Lorettohof, St.Andrä

Is a mixed-use commercial facility with a pharmacy, a beauty salon, a doctors practice, a massage practice, a hair salon, a cafe, and offices.

The site is along a developing shopping strip, a non-place between villages. Given the necessity for a large parking lot, the usual challenge when working in peripheral commercial zones, raises the question of how to make a place? A place you want to come to, stay a while and even meet someone perhaps. This, above all was our starting point. In the distance there are low lying mountains, which we took into consideration as an important quality.

It is important for us to find every opportunity to make a positive architectural condition, within the given constraints. A further possibility to make a meeting point developed by creating a courtyard, at the bend of the L-shaped building, where circulation is distributed, turning what would be merely functional, into a space with potential for meeting and other uses throughout the year. The challenges were not only to fulfill the client’s wishes on a tight budget, but also to accommodate the wish list of the future tenants.