Studying with a view of the Nordkette

In 2017, the Viennese architectural office mohr niklas architekten the tender for the realisation competition for a new multifunctional building for the Uni Innsbruck win. At the end of 2023, the Ágnes-Heller-Haus in operation. On around 13,000 m², students will find an auditorium with 600 seats and a view of the Nordkette, a large lecture hall with 200 seats, a museum, a public cafeteria, a library, offices and seminar rooms as well as reading and study areas.
“The building brings together institutions that were previously scattered across the city in one central location,” say the architects. “With the park, it redefines the campus concept around the main university that opened in 1924. In the evening, this area of ​​the Inn is the meeting place for young people.” The opening towards the city and the compression of the building in favor of spacious, freely accessible green spaces are two core aspects of the striking design.

Innsbruck arcades as a model

In terms of form, the building is a new interpretation of the Innsbruck arcades and, according to Günter Mohr and Markus Niklas, it creates a design link between the small-scale nature of its uses and the generosity of the city. This is reflected in the design of the main entrance and in the redefinition of Christoph-Probst-Platz as the center of the campus.
While the Ágnes Heller House itself is intended to form a new urban focal point, the freely accessible, open campus lawn descends via a green staircase to the lecture halls in the basement, thus providing a view of the opposite peaks. The interior impresses with a spacious, light-flooded atrium that opens up visual connections between the individual usage zones and levels. While student learning is concentrated more inwards, the offices are oriented outwards, offering views over the city.

Setting an inviting sign – that is what the artist Peter Sandbichler has achieved with his “Portal” for the Ágnes Heller House. The winner of the BIG ART artistic competition convinces with the concept of a strong sculptural gesture in the form of a 120 m² sculptural intervention. The work refers to the “Parquet Deformation” of the physicist Douglas R. Hofstadter and addresses the relationship between seeing and perceiving as the basis of scientific thinking.