In 1822, the merchant Franz-Josef Adam purchased the estate with vast lands, stables and gardens. Three years later, he received the right to brew beer and at that time built the fourth brewery in Innsbruck. Gradually, the case grew and several times passed from hand to hand. In 1886, a restaurant was added to the brewery, and a quarter of a century later, the entire area was fenced off with an impressive fence and supplemented by a music pavilion. At the turn of the 1920s - 1930s, after a complete restructuring of the factory complex, a new brewhouse appeared there, designed by the architect Lois Welzenbacher (after whom the square in front of the building is now named).
The long history of one of the most beautiful buildings in the Tyrolean capital and the only project that represented Austria in 1932 at the famous exhibition "International Style" in New York MOMA (which gave birth to the term) fits in just a few lines, but continues to this day. Fortunately or unfortunately, the brewery, which, by the way, was the first in Austria to start filling beer into cans, has now changed its function: it has become the home of the Tyrolean
architectural center (now it is called Aut. Architektur und Tirol) and the Archive of Architecture (Archiv für Baukunst) - a research institute within the University of Innsbruck. We will talk about how this happened.
The Adambräu Brewery is located a few steps from the train station. This historic industrial area was subject to demolition after the war: the city authorities planned to build mainly residential buildings on this site, and the Adambräu building could be dismantled at any time. But the design of the new district dragged on for many years, which became an unambiguous "plus" for the brewery: in 1996 it was recognized as a monument of architectural and historical heritage and decided to reconstruct it. The requirement of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments was the mandatory preservation of the external appearance of the building, but the degree of interference in the internal space was not regulated in any way. Since the building was owned by the state and there were no special funds for its renovation at that time, it was decided to give it to the Tyrolean architectural center and immediately kill two birds with one stone: to shift the costs of updating Adambräu to this institution and adapt the building to the needs of culture.
The Tyrolean architectural center also did not have funds for a large-scale reconstruction, so they decided to do with a minimum - literally, cosmetic repairs. In general, for the fact that this beautiful example of Austrian functionalism has come down to us in almost its original form, we must thank not only the taste and extremely respectful approach to the reconstruction of the architectural studio Koberl + Giner & Wucherer_Pfeifer, but also Tyrolean economy.
In order to appreciate how lucky the Tyrolean architectural center and the Archives of Architecture are with the building, you need to turn back to history. The building that sheltered them is interesting not only in terms of style, but also in an industrial aspect. It was one of the first brewhouses in Europe to be oriented vertically instead of horizontally as was the practice at the time. When the building was just built, it was called "skyscraper number two": it was the second tallest in Innsbruck after the building of the city services and, as it seemed incredibly innovative, for a long time it became a hero of publications in Tyrolean newspapers.
Today, in the upper part of the former brewhouse, instead of a malt warehouse and water tanks, books, an archive of design documentation, numerous architectural models, etc. are stored, and the space itself, by the way, has remained unchanged.
The part located below, originally intended for the production process, is used as a multi-level exhibition space, where instead of wort, heated discussions about the future of Tyrolean architecture "boil over" from time to time. In addition to the exhibition space, there are offices of the center's employees, etc.
At first, the authors of the reconstruction project wanted to make a new entrance to the building from the southeast side, but since this decision would entail a significant change in the planning structure and, as a result, no less significant material costs, they stopped at preserving the entrance from the side courtyard, giving it the status of the main one. The doors were replaced with new ones, the railings and stairs were refreshed, but, in general, everything was left in its historical form. There were no significant changes in the interior either. The space of the staircase was slightly expanded and an elevator was added - for a barrier-free environment. The walls and ceilings were painted white and the floors were covered with dark gray terrazzo. All metal elements - fences, railings, window frames - were painted black. All of them have been preserved in their original form, but for security reasons, the railings were supplemented with steel nets, which, however, fully correspond to the general spirit of the building and do not spoil the interior in the least.
Perhaps the most radical (albeit necessary) step in the reconstruction process was the dismantling of all the equipment of the brewhouse, the "trace" of which, however, remained - in the form of large round holes in the floor. To cover them, materials such as glass or steel grating were considered, but oak flooring was the best option, which can be removed at any time. The second most radical was the decision to demolish the northern wall of the building in order to establish a spatial connection between the exhibition and administrative parts of the building.
The facades, as you remember, at the request of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments had to be left in their original form. And so it happened: here they just repaired and painted black window frames, re-plastered the walls, and restored the Adambräu sign.
In previous materials, we have repeatedly considered radical approaches to reconstruction: all of them were interesting and, from my point of view, despite the bold decisions, successful. Adambräu's case is quite different. Here, it seems, one can talk about the fine line between reconstruction and restoration. You don't have to go through architectural history books to find out what the building looked like in the original, and the components that have been dismantled are very easy to conjecture in the existing building.
You know that there are many examples of decent architecture in Innsbruck, and how many of it are in the whole Tyrol is a topic for further conversations, but Adambräu for me personally is a favorite and a must-see place. This is, in the literal sense, the crossroads of Tyrolean history and the case when the principle "less is more" in the reconstruction worked "with a bang." So I probably won't be original and just recommend Adambräu "see once …"
