Werkraum Bregenzerwald is a public organization dedicated to the popularization of folk crafts in the Bregenzerwald region. Today it has about 80 members - craftsmen working in different "genres" and with different materials, but equally strongly interested in preserving the traditions of their native land. It is for this reason that the new center was created in Andelsbuch: it will become a place where you can not only hold exhibitions, but also receive guests, organize creative meetings and master classes. Peter Zumthor became acquainted with the Werkraum association in the 1990s when he was building the Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition center in Bregenz, and in 2008 he himself proposed to design a building for Werkraum.
Zumthor gave the building of the center a laconic shape of an elongated rectangle, covered with a rectangular flat roof, and the main building materials were his beloved concrete, glass and wood. The architect explains his choice by the fact that the main function of the new complex is exhibition, which means that its layout should be as convenient as possible for organizing exhibitions of any scale and content. For the same reason, the main facade of the center is completely made of glass - transparent walls serve as a kind of showcases for both the works of artisans and the process of their creation.
The main decoration of the building is its roof, the rectangular trusses of which are made of wood - the key material with which the craftsmen of the Bregenzerwald region work. Its wide projections provide the inner premises of the Center with protection from the sun's rays, and outside they form a small pedestrian gallery, which in the future is also planned to be used for presentations, receptions and meetings.
In addition to exhibition halls, the complex includes office premises, a lecture hall, several meeting rooms and a small store.
