above the bridge winds gently, like the river inn. <strong>In</strong>nsbruck / AustrIA 174 <strong>Zaha</strong> hadid <strong>Four</strong> <strong>Funicular</strong> stations Horse-drawn carriages are parked opposite the imperial palace in the shade of the chestnut trees. a crowd of school children armed with skateboards meet up in front of the Tyrol theatre. on this sunny, late-summer’s day everything is as usual in innsbruck. ‘we had problems with the glass for the roofs,’ a helpful passer-by comments. He points to the other side of the river inn, adding proudly: ‘But we’ll soon be opening the Hungerburg funicular. really cool!’ You might have thought he was personally responsible for the new funicular railway and its stations designed by <strong>Zaha</strong> Hadid. since the ski jump was built on Berg isel, the inhabitants of innsbruck have taken the Londonbased architects to their hearts. despite the baroque tradition and alpine kitsch consistently surrounding this regional capital of Tyrol, the locals support the futuristic forms conceived by the Hadid practice. That also applies to their Despite the baroque traDition anD alpine kitsch surrounDing innsbruck, the locals support haDiD’s futuristic forms latest project: four elegant funicular stations in solid concrete and glass, plus a striking suspension bridge that snakes across the inn along a curving route. protests at the planning stage related to maintaining the old funicular, whose famous chain bridge over the inn will remain as a monument. They were never about the new architecture. GlAss structures tHe formS of tHe double-Curving roofs and their individual elements were developed with modelling software applied in car- and boat-building. using 1:50 models the architects tested the results for surface continuity, which was extremely important for the design (with the working title of ‘Shell and Shadow’). when the materials were considered, mineralbased material and metal were also reviewed, but after their reactions and possibilities had been tested, they were soon rejected. the architects, together with pagels metalltechnik, opted for thermo-formed glass, which was tested in various processes for stability and durability in an overhead structure. the roofs of the individual stations comprise around 2,000 10-12-cm-thick glass elements that have been varnished and coated. no two panels (which were made in China) are the same. the exact production of each glass surface, The new line links the town centre with Hungerburg – the stylish innsbruck suburb sitting at a height of 868 m at the foot of the nordkette mountain range. along its 1.7-km line, the funicular overcomes a gradient of up to 46% and passes four stations, the architecture of which is in the same design idiom, without being merely repetitive. The town, and its 130,000 inhabitants, is justifiably proud of the stations: <strong>Zaha</strong> Hadid’s design shows yet again how alpine architecture can be, ideally, though all too infrequently. and, vice versa: innsbruck and Tyrol are also a stroke of good fortune for the London architects, who won the international competition three years ago in collaboration with the austrian construction company, strabag. after all, Hadid’s computer-generated, elegant curves come into their own in the contemporary mix of baroque and mountain setting as nowhere else. They call up associations with icefalls, snowdrifts and its measurements and curvature were decisive for the roof ‘shell’. the roof surfaces that came about in this way correspond in design to the undulating solid-concrete curves of the building’s plinth. production entailed inserting the individual glass elements at a high temperature into a ‘plaster-cast’, thus forming them precisely in accordance with the architects’ 3-d data. in addition, a float glass counterpart was inserted which had been treated on the reverse in the bright green colour of the inn. the individual glass elements have been attached with no visible anchorage to a steel support structure. the support comprises transverse and longitudinal ribs with diagonal bracing. the glass elements are neither clipped nor screwed in place, but bonded on metal brackets in the steel support, meaning that no mounts are visible on the outside that might detract from the effect of the iridescent, smooth roof surfaces. the top of the glass roof fits flush. rainwater collects in a concealed surrounding gutter, which serves for snow retention in the winter. landslides – purely organic forms that belong in the alpine décor and mark the architecture of the station buildings. The lower terminus serving the funicular railway, which was financed as a public-private partnership project, is located at the congress centre beside the imperial palace which is orientated towards the court gardens and the inn river. Traffic flows at a sharp angle round the corner. cycle paths and pedestrian crossings intersect and at the centre of this busy interchange a roof membrane of gleaming, double-curving glass arches up and appears to float above the undulating plinth of solid concrete. a dynamic piece of architectural sculpture, and a kind of reptile, the skin having the colour of the river, that has nestled in the traffic at the edge of the town centre. The narrow radius of the bend in the road is reflected in the contour of the building. its architecture takes on the speed and Continued on page 180∫ long section mArk #11/2007-2008 175 congress station altitude 568 m Plan. section. model Photo.
above the glass roof of above löwenhaus the bridge station winds arches gently, over the like two-storey the river inn. station. <strong>Zaha</strong> hadid <strong>Four</strong> <strong>Funicular</strong> stations <strong>In</strong>nsbruck / AustrIA long section mArk #11/2007-2008 177 löwenhaus station altitude 574 m Plan. section. model Photo.
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