Planning With a Sense of Rhythm
Music Pavilion Finkenberg
When our entry to the architectural competition really hit the note, we were commissioned to build a new music pavilion with a rehearsal space for the village of Finkenberg in Zillertal. The resulting building shows that small projects can also play a loud beat on the architectural drum.
As the former music pavilion and rehearsal space for the local brass band was showing its age and no longer met current needs, the village of Finkenberg in Tyrol organized an invited architectural competition in 2018. The competition brief expressed the requirement for a new building with a modern and self-confident appearance that still slotted into its architectural context – and for an urban planning solution that enhanced the public realm and stimulated the cultural life of the village.
In harmony with the surroundings
The pavilion is located in the heart of the village and very close to the parish church and the old cemetery. In order to create a harmonious overall concept that makes its own statement, while still fitting naturally into the existing site, the ATP design team covered the spectrum from the local building tradition to the modern age. They consciously avoided “disconcerting” forms and materials and opted instead for a contemporary interpretation of the constructional approach that is typical to the region.
Two key objectives of the design process were to create a respectful relationship with the church door and to integrate the listed cemetery wall. The folded timber roof to the pavilion now enters into dialog with the typical pitched roofs of the village and the sacred forms of the church and the cemetery chapel, with which it also shares the rich material texture of wooden roof shingles.
Where the music plays – and village life too!
The music pavilion and the ceremonial forecourt with seats for spectators are built on a solid stone base, most of which disappears into the hillside. The base contains the rehearsal space for up to 50 musicians. The design of a new, open entrance to the old cemetery resulted in the creation of an attractive square that invites visitors to linger awhile. The closed stone wall has been replaced by an open terrace of steps that are large enough to sit on and are a powerful new element within the village’s network of paths. This intervention enhanced the public space and reinvigorated the heart of the village. The pavilion and the surrounding, newly designed open space act as a meeting place for young and old – even when no (musical) event is taking place.
The aesthetic aspiration of the project, together with its central role in the culture of the village and its direct contact with the church, was to focus on architecture’s ability to shape the living environment.
Stefan Köll
Architect, Lead Project Manager in Innsbruck
Wood sets the tone
The ground floor is made of solid timber elements and the pavilion is a timber-framed structure – whose form is so complex that no two frames or elements are the same. The differences between the timber facades are illustrated by variations in tone and haptic and a mixture of woodstains that creates fascinating shading. The inner face of the pavilion is clad with somewhat narrower brushed and untreated larch planks and the weathered external surface with rough-sawn spruce cladding, stained in various shades of gray.
