Linz
Linz has about 210.000 inhabitants The city is not far from the Czech border, and Vienna is at 200 km. The city is a tourist destination that has it all for a standard weekend trip; an old centre with a castle and a very big cathedral (the church tower is 135 m.), culture and food. And nice public spaces - Linz is on the Danube. Close to the Danube, you find nice modern architecture. A few other places worth an architecture visit: the ARS Electronica Center, the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, and the visitor centre of the Linz Schlossmuseum.
Links: //ars.electronica.art/news/, www.lentos.at/,
www.ooekultur.at/location-detail/schlossmuseum-linz
But for the really interesting and attracting architourism you have to go to the fringes of the city and visit the Bruckneruniversität, voestalpine Stahlwelt, and the campus of the Johannes Kepler Universität. Public transportation is good and renting a bike is easy (beware, the Bruckneruniversität is uphill, so take a bike with gears).
Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität
The Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität is a centre for the arts, in particular music, drama and dance. The university has a wonderful building (8600 sq. m. functional area) in a public park context, uphill, about 3 km. from the city centre. The building was opened in 2015, and has the usual functions of a higher education institution, plus four theatre / spectacle spaces, where dancers, musicians and actors practice and perform.
Captivating is that the building is very symbolic for the functions - the building is playful like a dance movement or piece of music. That was also the intention of the architect office 1ZT "Our goal was a building that shows its musical use: the curved, organically shaped structure lies in the park like a sound box. For shading, it is surrounded by a light lamellar dress, which, due to its serial structure, creates associations with a musical instrument.” The building of the university can be found in the university's attractive logo.
The entrance of the building is in the backside along the road - the front of the building is towards the park with sculptures, trees and places for students and staff to work or relax. This place offers a very pleasing architecture experience. One cannot enter the class rooms etc., but there is enough to experience. The main hall is a light and social space, on the the terrace you find yourself part of the architecture. The green space in front invites to slow down, eat a sandwich and enjoy the place.
Click to enlarge
voestalpine Stahlwelt
At about 5 km. from the city centre you find voestalpine Stahlwelt, a museum / exhibition center of the voestalpine steel company, a big firm with over € 18 billion turnover and over 50.000 employees. The company states that voestalpine is committed to the global climate goals and that is has a clear plan for decarbonizing steel production with its greentech steel program.
The Stahlwelt building has an exhibition part and an event centre, and shows all sorts of exhibits about steel, innovation and the voestalpine company. In the reception area you find an enormous wall picture (a very good stitch, 20 by 3 m.) with a drone-like view and map of the voestapline site. Interesting of the Stahlwelt building is that it lives up to its steel-expectations. The building of Bruckneruniversität expresses music and arts, Stahlwelt is a building made of steel, with necessary glass and a minimum of concrete.
Stahlwelt has a viewing platform with good views of voestalpine premises. The building is shaped like a periscope, a kind of steel rotunda and mounted tower. It gives special spatial impressions. Stahlwelt shows the exhibits on monitors in round steel mounts, and illuminates everything with a sequence of coloured light. That is a bit tiring and not suited for people who are very environmentally sensitive.
Johannes Kepler Universität campus
The third architecture spot in Linz not to be missed, is the campus of Johannes Kepler Universität, or JKU. We show some pictures of the new Science Park, the learning centre and the Kepler hall, but there is a lot more to see. Here you find a map with information on all buildings (downloadable)
The JKU campus is not just the university buildings, but the total complex of buildings and landscape, green park and open spaces of the campus (the last pic gives an example). In the Summer period when the students have gone home, it is like a quiet village with modern and older architecture and with all facilities. It offers a very pleasant environment, a rewarding architourism visit.
Link: www.jku.at/
