Waste collection center in Feldkirch by Marte.Marte

In the thirty-thousand-strong town of Feldkirch in western Austria, a collection center for sorted waste was completed in the middle of this year, designed by the brother duo Bernhard and Stefan Marte. The material for the construction comes from the municipal forest. The structure made of larch wood confirms that significant architectural awards (Vorarlberger Holzbaupreis 2015) can be achieved even with a relatively simple building program and constraining operational scheme. The standard of construction culture in Vorarlberg is well above the European average. Therefore, it should not surprise us that the architect's hand can also be seen in the designs of hydropower plants, suburban warehouses, or rural stables.
The filigree wooden truss structure, braced with steel rods, spans twelve meters between the columns. Twenty-four circular skylights in the roof allow light to enter the interior, which, along with the unique construction, creates a nearly sacred atmosphere inside, earning the object the nickname "Recycling Cathedral." The height in the "cathedral" is derived from the size of a garbage truck. The facility is accessible to anyone who needs to dispose of household e-waste or garden bio-waste. The interior is sufficiently bright, and the arrangement of containers is organized so that each of the five hundred visitors per day can quickly orient themselves inside. The collection center sorts a total of 45 different types of waste.