well you can build higher with wood. Cree, a subsidiary of the Rhomberg Group, has shown it to the lifecycle Tower, which had been developed by an international team of experts in Dornbirn. Now the Unterländer Holzhybridbau got a successor in Montafon. Illwerke AG, Vorarlberg utilities, has centralized its Montafon administrative units and can provide an elegant center to the pump storage reservoir in Rodund / Vandans. The 30-million-euro building was planned as the Dornbirn Tower by architect Hermann Kaufmann.

Power plant builders are usually housed in purpose unattractive buildings. Illwerke had four of them in the Montafon Valley, most were from the 1940s. With the IZM (Illwerke center Montafon) is now an end to the maintenance depot for romance, says site manager Mark Burtscher and is clearly proud of the new workplace. Transparency and openness will Illwerke show with the building. So is the work of restaurant, situated in that part of the building that extends into the pump reservoir, publicly. With terrace on the artificial lake, the canteen becomes a part of the recreation area, which will be built around the office building.

Faster offspring

Sustainability through resource-conserving design is the main objective of the system lifecycle. "Unmatched", when it comes to sustainability, is probably the material wood, says Burtscher. 3000 cubic meters were installed in Vandans. The majority of this comes from Montafon forests. Burtscher, "We have spruce and silver fir, quickly renewable woods, used the consumed amount grows in two days in the Montafon.." Another advantage of wood: "It is only half as heavy as steel and concrete, so it must be transported only half the mass."

By prefabricated components, the construction period is shortened. Compared to conventional office buildings office passive house will consume 70 percent less energy, calculated Burtscher.

270 jobs includes the 120-meter-long building on six levels. Next Monday the procession begins. Work is "open space", ie in the bullpen. To the new office environment that employees were accustomed to individual rooms "prepared in a bottom-up process," says Burtscher. "It has also created acceptance by skeptics."

Good price for building

Sense of ecological construction also shows the construction company i + R group. The new headquarters in Lauterach where the traditional company was founded in 1904 by brothers Schertler is powered by renewable energy. 130 employees work in the office building on 3300 square meters. Planned, the architectural firm Dietrich / Untertrifaller.

"The highest possible quality of indoor climate, acoustics and energy efficiency" was Managing Director Reinhard Schertler. The exercise is managed as evaluating the LEED certification - LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - shows. The office building was platinum with the highest award for the entire building.

For heating and cooling, geothermal energy is used. Electricity for the heat pump provides a photovoltaic system. The cover of the total energy needs from renewable energy amounts to 100 percent. What employees are particularly pleased Despite high automation allows light to control temperature and solar radiation on individual needs.