Art experience at the bus stop

Vorarlberg in Austria is worth a trip for art-loving people. The Kunsthaus Bregenz is open all year round. Famous are the Bregenz Festival on the lake stage as well as the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg with song recitals and piano concerts. Bregenz is also known for architecture.

Another example is the Werkraumschau Bregenzerwald in Andelsbuch. The Werkraumhaus, designed as a multifunctional building by Peter Zumthor, the well-known Swiss architect, becomes a stage for outstanding craft exhibits every year. And then there is Krumbach. A small town in the middle of the Voralberg countryside.

Since 2014, seven bus stops designed by internationally renowned architects and built by regional craftsmen have been located there. Seven bus shelters that bring culture, business and architecture under one roof. Architecture lovers from all over the world are invited to get on, get off or change buses here. Guests of the region are made especially easy. The Bregenzerwald Guest Card also includes the use of public transportation.

Alpabtrieb in Hittisau. Die Jugend holt das Vieh von der Alm und die schönste Kuh wird geschmückt. Das Wartehäuschen auf diesem Foto bekommt keinen Schönheitspreis – aber in der Nachbargemeinde Krumbach gibt es Bushaltestellen in Weltklasse-Architektur! / © Foto: Georg Berg
Alpabtrieb in Hittisau. The youth fetches the cattle from the alp and the most beautiful cow is decorated. The bus shelter in this photo doesn’t get a beauty prize – but in the neighboring community of Krumbach there are bus stops with world-class architecture! / © Photo: Georg Berg

Seven at one stroke: BUS:STOP Krumbach

No, they are not the seven wonders of the world, but these seven bus stops can be reached in the most pleasant way with a bus ride. In 2013, the Kultur Krumbach association invited seven international architectural firms from Belgium, Norway, Spain, Chile, Japan, China and Russia to build new bus stop huts in a cosmopolitan design in its community. They were each assisted by a regional architectural firm and twenty local craftsmen. The architectural firms were to deliver without a fee. Nevertheless, all of them accepted in a very short time. The conditions that had to be met were almost open: the designs were to have a connection to the region, be made of resistant materials and be functional. A dialogue with the people, the landscape and the local building culture and craft tradition was to be created.

Dietmar Steiner, retired director of the Architekturzentrum Wien and curator of the project. “We wanted to make the Bregenzerwald and the craftsmanship based here accessible to international architecture.” Both seem to have succeeded. Krumbach’s mayor Anton Hirschbühl doesn’t want the Wartehüsle to be just an art project. “Above all, we want to set an attractive sign in the direction of climate-conscious local transport.” The BUS:STOP bus shelters can be found on rural bus routes number 25 and 29.

Nothing could be easier. We set off from the Romantik Hotel Das Schiff in Hittisau on line 25 and discover: Waiting can be so nice!

Waiting can be fun

Anton Garcia Abril und Debora Mes, Ensamble Studio aus Spanien. Das Architekten-Duo war fasziniert von der Qualität roher, unbehandelter Eichenbretter und der Art der Schichtung in den Trockenlagern der Holzwerkstätten im Bregenzerwald. BUS:STOP Krumbach, Vorarlberg, Österreich / © Foto: Georg Berg
Anton Garcia Abril and Debora Mes, Ensamble Studio from Spain. The architect duo was fascinated by the quality of raw, untreated oak boards and the way they were layered in the dry storage facilities of the wood workshops in the Bregenzerwald / © Photo: Georg Berg
Smiljan Radic, Chile. Eine Referenz an die Bregenzerwälder Stube. Die Intimität einer häuslichen Stube wird der Öffentlichkeit einre Bushaltestelle ausgesetzt. Ein Stück „Stube“ wie ausgeschnitten und in die Landschaft gesetzt / © Foto: Georg Berg
Smiljan Radic, Chile. A reference to the Bregenzerwald parlor. The intimacy of a domestic parlor is exposed to the publicity of a bus stop. A piece of “Stube” as if cut out and placed in the landscape / © Photo: Georg Berg
Kommunikativ:  in der Bushalte-Stube von Architekt Smiljan Radic aus Chile kommt man schnell ins Gespräch / © Foto: Georg Berg
Communicative: in the bus stop parlor by architect Smiljan Radic from Chile, people quickly get into conversation / © Photo: Georg Berg
Jan de Vylder, Inge Vinck, Jo Tailleu, Belgien. Eine spitzwinkige Situation, drei Richtungen treffen sich. Ein poetischer Akt der Faltung von dreieickigen Flächen oder die Abstraktion der Berge – der Alpen, so wurde der Bezug zur Natur geschaffen / © Foto: Georg Berg
Jan de Vylder, Inge Vinck, Jo Tailleu, Belgium. An acute-angled situation, three directions meet. A poetic act of folding triangular surfaces or the abstraction of the mountains – the Alps, so the reference to nature was created / © Photo: Georg Berg
Alexander Brodsky, Russland. Ein präziser Turm aus Holz mit Öffnungen zu allen Seiten und an drei Seiten verglast. Für einen entspannten Aufenthalt stehen Tisch und Stuhl bereit / © Foto: Georg Berg
Alexander Brodsky, Russia. A precise tower made of wood with openings on all sides and glazed on three sides. A table and chair are provided for a relaxed stay / © Photo: Georg Berg
Sami Rintala, Dagur Eggertsson und Vibeke Jenssen, Norwegen. Bedarf und Möglichkeit: Eine Haltestelle mit einem zusätzlichen sozialen Angebot, denn die Rückseite des Wartehäuschens entpuppt sich als Tribüne. Traditionelle Holzkonstruktion mit Schindeln verkleidet / © Foto: Georg Berg
Sami Rintala, Dagur Eggertsson and Vibeke Jenssen, Norway. Need and opportunity: a bus stop with an additional social offer, because the back of the bus shelter turns out to be a grandstand. Traditional wooden construction covered with shingles / © Photo: Georg Berg
Eine Bushaltestelle mit zwei Ansichten. Oh wie schön kann warten sein: Tribüne zum Tennisplatz entworfen von Rintala Eggertsson Architects, Norwegen. Nur selber spielen wäre noch schöner findet Reporterin Angela Berg / © Foto: Georg Berg
A bus stop with two views. Oh how nice waiting can be. Only playing by yourself would be even nicer, thinks reporter Angela Berg / © Photo: Georg Berg
Wang Shu und Lu Wenyu, Pritzker-Preisträger, China. Dieser BUS:STOP hat freie Sicht zu beiden Seiten. Die Archtitekten erschaffen einen Raum, der die Wahrnehmung auf die Landschaft fokussiert / © Foto: Georg Berg
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Pritzker Prize winners, China. This BUS:STOP has a clear view on both sides. The architects create a space that focuses perception on the landscape / © Photo: Georg Berg
Sou Fujimoto, Japan. Eine neue Dimension der Wahrnehmung! Die Vereinigung von Architektur und Natur. Im offenen Dialog mit der Natur verliert die Architektur auch die Funktion des Schutzes / © Foto: Georg Berg
Sou Fujimoto, Japan. A new dimension of perception! The union of architecture and nature. In open dialogue with nature, architecture also loses the function of protection / © Photo: Georg Berg
BUS: STOP Zwing. Von Smiljan Radic, Chile. Weiter geht’s. Mit dem Landbus der Linien 25 und 29 erreicht man alle sieben Architektur Wartehüsle / © Foto: Georg Berg
BUS: STOP Zwing. By Smiljan Radic, Chile. Onward. With the country bus of lines 25 and 29 you can reach all seven architectural Wartehüsle / © Photo: Georg Berg

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Our mode of operation is characterized by self-experienced, well-researched text work and professional, vivid photography. For all stories, travel impressions and photos are created in the same place. Thus, the photos complement and support what is read and carry it further.

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