Waldarena, Velden am Wörthersee

The new and the existing at the edge of the forest are brought under one long wooden roof. A platform with a low grandstand overlooks the playground, organises the transitions, connects the square at the entrance and the courtyard at the rear, directs traffic and frames views of the forest.

In the middle of scattered buildings, in a grove on the western bank of Lake Wörthersee, lies a small community sports park. It includes a football pitch where young players from the surrounding area train.

A building used to stand next to it – a house with a four-sided roof, intended for all the supporting programmes of the activities held on the pitch – locker rooms, toilets and other facilities. The building needed to be renovated, but there was no money or real will to do so until two true enthusiasts, Bruno and Robert, the leaders of the local football club, took matters into their own hands. Together with representatives of the Carinthian provincial administration, they drew up a programme proposal and launched a competition for the new building. The first prize was won by the Carinthian architects Sonja Hohengasser and Jürgen Wirnsberger with their design for a two-storey wooden grandstand, which would also integrate the existing building.

The Hohengasse Wirnsberger Architekten office is known for its wooden buildings and its intensive and committed cooperation with the local community during the construction process. Their successful and award-winning wooden building Kaslab’n in Radenthein impressed not only with its honest wooden construction and conceptually pure architecture, but also with the idea that it would benefit the local farming community in the hilly hinterland of the lake. This community donated the wood for the construction of the open-plan wooden cheese dairy, which allows everyone to see the work process and, at the same time, promotes dairy farming and cheese making, a healthy lifestyle and food self-sufficiency. The building also houses a small shop and a social area for educational activities for children and the general public. These features give the building a significance that was also recognised by the jury of Constructive Alps, an initiative that rewards sustainable construction in the Alpine region and awarded the building the 2021 prize. The award is not only a recognition of construction with local materials such as stone, earth or wood, but also of care for the community, whose meaning and significance are further reinforced in community building projects (for a more detailed presentation of the Kaslab’n Dairy Facility see Piranesi no. 40, pp. 134-141).

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