Tiwag Power Station Control Center

About this place

The Tiwag Power Station Control Center (KWB-Leitstelle) in Silz, completed in 2014, is among the most architecturally considered industrial buildings in Tyrol. Bechter Zaffignani Architekten won the European-wide competition in 2011 and positioned the tower as a deliberate counterpart to Ekkehard Hörmann's 1978 turbine hall alongside it, matching its height and width in a calibrated dialogue between two eras of infrastructure. Functions are stacked vertically across eight floors — office departments, an oversized control room with wall-to-wall screens, trading floors, and technical plant — a logic that simplifies both circulation and the routing of heavy cable infrastructure. The control room occupies a mid-level floor, its external expression readable as a horizontal glazed band set within the otherwise solid tower. The material choice is deliberately weighty: exposed concrete pigmented with iron oxide gives the facades a warm brown that references the metallic tones of existing station components. East and west facades are entirely solid thermal envelopes, eliminating glare for workspaces; continuous glazing on the north and south admits daylight without solar gain problems. A faint grid across the concrete panels reveals the construction sequence — formwork traces left readable rather than smoothed away. A single-storey visitor centre extends from the base of the tower, its full-height glazing facing the road and a clerestory band offering framed views of the turbine hall beyond. This public addition turns an operational building into a threshold — a place where the scale of hydroelectric infrastructure becomes legible to visitors. The building received the ZV Bauherrenpreis in 2015.