Research and education with broad horizons

A University of Applied Sciences – currently Austria’s most modern – was “planted” in the middle of a proverbial green meadow, as the, what you might call, foundation stone of the Salzburg-Urstein technology park. This is not least reflected in the building’s architecture, in which perforated sheeting plays a central role.

The campus building complex of the new Salzburg-Urstein University of Applied Sciences was designed by the architecture office of Klaus Kada and Gerhard Wittfeld from Aachen, Germany. The campus has been a hotbed of education and research since 2005. The core of the complex and the visual eye catcher is the polygonal library. On the sides are the two three-storey wings of the University of Applied Sciences, behind which meander the two student residences. 

Due to its purist austerity in form and choice of material, the external appearance of the University of Applied Sciences imparts a dignified elegance. It was the intention of the architects to produce a sophisticated, monolithic character. This is why they decided on a continuous stainless steel shell, which does not differentiate between ribbon windows and the window parapet with a plastered thermal insulation composite system. The only difference: the window parapet is covered with fixed elements while the windows are covered with lamellae, which can be rotated vertically.

The material of choice for the outer skin was perforated sheeting. “We decided in favour of perforated sheeting because it has a surface effect while simultaneously providing an air of transparency”, said Nikola Müller-Langguth, who was involved in the design. As even when closed, the perforated sheeting lamellae allow a view of the outdoors. “And we selected stainless steel because even though it is not the least inexpensive solution in the short term, it is, in the long term, the least maintenance-intensive solution”, commented the architect on the decision regarding the material. This material was provided by SOLVARO, a company of the MEVACO Group, which specialises in the processing of large-scale projects. That a reduced colourfulness arose, due to the combination of exposed concrete, glass and stainless steel, has a reason which you probably won’t hear too often from architects: “What works is the surrounding green meadow, Alpine backdrop and blue sky. It is so impressive that we toned down the materiality.” The thus demonstrated unpretentiousness has, in any case, been worth it.

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