BUS:STOP Krumbach
What started with an unusual idea in Krumbach became reality this spring – the seven bus shelters designed by international architects and implemented in close collaboration with seven regional partner architects and local craftspeople have been erected and are “in use”.
On 8 May those responsible from the association Kultur Krumbach, the curators Dietmar Steiner (Architekturzentrum Wien) and Verena Konrad (vai Vorarlberger Architektur Institut), and the partner architects, patrons and skilled workers attended the opening of the exhibition in Dornbirn. In addition to models the exhibition presents photographs and film material about the making of the seven little bus shelters by Alexander Brodsky (Russia), Rintala Eggertsson Architects (Norway), Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu (Belgium), Ensamble Studio/Antón Garcia-Abril and Débora Mesa (Spain), Smiljan Radic (Chile), Amateur Architecture Studio/Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu (China), and Sou Fujimoto (Japan). The exhibition will remain on show in vai until 2 August 2014; from 17 September to 6 October 2014 it will be presented in the Architekturzentrum Wien.
The architecture of Vorarlberg enjoys widespread recognition in the international architecture scene. But why not change the perspective for once? Why not deliberately turn the gaze outwards and invite international architects to come to the Bregenzerwald, get an idea of the special regional characteristics, and engage in an intensive dialogue with Vorarlberg’s traditions, architecture and handcraft? This was the idea behind the project BUS:STOP Krumbach. With professional partners in the shape of the Architekturzentrum Wien, above all Director Dietmar Steiner as curator, and vai Vorarlberger Architektur Institut, the association “Kultur Krumbach” invited seven architects’ practices from all around the world to design seven new bus shelters for the village of Krumbach. All the architects gladly accepted the invitation to familiarise themselves with the Bregenzerwald and to design bus shelters for the region that has a public bus service that operates on an hourly basis. Their fee: a week’s holiday in the Bregenzerwald.