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r Your internship at Innauer Matt Architekten in Bezau lasted a whole year.
Please give us an insight!
The office of Innauer Matt Architekten is located in Bezau in a former photogra-
pher’s studio designed by Leopold Kaufmann. The open design of the building and
the view of the surrounding mountains provide scope for creative working. The at-
mosphere among the employees is very amicable. Both bosses, Markus and Sven,
as well as most of the employees are from the region. This produces a familiar con-
nection to everyday village life. In the beginning, I had to get used to the dialect of
the Bregenzerwald. A wild mixture of Swiss German, Swabian and a specific voca-
bulary depending on the valley. In addition to the two bosses, five employees, two
working students and me as an intern were working in the office. Most of the pro-
jects were edited by individual employees in close cooperation and coordination
with the two bosses. Thanks to the open atmosphere, creative input by the collea-
gues is welcome. A working day in the office started at the latest at 8 o’clock in the
morning. Lunch was mostly eaten together and at the end of the day around 5 p.m.,
every so often there was an after-work beer. In summer, I often made use of the
time for sports in the surrounding mountains. I felt the working atmosphere at In-
nauer Matt Architekten to be a formative period during which pleasure and toget-
herness produce good architecture in a creative atmosphere. BLACK FOREST

r Which were the projects in which you were allowed to take part during your
internship? EXPERIENCE
At Innauer Matt Architekten, one works very much with models. These are the
bases of the decisions on the design. When planning the façade for the new buil-
ding of a company headquarters for Jägerbau in Bludenz I tried out a lot on the
model at a scale of 1:25. Later, when the time came to design the interiors, we
changed to a 3D-model and were thus able to grasp and determine the design quite
efficiently and flexibly for the numerous spatial situations and connections in this
large building. At the same time, I was allowed to work on a project of my own –
the conversion and the refurbishing of an old Bregenzerwald house in Schwarzen-
berg. In this case, it was particularly important to gather information on the buil-
ding stock since the house had already been converted several times. A clear eye
for the external circumstances and the right blance of the intervention are impor-
tant for Innauer Matt Architekten. In this case, we decided in favour of carefully re-
novating the part which was to be preserved, for instance the old parlour. We fur-
thermore added a new structure running diagonally through the house which ad-
mits ample light into the building and contains the kitchen- and the living area. I
was associated with this project from the beginning all the way to the approval
planning. In the context of a local-structural study which we had conducted for a
community in the Lower Bregenzerwald, I was also able to get an idea of the current
challenges a community faces when producing living space in the rural area.
Thanks to the 12-months internship at Innauer Matt Architekten, I had the chance
to gain very thorough insights into the working method and the individual projects.
I can only advise anyone to take a similarly long time for an internship.

r Already approximately twenty years ago, Austria’s westernmost federal state
had been an architectural mecca with the second generation of Vorarlberg ma-
ster builders. In your perception, is there still a definite architecture tourism
today? WEITER DENKEN.
Definitely. In the Vorarlberg region and above all in the Bregenzerwald, the density
of good wooden architecture and good craftsmanship is tremendously high. An ex-
cellent territory for excursions! It is therefore already part of the compulsory pro- IM STORE.
gramme to go on an excursion there with Hermann Kaufmann who is the professor
of timber construction at TU Munich. During my time in Bezau, several groups of
students have visited us to take a look behind the scenes. But the region is not only Der Häfele Messestand „Black Forst Experience“
popular among enthusiasts of architecture who, for instance, go on hikes to visit zur Euroshop 2020 wurde mit dem German Brand
the much-published chapels in the mountains. The design awareness which can be Award 2021 ausgezeichnet.
felt in many places also attracts many holiday-makers who are conscious of style
and have their own appreciation of well-made objects. In contrast to many other
tourist destinations, the Bregenzerwald has been able to preserve its own, calmer
and more stylish character. This is, however, constantly being newly discussed as
can be seen from the debate about the plans to link the small community of Schrök-
ken with the Ski-Arlberg mega ski circuit.
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