The Mozartstraße atrium house is an extension of the existing “Sutterlüty Citypark” department store which has existed in the city center of Dornbirn since 1983. As part of the total renovation, the maximum structurally permissible addition – a third and fourth floor – was erected upon the existing building shell. A timber-built atrium house was placed upon the masonry-built lower stories in order to produce attractive, naturally lit dwellings above. What results are 21 apartments and two offices located around a two-story, glass-roofed courtyard. All living rooms are oriented outwards and to terraces. The inside-facing bedrooms and secondary rooms receive daylight from the atrium. The newly designed vertical access routes and the atrium’s connection to the ground floor and parking garage make it a semi-public space with benches and plants, corridors and gangways.

The warm appearance of the wooden floor and atrium walls provides a bright ambience in the lobby, which is criss-crossed by gangways below the inward-sloped glass roof. All walls of the atrium, the loadbearing partitions on the fourth floor and the roof structure are made of prefabricated timber elements. For reasons of fire protection, the floor plates are made of mineral-based building materials. (Otto Kapfinger - wood works)