picture: lukas schaller

Since its founding in 1993, the Architekturforum Tirol has been organizing exhibitions, debates and lectures on local and international architecture.

In 1999, the Architekturforum Tirol started working on a concept, in which the removal of the Architekturforum, together with the establishment of a new "Archiv für Baukunst" to the former "Adambräu" beer-brewery was planned. As the city of Innsbruck obtained the brewery in 2002, it became possible to preserve the building by giving it this new use. Due to the introduction of new cultural activities in this undeveloped part of the city, Innsbruck's urban planning would also be supported.

The "Adambräu" brewery - since 1996 classified as a monument - is one of only a few excisting buildings in Tyrol by the architect Lois Welzenbacher (1889 - 1955), whose work has been the only Austrian contribution to the 1932 "International Style" exhibition in the MoMA in New York. Designed in 1927, "Adambräu" is one of the great examples of 1920s Modernism.

The sensitive transformation of the brewery by the architects Köberl + Giner&Wucherer_Pfeifer has preserved the spirit of the building. Completely different functions have been perfectly inserted in the excisting structure. Metaphorically speaking, the adaptation is still corresponding with the initial industrial use.

The conceptional, as well as the functional layering of the newly adapted building, offers a unique combination of historical and current topics on Austrian and international architecture. Together with the "Archiv für Baukunst," aut. architektur und tirol endeavours to create a central public institute, that tries to give understanding of different building aspects, composes innovative impulses and encourages the debate on ambitious Tyrolean architecture, art and design.