Borders Of Adventure

Leading Culture and Adventure Travel Blog by Becki Enright. Looking at the world with a different angle to change perceptions of misunderstood places, for the best in travel.

A woman cheers from the top of the BUS:STOP Krumbach, a sculptural bus stop featuring a forest of thin white steel poles and a winding staircase.

Austria, Cultural Travel

Vorarlberg Architecture: The Culture of Craftsmanship in Austria

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Here’s where to find the renowned Vorarlberg architecture in Austria, whose unique creativity and innovative designs respect, and complement, old alpine tradition. 

It’s not true that if you have seen one Alpine village in Austria, then you’ve seen them all. Alpine architecture is beyond cliché when you visit the mountainous, unspoilt valley lands of Vorarlberg. A state of award-winning architects and artisans, Vorarlberg certainly shows off its creativity with innovative architectural design, while respecting tradition.

In the specific Bregenzerwald and Brandnertal regions of Austria’s westernmost state of Vorarlberg, this distinct culture of craftsmanship continues longstanding traditions with a twist, with the new design seamlessly blending with the old surroundings.

Vorarlberg – home of ‘Meadow Championships’, energy efficiency and a backdrop formed of the northern ridges of the Alps – has an extra unique visual flair. Perfect for an architecture enthusiast like myself.

My first stop was the village of Mellau – a good starting point for an architecture trail that would lead me through towns such as Egg and Krumbach towards the region of Brandnertal, where artistic trends continue beyond the Bregenzerwald.

Where to find Vorarlberg Architecture in Bregenzerwald

On The ‘Umgang Bregenzerwald’ Trails

While there is pride taken in the design of all Bregenzerwald’s 22 villages, 12 have a notoriety for their specially marked ‘Umgang Bregenzerwald’ – a mapped trail of houses, commercials structures and public buildings that take between one and four hours to complete. Mellau is one of them.

Traditional dark-wood chalets in the village of Mellau, Austria, frame a view of a tall church spire and the snow-dusted mountain peak under a clear, dusky sky.

Mellau village in Vorarlberg, one of the 22 villages on the Umgang Bregenzerwald trail.

While I didn’t find all ten structures listed, I did find some personal favourites, including the café and some modern alpine house styles (noted for future architectural project reference). The local fire station and cemetery even form part of this optical path and new additions, including the boutique Hotel Bären and its hip cafe, bring a touch of urban cool to the village.

Rusty red coloured information columns mark each unique structure and when you peer into them, where you’ll find all the information about its significance to the social, historical, cultural or culinary landscape.

A woman in a jacket and jeans leans over and peers into a tall, rusted metal post on a gravel path in front of the large, reflective glass window building.

The red columns full of information at various buildings in Bregenzerwald.

A long, modern wooden building housing the Metzgerstüble bar and cafe sits at the base of the snowy Kanisfluh mountain in Mellau, Austria. A church steeple is visible in the background.

Modern alpine architecture in Mellau blends with traditional styles in Vorarlberg

Modern, minimalist wooden buildings with vertical slats, surrounded by a paved path stand on a grassy clearing in Mellau, Voralberg, with a snow-dusted mountain in the background.

Mellau’s modern alpine house designs.

A traditional wooden alpine building with green shutters and a triangular shaped roof stands in the village of Mellau, Austria, at the base of the mountains.

Vorarlberg’s traditional alpine architecture.

Glass and wood are the favoured materials in modern designs, as timber has always been a core building material due to the dense forests of the Bregenzerwald. Many new builds also incorporate these raw materials as renewable energy sources, such as hotels using wood to heat rooms and water rather than relying on traditional electricity and oil sources.

A minimalist, two-story wooden building with vertical slats and integrated shutters, set in a grassy village in Vorarlberg, Austria against a snow-capped mountain range.

A contemporary light-wood building with vertical slats and black-shuttered windows contrasts with a traditional white house in a mountain backed alpine village.

Alpine old and new side-by-side.

It’s all about going back to basics, but with grand designs. It certainly breaks the typical image of rustic farmer houses and triangular roofed huts, although these are still an incredible sight set within the green valleys and mountainous backdrop.

READ MORE: Bregenzerwald, Vorarlberg – Alpine Nature by Design in Western Austria

The Seven Bus Stops in Krumbach, Vorarlberg

Another architecture path was established in the village of Krumbach in 2014. The seven bus stops of Krumbach are how this Austrian village is now best known. The series of ‘Wartehüsle’ bus stops were designed by international architects, whose brief was to come and live in the village and then create something that would represent the culture and traditions while being able to mesh with the surrounding environment.

A woman cheers from the top of the BUS:STOP Krumbach, a sculptural bus stop featuring a forest of thin white steel poles and a winding staircase.

One of the seven architecture designed bus Stops in Krumbach, Vorarlberg designed by Sou Fujimoto.

A simple, tower-like wooden bus stop in Austria with a small gabled roof, two window slits, and a blue wooden bench inside, against a backdrop of green hills and a distant mountain peak.

The bus stop designed by Alexander Brodsky stands on a roadside in Oberkrumbach.

A contemporary, two-story bus stop clad in grey wooden shingles on a green roadside in Krumbach, Austria with a sheltered ground-floor waiting area.

The bus stop designed by Rintala Eggertsson Architects features an upper-level observation deck.

A woman in a navy top and jeans poses playfully with her arms raised inside a wooden bus stop in Krumbach, Austria that frames the rolling green hills and traditional houses of the Bregenzerwald landscape in the background.

The Glatzegg bus stop in Krumbach, designed by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio.

The famous Vorarlberg bus stops trail is a fun, and somewhat, quirky wander. It’s not every day you deliberately set out to look closely at bus stops, but here you do since the tiny details have meaning. They resemble everything from the natural surroundings of the trees and the mountains to the traditional way that wood is stacked and the regional design of the furniture.

An alpine-inspired angled grey metal bus shelter in Vorarlberg Austria, standing on a roadside in front of a park.

The paper plane-like bus stop designed by the Belgian firm Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu.

A bus stop in Krumbach, Austria, constructed from stacked oak planks to form a cave-like shelter, sitting in front of a traditional alpine house backed by rolling hills.

The stacked wood sculptural bus stop designed by Ensamble Studio.

A minimalist glass-walled bus stop with rustic wooden chairs and coffered ceiling, topped with a wooden birdhouse, stands in front of a rural landscape with traditional alpine houses.

The a traditional Bregenzerwald Stube (parlor) bus stop designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić.

Who said waiting for the bus was boring?

A winding road in Krumbach, Austria, lined by a stone retaining wall leading toward traditional houses on rolling green hills with evergreen trees, and the snow-covered Bregenzerwald mountains.

Preservation and Innovation in the Village of Andelsbuch

Innovation in modern craftsmanship has put Vorarlberg’s artists, designers and architects on an internationally famed level, continuing a long culture of building and family-run trade. In Bregenzerwald specifically, craftsmanship and trade are the largest employers of the region, and you can see why.

A minimalist, glass-walled building with a prominent, black coffered roof overhang reflects the surrounding mountains and houses colourful craft displays in its windows.

The craft showroom of the Werkaumhaus in Andelsbuch, Vorarlberg.

I visited the Werkaumhaus in Andelsbuch to see a whole host of craftworks on show. This large glass showroom and exhibition space opened 2013, designed by internationally renowned architect, Peter Zumthor with the idea for the outdoor landscape and the interior to have no distinction and separation. I went during the Farb (colour) exhibition where all artists list what colour means for them in their art.

A mannequin dressed in a pink patterned dirndl stands within a modern, minimalist exhibition space featuring tall, burnt-orange and yellow partitions and a glass window to snowy Austrian mountains.

A craft exhibition inside the Werkaumhaus.

A modern exhibition space featuring minimalist wooden tables and benches set within white and blue partitions. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows reveal a view of traditional alpine buildings in Voralberg.

Furniture design on show.

Five traditional wooden chairs with heart-shaped cutouts in their backrests are lined up in various colors—yellow, white, red, black, and pink—against a blue wall.

Traditional chairs with a modern touch.

A rectangular sink unit covered in traditional alpine wooden shingles and a slender brass faucet. It sits against a blue wall in a minimalist, light-filled exhibition space.

A wooden shingle designed sink unit.

With over 40 designs from carpenters, stonemasons, bricklayers, metal workers, painters, tailors and more, you can not only view and purchase these unique products but see how Vorarlberg is leading the way for the preservation of longstanding traditions and skills, handed down from generation to generation.

Next to this impressive building is the old village train station, preserved in memory, but also still in use, with former train carriages used as venue space. The showroom and former station standing side-by-side are the perfect examples of design through the ages.

A traditional yellow train station in Austria sits beside vintage black train cars in front of a modern glass-walled exhibition building in Bregenzerwald.

The old village train station is now a venue space in Andelsbuch.

More Vorarlberg Architecture in Brandnertal

Taking the train from Bregenz to Bludenz, a short drive brought me to the village of Brand in Vorarlberg’s Brandnertal region. After checking into the boutique design Hotel Walliserhorf, I embarked on a village walk with a local who pointed out some of the new design features, from private homes and hotels to the church renovation and the school.

Traditional and modern wooden houses in the alpine valley village of Brand, Austria, at the base of massive, snow-covered mountains.

Brandnertal (Brand) village in Vorarlberg, Austria

A traditional dark-wood house with a modern light-wood extension stands beside a white church with a tall, slender steeple, at the foot of a forested mountain.

A blend of architectural styles in Brand.

A white church with a modern, steeply pitched wooden shingle addition stands next to a traditional dark-wood Alpine house in Brand, Austria, with a forested mountain in the background.

The modern church addition.

A striking, contemporary Alpine house on a grassy slope in Brand, Austria, with an asymmetric, dark grey façade overlaid with a geometric "nest" of light-wood beams.

A striking, contemporary Alpine house in Brandnertal.

A family with a stroller walks along a gravel path beside the tree-lined rocky Alvier river in Brand, Austria, with the snow-capped Rätikon mountains in the background.

Alvier river strolls.

A contemporary, wood-shingled building sits at the base of steep, forested mountains with snow-dusted Alpine peaks in the background.

A contemporary, wood-shingled school and kindergarten building in Brand.

A contemporary, wood-shingled building in Brand, Austria, with a large black-framed window and the word "zemmako" in black letters on its facade.

A wooden building with an outdoor stage, framed by huge snow-covered mountains under a blue sky.

An old, weathered wooden barn in Vorarlberg, Austria, with exterior racks and a stack of chopped firewood at its base. A small sign on the side reads "Krippe".

An old wooden alpine barn with stacks of chopped firewood.

Even if you are stopping in a village for access to a ski area, or only have a few hours to spare, make time to explore and see how Vorarlberg communities. Those in the Bregenzerwald more so, who have marked out their craftsman trails especially so that visitors can take pride in their unique visual take on alpine living.

READ MORE: Brandnertal, Vorarlberg – Alpine Nature in Western Austria

Tips for Touring the Architecture in Vorarlberg, Austria

  • The ‘Umgang Bregenzerwald’ trails can be found in Schoppernau, Au, Mellau, Bezau/Reuthe, Bizau, Schwarzenberg, Andelsbuch, Egg, Lingenau, Langenegg, Krumbach, and Hittisau. A little box of all 12 maps is available from local tourism offices or you can find them all online here.
  • The seven participating architects of the Krumbach Bus Stops came from Russia, Norway, Belgium, Spain, Chile, Japan and China. 
  • The Werkaumhaus in Andelsbuch displays pieces by local craftspeople who are members of the Werkraum and holds changing special exhibitions twice a year. It replaces the previous idea of window displays and offers a thematic approach to showcasing local design. Admission is €7.50 for adults (and €5 for commissions).
  • For further information on the Bregenzerwald region of Vorarlberg, visit the region website for holiday planning, alongside cultural, culinary, and destination insights.

Exploring the architecture in Vorarlberg was a part of my ‘Year in Austria’ project as the UK ambassador for the Austrian National Tourist Office. 

About Becki

Becki Enright is a British Travel Press Award-winning writer whose work focuses on changing perceptions about misunderstood aspects of destinations. Her writing combines storytelling with insight into the social, historical, political and economic factors that shape the country or place in relation to tourism. Becki has appeared live on Sky News and CNN and has contributed to high profile media including National Geographic, Time.com, Guardian online, New York Times, Grazia and Buzzfeed.

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