URBAN DEVELOPMENT | CONCEPT
The new building of the Oberndorf Town Hall is conceived as the ‘New Centre’ of the municipality to be a place of encounter equally for citizens, community representatives and employees. It is a modern and open citizen service centre, the spatial realisation of a transparent and citizen-friendly municipal administration based on a holistic architectural approach – encompassing urban development standards through to the interior design.
The three-storey building reacts sensitively to the homogeneous townscape. It responds to the urban planning alignment of its built environment and thus complements the township’s village structure. In doing so it specifically re-enacts the township’s typical features in its scaled dimensioning and the selected roof form, its clear and striking geometry conjuring up a deliberate contrast to the free space. The new Town Hall therefore merges seamlessly into its immediate surroundings and is simultaneously given a clear identity and functional assignment.
The forecourt formed on the south side is designed as an encounter zone, meanwhile expressing with the recessed ground floor a clearly visible and weatherproof entrance situation.
ARCHITECTURE | INTERIOR STRUCTURE
Access to the Town Hall is via the roofed-over main entrance area in the south. The passageway foyer provides a smooth transition to the green area at the rear and is also connected directly via a side entrance to the visitors’ carpark. Comprehending all floors,it acts as the communicative heart of the building, and, with its sequence of atrium and air spaces, provides for high-quality interior settings and diversified options of viewing into, out of and through the building. So it generates a positive and inviting atmosphere, but also makes for high-level transparency and uncomplicated orientation for all users.
Atrium, air spaces and traffic zones articulate each functional and administrative zone, effecting not only a clear and transparent spatial structure but also short access routes and optimal work processes. The central staircase guarantees not only apractical routing system but also generates an easily detectable escape route situation.
The multifunctional conference hall on the ground floor is clearly separated from the citizens service zone and can therefore be usedindependent of the rest of the building for conferences and external events. Its orientation on the Town Hall garden shields it from onlookers, its spacious terrace opens it up to the outside.
The central access axis and the targeted arrangement of air spaces structure the facilities for the mayor and the administration on the two upper floors into easily overviewable areas. This guarantees on one hand high-value, trans-storey transparency, openness and excellent overview, but also the appropriate anonymity in official activities and traffic. The traffic zones themselves merge into open common rooms, designed as spacious and light-flooded waiting areas.
Supplementing the office and administration rooms is the common room for municipal employees on the second floor. It offers a shielded retreat, its high quality as a recreational environment enhanced by a sheltered terrace, also outdoors.
FREE SPACE
The central position of the building embeds the new Town Hall in surrounding free spaces of various qualities. The main significance is placed first and foremost on the forecourt zone in the south. Conceived as a place of encounterand with road and pavements on the same level, it extends the public free spaces of the neighbouring Stadtpark/Municipal Park. Together with the roofed-over main entrance area and the free space of the side entrance in the north it forms an expansive public space.
In addition, the recess on the south façade brings the great outdoors into the building’s interior, generating in combination with the spacious roof terrace an optimal lighting situation and heightened contact with the bustling Stadtpark zone.
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
Special attention was paid in the concept and planning on sustainability in building and operation. Heating and cooling is effected by means of thermal component activation, which optimally exploits the storage masses of the solid construction. In line with a smart city concept, the new Town Hall is supplied in the local heat network jointly with the simultaneously erected new building of the BORG Oberndorf (Bundesoberstu fenreal gymnasium/Federal Upper-Secondary Academic School). The groundwater heat pump installed there provides the heating and cooling energy for both buildings. A photovoltaic and also solar heating system installed on the new school building’s roof additionally ensure a particularly efficient operation of both buildings and optimal exploitation of synergy effects.
A controlled ventilation of all relevant assembly and recreationalareasthrough a highly efficient heat recovery concept and state-of-the-art control technology reduces energy consumption to a minimum and ensures optimal comfort in the environment for all user groups.
