Architecture means, above all, designing and giving form. The intention was that the client’s “core product” should not occupy the foreground of his own public profile too assertively. Atelier Andrea Gassner has been working for years for the well-known Zurich architect Roger Boltshauser. The concern is graphic design using the language of modern architecture. Clarity of form, unobtrusiveness and aesthetic appropriateness are the focus of the design, Entirely in the sense of German industrial designer Dieter Rams “less and more”. In a dynamically growing process printed material, business stationery, books and digital communication media are created for the architecture practice and partner businesses. Interaction and scalability are primary design means In the new media. Distance and approach as well as entry shape our perception of architecture. These dynamics provided the guideline for the new web design. Visitors are met by a wall of images; they come closer and enter the individual projects. The respective contents open up gradually with the self-scaling image grid. Searching and finding becomes a kind of virtual excursion to the project world of this successful Zurich team of architects.

This not for profit association pursues the goal of developing a sensitivity for the built environment among children and young people and aims to secure a place for the culture of building in the Swiss educational curriculum. It was founded in 2008 under the name “Spacespot”. Due to its strange phonetic presence, the name Spacespot, like many trendy pseudo-Anglicisms, turned out to be short-lived. Atelier Andrea Gassner was commissioned to create a sustainable and contemporary brand. It was decided that the name for the German and French-language space should indicate what the association does and what can be found on the platform. The name was arrived at in a workshop that was held together with the heads of the association. When the idea for the name was first mentioned the group was immediately delighted with it. It arose in the context of an associative phonetic chain that started with “Archigen” and through the ending “jeunes” suddenly provided the key to a precise meaning: architecture and the art of building for young people

In designing the logotype Atelier Andrea Gassner made a simple yet highly effective intervention in the compactly set name that uses a powerful Antiqua typeface. Omitting the dots above the “i” and the “j” in the new name at the point of contact between two language cultures makes a subtle visual point. Often it is very simple distortions of familiar word images that guarantee brands that are concise and highly memorable.

HK Architekten was founded in 2018, when Roland Wehinger, Christoph Dünser and Stefan Hiebeler became partners of Hermann Kaufmann. The new website is not just a representative and comprehensive internet page. An integrated data base serves as both a data management and archiving tool and as a project server for current projects.

The house is in the municipality of Lech, five minutes by foot across the River Lech, 1540 metres above sea level. The wooden house was built 600 years ago by skilled Walser carpenters and was recently given a sensitive architectural renovation. It is rented to (carefully chosen) guests. The task presented to the Atelier was to convey a love of old and new forms of quality and of architecture. This began with finding a name, in a team together with German studies scholar and culture theorist Roland Jörg. With the name “Obd’r Lech” this house in the centre of the Alps but at the same time far off the beaten tourist track pays its respects to the local dialect, the village atmosphere and with a grin adds a request “Lecheln bitte” (“smile please”, a wordplay on Lech/lächeln – Lech/to smile). Contrary to what you might expect, on the first page you do not encounter a deep blue sky, rich green meadows or powdery snow but rather a typographical composition with figures. These are revealed as poetic proof of the qualities of this house. Already in the first “slider” with photographic impressions by Martin Mischkulnig one is drawn into the fantastic landscape, architecture, and atmosphere of the place. Short texts augment the visual narrative. Interaction is used for virtual tours by means of 360° panorama photography or ortho-photographical winter/summer slides that can be slid over each other to make comparisons. The design of the website hovers between tradition and modernism, encourages contacts, is entertaining and at the same time informative. And the whole thing is suitable for portrait and landscape format, for both big and small screens.

Thomas Kortyka is an architect. He plans and initiates buildings – mostly residential buildings in the Munich area with the character of a residential development and high aspirations in terms of architecture and building ecology. The corporate communication designed by Atelier Andrea Gassner speaks a modern “architectural” languages, with informative texts and easily legible data presented through renderings, plan graphics and editorial photography. The analogue and digital applications ultimately serve the sale of buildings to interested persons with an awareness of quality. In choosing advertising methods, too,new paths are being taken. Instead of the standard glossy brochures PSK series are issued about the respective projects. Or a walk-in showroom on site in a residential district offers efficient tangible information. Modern digital communication supports the analogue contacts. The website documents completed buildings and serves as an important early contact for new projects. All the plans are adapted to be easily legible for laypersons. A striving for quality and good form is evident in the website too. New design materials from the digital, dialogue oriented media such as interaction and scalability as well as contents extending over several pages are made available in a user-oriented and responsive form. Ultimately, the aim is a clear information architecture and a narrative approach to presenting the ideas and elements of the firm’s communication strategy.

Hinter dem Wort »Raumplanung« versteckt sich eine planerische Arbeit mit oft weitreichenden, für Einzelne mitunter einschneidenden Konsequenzen. Die Abteilung Raumplanung und Baurecht vom Amt der Vorarlberger Landesregierung möchte das Interesse und Verständnis für Raumplanung und Regionalentwicklung bei Interessierten und Verantwortlichen wecken und stärken. Im Rahmen eines Wettbebwebs präsentierte das Atelier Andrea Gassner eine Strategie, die mit verschiedenen Medien operiert: das Jahresjournal zur Themensetzung, verknüpft mit vertiefenden Fachdiskursen sowie einer Wanderausstellung auf groß dimensionierten Litfaßsäulen für eine kooperative Öffentlichkeitsarbeit in einzelnen Gemeinden. Das Jahresjournal ist als Fachmedium konzipiert und verfolgt ein Thema über zwei Jahre. Die beiden Journale ergänzen sich. Das erste Heft erscheint jeweils im Herbst und öffnet den planerischen Blick, das zweite folgt im Frühjahr und lenkt den Fokus im Sinne des »best practice« auf die Vorarlberger Gemeinden und Regionen. Mit den parallel dazu durchgeführten Planerwerkstätten und Foren wird das Thema in einem anderen, dialogischen Format aufgegriffen. Das Atelier Andrea Gassner gestaltet Magazine die gerne in die Hand genommen, gerne angeschaut werden und immer wieder verleiten, in die Tiefe der Texte zu tauchen. Das hohes Level in der Gestaltung textlastiger und komplexer Inhalte kommt nicht von ungefähr. Dahinter verbergen sich eine große Erfahrung in der bibliophilen Gestaltung anspruchsvoller Buchwerke und die konsequente Befassung mit den jeweiligen Inhalten. Schon der Bedruckstoff und die Bindeart unterscheidet das Jahresjournal von üblichen Drucksachen. Die im Basiskonzept festgelegten Vorgaben für Cover, Rubrikseiten, Ein- und Ausstiegsszenarien sorgen für den erwünschten Spannungsbogen. Typografie, Satzspiegel und Bildraster folgen dem Anspruch guter Lesbarkeit und Übersichtlichkeit. Ein besonderer Part ist die kommunikative Nutzung von Kartografie, Orthofotos, Diagramm- und Erklärgrafiken sowie der bildlichen Darstellung. Dazu zählt das redaktionelle Fotobriefing und, für einzelnen Themen, die fotografische Umsetzung selbst.

The poster LICHT (LIGHT) was made in the context of the scenographic exhibition for the regional craft cooperative in the Werkraumhaus (architect Peter Zumthor), which we also designed. Light is first revealed by shadow. As key visual for the exhibition and as 3D facade lettering, Andrea Gassner’s graphical interpretation of this statement follows this principle consistently. The lettering visible at the top is back-to-front and upside-down. It is the shadows cast that first make LICHT legible.

In accordance with the purpose for which it was founded the DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt/German Federal Environmental Foundation) subsidises innovative, environmentally conscious, model building projects. The concept for the subsidies also includes financing scientific studies of the respective projects and disseminating these in quality book form. Atelier Gassner was commissioned to devise a concept for an edition consisting of several volumes. The first publication documents the new building for Schmuttertal Gymnasium (high-school): here innovative educational ideas and a participative approach to planning produce unusual spatial systems, ambitious ecological goals direct the construction, and functionality and inspiration shape the architecture. Client and subsidy provider, users and planners, experts for building law and technical services document the creation of this building, augmented by plans and photographs. The editions were deliberately published in German, and the search for a name led to the striking and yet self-explanatory term “Bauband” (literally “building volume”). The challenge was how best to describe and depict complex contents so that they are clearly legible and can be quickly understood. At the same time this book was not intended to be a standard illustrated architectural volume nor a dry treatise with a preponderance of text. Using the tools provided by micro and macro typographical design and making considerable demands on editorial photography the narrative requirements could be successfully met. The plans and diagrams, which were produced especially for this book, provide in-depth information. Through the format alone, the easy to open “Swiss brochure” and the stable card binding, the book suggests a report with the character of a working folder. A colour, which differs from volume to volume, contrasts with the restrained grey that is used for the covers of all the volumes. This striking coloured framework for the book block is reflected in completely coloured pages that separate the chapters and visibly articulate the contents and, when one looks at the cut edge of the closed book, appear like inserted “floor levels”.