Zeitbogen (Time Arch) is the title of the project with which Peter Sandbichler won BIG’s Kunst & Bau (Art & Architecture) competition for the University of Innsbruck’s teaching and office building on 13 December 2019.
The judges explained their decision as follows:
“Peter Sandbichler’s sculptural intervention for the central entrance portal of the university building explores the relationship between seeing and perceiving as the foundation of scientific thinking. He has developed a three-dimensional ornament made up of basic elements for the arch’s surface area of approximately 120m². These elements are repeated over and over, with a modification of a few of their parameters in each repetition, so that the eye can perceive the gradual change. In this way, Sandbichler references the theory by physicist Douglas R. Hofstadter; in 1985 Hofstadter demonstrated that the gradual transformation of a pattern creates a temporal progression.
The adornment’s basic shapes are pyramids with diamond-shaped bases that unfold along the arch like a mountain range. While the width of the pyramid remains constant, the height and length change successively and blend into the arch. The adornment starts out quite flat at the edges near the ground and increases in diameter towards the curve of the arch. Hyperbolic sequences are created along the arch’s curve.
Peter Sandbichler has chosen the central entrance to the university building for his intervention. With a minimalist yet powerful sculptural gesture, the sculptor brings together humanities and natural sciences in a sophisticated way, thus crafting an abstract metaphor for access to education and knowledge as well as for the complexity of the sciences. At the same time, he creates a physically explorable, atmospheric space. A result of the fusion of mathematics, art, technology and philosophy, the adornment becomes part of the building’s design and holistically designates the university as a place that unites research and teaching.”