Architecture

Dietmar Steiner was director of the AZW (Architekturzentrum Wien) until 2016 – he was considered an accomplished connoisseur, critic and lover of Austrian and international architecture.
Dietmar Steiner sadly passed away in May 2020. Our friendship with Dietmar and his many friends in architecture gave us the idea of travelling to Basel together and getting Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron on board for this project.

Many people are familiar with the impressive buildings by Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron. The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Tate Modern in London or the Allianz Arena in Munich. Now the "kleiner Löwe" project on Kornmarktplatz in Bregenz is also on their list of works. It started out as a dream, but Dietmar Steiner has turned it into reality. Dietmar believed in the project right from the start, without his support this building would not exist. We are very grateful for that.

The historic Kornmarktplatz represents the social and cultural center of the city between Lake Constance and the local mountain Pfänder. Key institutions including the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the vorarlberg museum, the Vorarlberger Landestheater as well as shops, cafés and restaurants are located here. The Kornmarktplatz was originally active as a supra-regional transport hub for the grain trade, later transforming into the city’s central traffic hub. In 2013, it was traffic-calmed and has since returned to its original function as a marketplace.
The buildings’ current neo-baroque appearance dates to its use as a bank at the beginning of the 20th century. Following a roof fire, the building remained empty for years, consequently the building fabric suffered greatly and could no longer be preserved.

Two firewalls close off the building running along its sides in the urban bloc connected by a barrel-shaped roof. The fire walls and the arched roof are uniformly clad forming a white metal skin, which is color-coordinated with the existing facade in light blue with white ornamentation. Generous glazing provides an unobstructed view of the lake and over the roofs to the ridge of the Pfänder – with living spaces and hotel rooms oriented towards the narrow sides of the building accordingly. The center of the building houses a vertical access and roof terrace, bringing daylight in through a roof cutout. The multifunctional salon on the ground floor spans the entire depth of the building but can be divided into two separate rooms by a movable partition.

From there, steps lead up to the mezzanine and upper floors. The lounge at ground level extends over the entire length of the hotel, and serves as a lobby, breakfast room, and as a venue for cultural events. When required, the lounge can be divided into spaces of different sizes by means of a central partition. Even in an open state, the suspended mezzanine results in a sequence of three different spaces: a high-ceiling room on the square, a lower area under the mezzanine, and a high garden room. The walls have wooden panels and fabric coverings, while the entire rear facade of the garden room is glazed to open the room up towards the courtyard garden.
The upper floors can be reached via the mezzanine, which provides the main access from the southwest to the northeast side of the building, and features a small circular window with a view of the lounge.

The light-blue hues of the entrance area transition into a warm grey tone that accompanies you as you explore the building. There are four rooms on each of the two hotel floors – two facing the square and two facing the courtyard garden. The central entre chambre provides access to these in symmetrical fashion. All rooms are configured in a similar manner:

An entrance area with a bathroom followed by a view of the main room around a corner. Adjacent rooms are always separated by timber wall units. These contain the wardrobe, shelves, and appliances that can be used by hotel guests. If necessary, they can be almost entirely closed off. In some cases, adjacent rooms can be combined by means of a connecting door to form a suite.
The square rooms are decorated in light blue tones, while the rooms facing the garden echo the greenery of the garden in the inner courtyard. The rooms facing the square are characterised by the existing façade. On the 1st floor, the existing openings are fitted with box windows in keeping with the historical model; the space in between can be used as a bench due to the depth of the façade. The new façade is set back in the slightly smaller rooms on the 2nd floor. A loggia-like, sheltered outdoor space opens up between the two façades and provides a view of the square. Towards the courtyard, the rooms are fully glazed towards the garden, a slender balcony runs along the façade and extends into a quarter-circle loggia in front of the south-west rooms. The rooms are furnished differently depending on their size and orientation and each has its own character thanks to their colour scheme and different orientation.