In Austria, everyone is talking about bread, with the inauguration of the Paneum museum and information center, a work by Coop Himmelb(l)au, containing the personal collection of Peter Augendopler, founder of Backaldrin, the Swiss giant of the world of the bakery and pastry shop.
The highly anticipated Wunderkammer des brotes, or the House of Bread, opened after three years of construction. The ultimate goal of this institution is to trace the history of bread and to emphasize its importance through the ages. It also makes it possible to celebrate this vital product and to think about its future. The representation of this long tradition in a contemporary envelope is attributed to Wolf D. Prix, of the austrian cabinet Coop Himmelb(l)au, known in particular for its Musée des Confluences in Lyon and for BMW World in Munich. The architect relies on contrasting dynamism to establish the fascinating character of the space. Thus, static lines oppose a fluid composition, light to dark, tradition to innovation. Indeed, the designer imagines a kind of futuristic free-form vessel, where more than 1,200 objects are revealed, coming to rest on a rigid platform. The latter comprises the lobby, the event forum and the customer information center. The only relationship between its two volumes is a central atrium, comprising the vertical circulation doubling as an exhibition space. An exterior cladding of reflective steel shingles amplifies the attractive properties of the project, but nevertheless veils the prefabricated wood structure, only exposed indoors, to always underline this creative contrast.