Competition for BG/BRG Sillgasse Innsbruck


On 12 March 2021, Habima Fuchs won BIG’s Kunst & Bau (Art & Architecture) competition for the BG/BRG Sillgasse in Innsbruck.

The judges explained their decision as follows:
“Basing her concept on the five elements doctrine, Habima Fuchs has created five glass objects that span an artistic bridge between natural sciences, mathematics and cultural studies. In this way, she gives the school’s focus areas a physical form and helps promote a high level of identification, while carrying the centuries-old tradition of Tyrolean glass craftsmanship into the present. In addition, the artist has developed a colour-based guidance system that forms a vertical line through the building. It begins on the ground floor and creates points of orientation on each of the school’s five above-ground floors. Not least owed to the delicate, colourful projections on the floor, which change with the hours of the day and with the seasons, impressive synergies with the architectural concept relating to glass surfaces and daylight unfold, and the analogue techniques employed create understated colourful movements in the building, while increasing awareness of natural phenomena and the cycle of nature.”

Winner: Comprising the Universe


By merging spirituality, artistic expression and mathematics, Habima Fuchs playfully points to the school’s natural and cultural sciences focus. Her coloured glass creations are essentially Platonic solids that are based on mathematical/geometrical representations of the five elements. She creates one piece for each of the school’s above-ground floors. By assigning an element/Platonic solid and a colour to each floor, she creates a “line” that runs vertically through the building and also establishes points of orientation. The glass creations, made using traditional artisanal techniques, are stand-alone objects positioned close to the large windows in the learning zones and project colourful reflections onto the floor that transform with the changing angle of the sun’s rays.

Zirkadiane Lichter (Circadian Lights)


Daniel Hafner uses light projections to playfully imitate the natural light display in the earth’s atmosphere in his installation. To achieve this, he analyses photographs of the sky at different times of the day and night and empirically breaks them down by times of the day, colours and contrasts. The colour palette is derived from the various moods created by light.  Hafner’s pieces are dotted throughout the building, and each installation has its own cycle that repeats and transforms every day. The Circadian Lights also have an impact when viewed from outside the building, as they create moods and shape the space. During the day, the natural light keeps the effect of the sculptures to a minimum; but the less ambient light is available, the greater the effect of the light emanating from the installation.

Untitled


This work is based on the artist’s personal experiences as a child of migrant workers from former Yugoslavia. It depicts the transparent dynamics of how we move in a top view of our head and shoulders. Our background and ethnic affiliation become redundant, and prejudices are undermined. These transparent dynamics form the basis of the implementation of the proposed abstract wall design. Its aim is to invite students a take a break in between their academic efforts and inspire them to take things easier. Black Rohrer ink will be used for the murals. They will be located in the entrance area and in the central learning zones on the upper floors, where they will taper off towards the roof.

SOTTSI (ein Baukastenspiel – a building block game)


Lazar Lyutakov has developed a “building block game” that is based on the principle of a modular push-fit system. It is adaptive and represents – and actively shapes – different aspects of school life. Visually, the work is based on four glass vases designed by the Innsbruck-born architect and designer Ettore Sottsass. The vase designs are reduced to individual shapes, flattened and milled from translucent polycarbonate sheets in different colours. The elements (the “building blocks”) created in this way can be affixed to the 40 column-like constructions located throughout the building. The push-fit system allows users to flexibly combine shapes and colours, to think freely in terms of composition and to create individual sculptures or groups of sculptures. At the same time, it can be used as a tool for (art) teaching.

AUFSTIEG (ASCENT)


Thomas Riess’s project aims to interact with the protagonists of the school, without unduly interfering with the architecture. A ceiling frieze made from Dibond mirrors will be affixed to all of the ceiling areas above the central staircase, which runs from the ground floor to the top floor. Images of astronauts connected by tubes are printed onto the mirrors. This intervention enhances the staircase – which is per se a sculpture within a space – and turns it into an interactive sculpture. It gives the impression that the architectural component of the staircase is disrupted, and the mirror plane expands the concept of space. The reflection enhances the staircase’s symbolic power and is a metaphor for the various “ascents” that a young person experiences during their education and personal development.

Baumdiagramm (Tree Diagram)


A school is a system with many individual structural elements that interrelate and interact on a daily basis and come into their own, either alternately or jointly. It is buoyed by a large number of people – students, teachers, parents, other school staff – all of whom constantly interact with one another. This project seeks to observe and explore the structure of the BG/BRG Sillgasse through the lens of the different areas and their stakeholders. Statements from conversations with individual persons will be recorded in a “tree diagram” mural and linked with quotes that relate to the school’s focus areas. The resulting “leaf text carpet” will comprise different points of view, interests and job descriptions, which correspond to the various perspectives on school and schooling in general.