Client /
H&B RE Srl, Lana (BZ), Italy

Name and location /
Holzner & Bertagnolli Engineering,
Via del Sole 16, 39011 Lana (BZ), Italy

Building type / Headquarters
for an engineering office

Volumetric data / Usable area 1.965m²,
Volume 6.520m³, Built over area 610m²

Construction year /
2020

Construction methods and formal concepts in contemporary architecture are subject to constant change over time. Functional, technological and communicative needs in turn respond to this continuous evolution. A building is designed as a process that must take all these different aspects and their variables into account. Here, concrete becomes the emblematic element of these transformations, a material for the overall design, an architectural organism capable of both meeting the structural requirements and shaping the space, while at the same time incorporating the technical know-how of the client, who was responsible for the structural design. The new company headquarters for the engineering office "Holzner & Bertagnolli Engineering" presents itself as a generous and functional reinforced concrete and glass building, puristic and clear-lined, "completely reduced". The basic design idea was to place the reinforced concrete skeleton on the outside instead of cladding the load-bearing structure; the construction principle is at the same time an architectural stylistic device. The specially prefabricated and 11m high filigree concrete columns without joints form the defining elements of the new building and a permeably light facade. The ground plan of the building is defined by the plot. The compact building volume offers space for 75 employees and consists of one underground and three above-ground floors. A statically sophisticated, column-free cantilever created a U-shaped, roofed and thus weather-protected outdoor area in front of the main entrance on the ground floor, which leads into the spacious, open reception and waiting area. Light-flooded offices and meeting rooms are arranged around this. For acoustic reasons, untreated wood fibre boards were installed on the ceilings there; otherwise, there are exposed concrete ceilings, as well as light grey floors, which extend the concrete family.