colouring in white and light greys links the modern annex to the older school buildings visually, while its conical shape settles the building within the existing landscape. Having participated in a myriad of competitions already as a student, Johannes Wiesflecker started his own enterprise at the tender age of 33, eager to put his own ideas out there. Relentlessly working through the nights on a regular basis has paid off for him in the long run.
For example, with challenges like the office and business property ‘Sparkassenplatz 2’. Here, the project asked for integrating parts of an older building as well as creating a new outline of an increased height from four to a whopping seven stories.This complicated task inspired Wiesflecker to “go human”on a larger scale. By creating inner spaces of various sizes and identities to accommodate the enterprises and offices and through an artistic layering of the stories themselves, the block-like nature of the existing building is broken up and the new additional stories feature a“lighter”quality, simply by recoiling a few metres from the outline and displaying glass walls to mirror the sky. Doubtlessly, Wiesflecker architects stand for modern materials: Concrete, glass and steel