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Linz, Austria



Architects: STEINBAUER architektur+design, Kaltenbacher Architektur 

Client: Tabakfabrik Linz Entwicklungs- und Betriebsgesellschaft mbH

Project team: Andrea Crnjak, Wolfgang Spies, Peter Salem

Photographer: STEINBAUER architektur + design

Description project: The principle of the revitalization of the “Magazin 2” and the tobacco factory Linz by Peter Behrens is to complement it with a coherent monument preservation concept, without disturbing its unique industrial ensemble. The main element is a simple glass block, which has its origins in the early beginning of the 20th century and has considerable relevance in Peter Behren's architecture. 

Almost 70.000 blocks preserve the prevailing facade structure and the “New Objectivity” style and enable maximum light outcome inside the former tobacco warehouse. A newly created staircase system, that may remember of a lithograph by M.C. Escher, creates another balancing act between the old and the new. 

The unexposed historic storage building from the 1930s will be transformed into a “Glass Palace of Creativity” and offers office space for more than 600 employees and is going to be finished until 2022.