Project location: Linz, Austria
Software used Advance Steel
Design Office: Grömer Stahl GmbH
Contracting Authority: Immobilien Linz GmbH & Co. KG
Architecture Office: Treusch Architecture ZT GmbH

Project description:

The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a center for electronic arts, situated in Linz, Austria, at the northern side of the Danube. The new Center, opened in 2009 – the year Linz served as European Capital of Culture, is an enhanced and updated version of the 1996 original. It is also known as the “Museum of the Future” and is one of the most important sights in Linz. The Ars Electronica Center is the architectural expression of what Ars Electronica is all about: a place of inquiry and discovery, experimentation and exploration, a place that has taken the world of tomorrow as its stage, and that assembles and presents influences from many different ways of thinking and of seeing things. The most modern techniques from the technology sector are presented to the museum’s many visitors.

The project with a high degree of complexity was designed using Advance Steel by Architecture Office – Treusch Architecture ZT GmbH, contracted by Immobilien Linz GmbH & Co. KG. The entire structure is covered with a 5000 square meter steel-glass facade, consisting of 200 tons of steel and 1100 square meters of grating. The steel-glass facade is the highlight of the project, because of the LED (liquid emitting diode) technology installed in the space between the two layers of the facade, which allow the building to be illuminated in various colors. Partly matte and partly transparent, the glass panels combine into one continuous glass surface on each side of the building.

The Ars Electronica Center is extraordinary, and not only because of its distinctive architecture. “Innovation” is also always present in the themes of its exhibitions, the structure of its offerings and its communication concept. It emphasizes discovery, experimentation and creativity.

The Ars Electronica Center was nominated at the World Architecture Festival, in 2009, for the cultural building category.