Designed by LAAC, P2 combines a city library, a public space with restaurants and residential accommodation within a multi-faceted building complex. It is a spatial organisation of urban relationships that manages both public and private interests.
Photography: Marc Lins Photography
In Innsbruck, as in many European cities that enthusiastically embraced high-rise buildings in the sixties and seventies, the debate about the efficient use of building land has died down. The consequences of such interventions in the urban context simply seemed too serious and the qualities and opportunities offered by the high-rise typology were inadequately tested. Yet such an investigation of the notion of verticality seems particularly necessary in Innsbruck, a city whose land resources are limited as a result of its location in an Alpine valley. The resulting question is whether, and how, this high-rise typology could help the city to achieve its spatial and functional development objectives. The Innsbruck Tower Study, published by the ?aut: Architektur und Tirol? architecture center, asked these questions and outlined a high-rise typology in the form of an Urbanism. The design of Pema 2 responds to this idea by combining a range of functions within a consciously architectural and yet spatially restricted building. This consists of three different volumes: a base containing the spaces of the new City Library, a residential tower and a public space on a level with the roofs of the city that...