Rupp Cheese Innovation, Lochau (AT)

Production buildings determine the immediate surroundings of this one-story office pavilion. However, the elegant construction is able to develop a distant effect toward the north and the Lake. Its main floor rests upon a markedly recessing massive footing and is even stepped by a low window band, so that the classical “box from the 60s”, open on two sides, seems to float in ideal-typical terms.
A path leading upwards to the unemphasised entrance zone exploits its location upon a delicately ending slope. This serves to safeguard the box’s single-room character and flexible division in zones, since the path provides access, as it were, to the entire opened side, the glass closing of which only beginning behind a depthless balcony. The front of the basement, sunk into the area, is virtually freed by a broadly descending access ramp. This basement contains record and laboratory rooms, while offices are accommodated in the projecting main floor above. The story-high, paned sidewalls allow for prospects and perspectives on both sides – which comes as no surprise in a department of innovation.