Hypo Alpe-Adria Center
Klagenfurt, Austria · 2002
Photo · Photo by Christian Richters
A prime precedent of Deconstructivist corporate architecture by Thom Mayne, demonstrating how a secondary louvered skin and dramatic cantilevers can break down the mass of a large office facility.
- What we like about this project
- A dramatic, long-span diagonal steel canopy that projects far above the main roofline like a shard.
Materials
- steel
- glass
- concrete
- aluminum
Visual identifiers
- deconstructivist-facade
- metal-louvers
- inclined-canopy
- pilotis
- cantilevered-volume
Style tags
- deconstructivist
- morphosis
- high-tech
- angular
Visual tags
- deconstructivism
- double-skin
- shading-device
- structural-expressionism
- corporate-headquarters
- Geometry
- Deconstructed, angular massing featuring overlapping planes, cantilevers, and a prominent inclined steel-truss canopy that projects skyward. The facade is wrapped in a secondary skin of horizontal louvers that break and shift across different volumes.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall enveloped by a secondary steel-supported horizontal louver screen.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete columns and slabs supporting cantilevered steel framing and secondary steel screen structures.
- Spatial scale
- A large-scale multi-story institutional or corporate headquarters, with human scale established by the ground-level glazing and pilotis.
- Lighting
- Overcast, diffused daylight that minimizes harsh shadows and highlights the complex layering of the metal louvers and structural steel elements.
- Atmosphere
- An energetic, highly engineered composition that feels both high-tech and sculptural.
- Environmental context
- Set back from a paved roadway with a manicured grass lawn in the foreground, indicating a suburban or edge-of-city institutional campus setting.
- Spatial experience
- The building feels dynamic and unstable, with heavy volumes suspended on pilotis over a transparent ground floor, creating a dramatic, sheltered public entry sequence beneath shifting planes.
- Composition rhythm
- A complex rhythm of horizontal louvers interrupted by diagonal structural members, stairs, and shifting building volumes.
- Style reading
- Deconstructivism
- Program
- Corporate office and banking center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- steel, glass, concrete, aluminum
- Visual identifiers
- deconstructivist-facade, metal-louvers, inclined-canopy, pilotis, cantilevered-volume
- Style tags
- deconstructivist, morphosis, high-tech, angular
- Visual tags
- deconstructivism, double-skin, shading-device, structural-expressionism, corporate-headquarters
- Geometry
- Deconstructed, angular massing featuring overlapping planes, cantilevers, and a prominent inclined steel-truss canopy that projects skyward. The facade is wrapped in a secondary skin of horizontal louvers that break and shift across different volumes.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall enveloped by a secondary steel-supported horizontal louver screen.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete columns and slabs supporting cantilevered steel framing and secondary steel screen structures.
- Spatial scale
- A large-scale multi-story institutional or corporate headquarters, with human scale established by the ground-level glazing and pilotis.
- Lighting
- Overcast, diffused daylight that minimizes harsh shadows and highlights the complex layering of the metal louvers and structural steel elements.
- Atmosphere
- An energetic, highly engineered composition that feels both high-tech and sculptural.
- Environmental context
- Set back from a paved roadway with a manicured grass lawn in the foreground, indicating a suburban or edge-of-city institutional campus setting.
- Spatial experience
- The building feels dynamic and unstable, with heavy volumes suspended on pilotis over a transparent ground floor, creating a dramatic, sheltered public entry sequence beneath shifting planes.
- Composition rhythm
- A complex rhythm of horizontal louvers interrupted by diagonal structural members, stairs, and shifting building volumes.
- Style reading
- Deconstructivism
- Program
- Corporate office and banking center
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture