OFFICE BLDG. 

︎︎︎Offices for a steel construction firm in Gratkorn-Friesach, Greater Graz, 2012

For a mid-sized steel construction firm north of Graz, the building consolidates three fully autonomous office units within a single, clearly articulated volume. It is conceived as an assemblage of three interlocking rectangular blocks: two form an L-shaped base that shields the ground floor from the street, while a third volume cantilevers above, marking the entrance and forming a sheltered forecourt. The building anchors the corner condition of the site, defining its edge while drawing internal circulation toward a shared, court-like center.

Internally, subtle shifts in level articulate open-plan workspaces, generously proportioned meeting areas, and continuous views across the surrounding semi-rural landscape. A landscaped perimeter mediates between building and terrain, with a planting concept by Marie Theres Stabinger that softens the transition from industrial premises to the adjacent agricultural edge.

Fig. Design diagram – 3 independent office units in one building

The façade dispenses with conventional window articulation, reinforcing the building’s horizontal emphasis through calibrated shifts in volume and material. Closed end walls are clad in trapezoidal stainless-steel shingles; street-facing elevations in aluminium panels; the cantilevered upper volume in horizontal corrugated aluminium; and the courtyard façades in vertical corrugations. Together, these elements draw on and abstract the material vocabulary of both the client’s steel construction practice and the surrounding industrial premises.

Hovering between the domestic allusion of Villa Dall’ava’s destabilised pilotis, the insertion of a garden enclave within an industrial yard, and a measured hint of glitz within a peri-urban mosaic of former farmsteads and post-war single-family houses, the building positions itself as a deliberately understated yet playful intervention. It operates largely as an energy self-sufficient structure, reinforcing its autonomy within this heterogeneous context.

By probing the relationship between utilitarian construction, typological autonomy, and landscape mediation, the project frames the periphery as a productive field for contemporary architecture. Neither fully industrial nor overtly representational, it occupies a critical middle ground—balancing functional rationality with a calibrated degree of self-awareness.