In Braike, an area framed by the vast curved track of the Federal Railway of Austria that cuts through the alluvium located west of the center of Bregenz, the animal feed manufacturer Velag was the last industrial plant to be closed down in 2003. Like the neighboring areas, this site was subsequently developed for residential use. When a south facing structure with small apartments and wing with east-to-west orientation and housing units of different sizes were newly developed, the old factory experienced an intense and dynamic conversion.

The comparatively short wing with the small apartments is organized in a rational manner. The six apartments on each floor are located along an access gallery; the living quarters in the south are furnished with large loggias. They shade the large windows during the summer and prevent the rooms from heating up, while allowing the low winter sun to enter. At its south side, the longer and newly built wing, stretching from east to west, houses spacious five-room apartments with galleries that surround the building on three sides. Each of the two bright and well-proportioned staircases provides access to two units per floor and, via access galleries, also access to the small apartments in the middle zone.

The conversion of the former industrial building is divided into four sections. The fine reinforced concrete structure of the silo tower in the south, which has advanced to the status of the site’s vertical land mark, defied any conversion works. However, an appealing attic apartment was built on top of the tower’s roof. Adjacent to the tower is an eight-story element with large balconies attached to its western side. The third section saw the development of small apartments on the three lower floors. Two and a half new floors comprising four maisonettes with spacious roof terraces were developed atop. A tower-like structure that houses a five-room flat on each floor concludes the development on the north side.

lt is the unintentional tangible character of this cleverly modified industrial building and the absence of formalistic considerations that creates its unique identity. This reveals that, if skillfully converted, even mundane factories from the 20th century have the potential to develop more charm than the majority of the apartment buildings that were erected during the era of the so-called Bauwirtschaftsfunktionalismus, where architecture was reduced to its economic aspects.

(Walter Zschokke, 2008)