The surrounding ground material covers, like a flexible skin, the three storey high electrical substation in a seamless black basalt-lava. Set-back glass strips illuminate the building from within. The materialization and the rigorous design of the building mitigates between the infrastructural program and the residential scale of the site, allowing for the building to reside in harmony within its surroundings.

Client: Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe AG
Location: Innsbruck, Austria Building area: 2.518 m²
Program: 50/10 kV Substation
Status/phase: realized September 2002

UNStudio: Ben van Berkel with Hannes Pfau, Jacco van Wengerden and Gianni Cito, Ludo Grooteman, Laura Negrini, Casper le Fèvre, Eli Aschkenasy, Hjalmar Frederikson, Hans Sterck, Boudewijn Rosman, Yuri Werner

Advisors:
Engineering: Peter Ladurner-Rennau, Innsbruck
Building physics: Peter Fiby, Innsbruck