As the winning project entry for the 2016 competition for the Tourist Information Office, the project takes on the qualities of airiness and levity that characterized the three previous pavilions that once sat on the site. Indeed historical documentation reveals a lineage of eccentric and rather remarkable pavilions dedicated to welcoming those visiting the South Tyrolean town of Bressanone, former seat of the Bishop. The triangular sliver of the site lies at the intersection of the roads leading into town, in front of the important historical landmark of the Bishop’s Palace.
Raising her body up on tiptoes, the project frees up the ground level to give it over to the city as a public space. This newly found public space not only became a catalyst for the local administration to transform the entry into town into a pedestrian zone, but has also visually engaged the adjacent Bishops Palace with the city’s edge to create a more memorable façade to the city. The project also takes cue from the exotic, sinuous curves of the Japanese and Chinese corner pavilions of the Bishop Palace gardens to pull together a sequence of convex and concave surfaces that wrap around the existing centennial trees.
Five arched spans raise the blank, bush-hammered, exposed concrete walls like a curtain—a curtain however whose very structure is what holds the building together in one continuous, solid ring. The entire perimeter was poured to a height of 9 meters and then consolidated by the two horizontal floors. The building is predominantly glazed on the ground floor to engage the Bishop’s palace more integrally with the pedestrian experience of Bressanone. The inset windows at the ground level afford the new square an important overhang that clearly defines the entrance and offers a protected area.