Pupp Hotel
  1. Home
  2. Architecture
  3. Pupp Hotel

Pupp Hotel

Christian Schwienbacher

Pupp Hotel
By Francesco Pagliari -
The new Pupp Hotel, a three-storey building with a basement, lies between the old town centre and the outskirts of Brixen and was designed jointly by the Christian Schwienbacher and Bergmeisterwolf (Gerd Bergmeister and Michaela Wolf) architecture firms. The distinctive aggregation of volumes not only gives the building's composition characteristic and unmistakable traits but also creates differentiated relationships between the rooms, the light and the air. The volumes of each storey slide onto each other, giving the structure a somewhat closed outline where sharp surfaces and the glow from the plaster are the dominant features of the walls. The hotel has eleven rooms, but only four (two on the first storey and two on the second) face out, with large trapezoidal open loggias behind the façade, separated from the room by a full-length glass wall. At night, when the rooms are lit, the loggias almost become dots on the solid seamless surface of the façade. The solid surfaces hide terraces invisible from the street, offering total privacy and defining a space perfectly connected and integrated into the room. The glassed wall is like a thin diaphragm, separating indoors from outdoors, although both have wooden floors. This allows customers to indulge in the air, sun and light, offering a place for relaxation in complete privacy. The building interior receives light from a glass-covered vertical cut that touches the sides of the central access area. This is a waiting space, with a lift and staircase, from where one can get to the rooms on the first and second storeys. The basement has two sections: the garage and the breakfast room. The latter has a long wooden floor with a counter and small tables next to a wall with multicolour panels. At the end, a small courtyard opens into the body of the building, forming an extension of the outdoors and a source of light. The simplicity of the materials, concrete, wood and metal railings goes hand in hand with the sophisticated definition of indoor spaces. This architectural design offers bright spaces to be discovered, artistically, along with the lovely parapets developed with the artist Esther Stocker. These fine iron geometries are positioned along the stairs, to define sections and visual perspectives, offering an infinite range of vague perceptions.

Francesco Pagliari

Location: Bressanone, Bolzano
Client: Christian and Martin Pupp
Completion: 2011
Gross Floor Area: 1098 m2
Architects: Christian Schwienbacher, Michaela Wolf, Gerd Bergmeister
Design Team: Regine Steinmann, Roland Decarli, Jürgen Prosch
Art Consultant: Esther Stocker
Contractor: Impresa Edile Oberegger

Consultants
Structural: Luca Bragagna
Security: Giorgio Bragagna
Plumbing: Martin Aricochi
Electrical Installations: Manfred Thaler 

Suppliers
Door and Windows Frames in Steel and in Wood: Metall Ritten
Door and Window Frames in Wood: Wolf-fenster
Plaster: Sto Italia
Lighting: Lightsystems 
Doors: Rubner
Furnishings: Fritz Hansen 
Lift: Otis 

Made-to-measure Furniture: Barth 

Photo by: 2-3-5-8-11/15 © Günter Richard Wett, 4-6-7-9-10-16/18 © Jürgen Eheim

Christian Schwienbacher Architect 
Born in Silandro (Alto Adige) in 1968, Schwienbacher graduated from the Innsbruck TU faculty of architecture in 1996. From 1996 to 1997 he worked with Stefan Hitthaler in Brunico and in 1998 he opened his own studio in Bressanone. From 2001 to 2002 he was Rainer Köberl’s assistant at the LUB’s faculty of design.
His studio’s projects include: Casa Mair in Valdaora with Stefan Mair; Casa Preindl, Casa Barth, Casa Palfrader, Casa Richter and Casa Plunger in Bressanone; Casa Holzer and Casa Volgger in Campo di Trens; the Pitzock Bar and Bistro; the Barth office building in Bressanone with Gerd Bergmeister, bergmeisterwolf architekten; Casa Pörnbacher in Valdaora; Casa Pirgstaller Brunner in Elvas; Casa Leitner in St. Andrä with Gerd Bergmeister, bergmeisterwolf architekten; Appartamento Daisy in Bolzano with Martin Willeit; the extension and refurbishment of Hotel Tirolerhof in Rodengo with Regina Steinmann; and Hotel Pupp in Bressanone with Gerd Bergmeister and Michaela Wolf, bergmeisterwolf architekten.
Projects under construction include: Casa Aichner in Bressanone, the municipal museum in Bolzano with Stefan Hitthaler, the interior planning for the extension of Cantine Ferrari in Trento, and the fitness area of the Hotel Kabis in Funes.

Bergmeisterwolf Architekten
Gerd Bergmeister 
Bergmeister was born in Bressanone in 1969. He studied architecture at the IUAV in Venice and at Leopold Franzens Universität in Innsbruck.
Michaela Wolf 
Wolf was born in Merano in 1979. She studied architecture at the Leopold Franzens Universität in Innsbruck, the Architectural Association in London, and Milan Polytechnic.

Esther Stocker 
Stocker was born in Silandro (Alto Adige) in 1974. She has gained degrees and diplomas from Akademie der Künste Bildenden, Vienna (1994), Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan (1996), and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California (1999).

Keep up with the latest trends in the architecture and design world

© Maggioli SpA • THE PLAN • Via del Pratello 8 • 40122 Bologna, Italy • T +39 051 227634 • P. IVA 02066400405 • ISSN 2499-6602 • E-ISSN 2385-2054