Page - 36 - in Demolished Modified Endangered - Modelling Austrian Architecture Of The 20th Century

36 TANZCAFE REISCH BY LOIS WELZENBACHER Year 1928 Status Demolished Material Paper Glue Scale 1:50 Model maker Barbara Gruber Lois Welzenbacher was born in 1889 in Munich, Germany. Welzenbacher studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich and in 1918 he founded his own architecture office in Innsbruck, Austria. He was appointed as professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1947.1 In 1928 Lois Welzenbacher designed a bar and nightclub in the village of Kitzbühel, a famous hiking and skiing resort in Tirol, Austria. An existing building was modified in order to make the bar and nightclub. Through a small entrance and a corridor the visitors were able to reach the main dancing hall in the centre of the building. The main room consisted of two floors on different levels and the space could be divided by a folding wall made of metal and glass. The walls and ceilings were painted white, and the tables and seating was made of walnut wood. The lights were made of metal and, instead of hiding it, the ventilation system was given a level of attention akin to that of an artwork. Over time, the original design by Welzenbacher was modified and eventually destroyed.2 1 Architekturzentrum Wien (Ed.) (2016): Architektur in Österreich im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert. Zürich: Park Books. 426. 2 Institut für Raumgestaltung der Universität Innsbruck (Ed.) (1990): Lois Welzenbacher. 1889-1955. Architekturmodelle. Self- published. 64.