Architecture practices Klinglmüller, HENN and a-stud.io have won the competition for the Sparkasse Oberösterreich Urfahr Campus in Linz, Austria. Their proposal places three interlocking blocks beside the bank’s 1979 office tower, with a public plaza and green spaces opening the site to the neighbourhood.
The consortium’s design was selected for realisation through an invited, single-stage anonymous competition involving eight practices. It will provide new offices for the BusinessCenter of Sparkasse Oberösterreich, an Austrian regional bank. Housing is planned in the existing tower during a second construction phase.
The bank plans to invest approximately €70m. Construction is currently scheduled to begin in mid-2028, with completion planned by mid-2031. An assessment of the existing premises identified their age, technical constraints and limited space efficiency as reasons for a broader redevelopment.
Three interlocking blocks beside the Urfahr tower
The campus lies north of the Danube, between the Bruckner Tower and LentiaCity shopping centre. The existing office tower is distinguished by its seemingly floating glass cubes. To its south, the addition will use similar rectangular forms arranged along the site length.
Three staggered blocks, each turned slightly off-axis, will interlock to form a single building. Their heights increase towards the tower, while a glazed incision in the northern block echoes the older building’s floating cubes. HENN lists the project’s area as 23,200m².
“The placement of the new building on the site was key to our design,” says Fredrik Werner, responsible partner at HENN. “Three staggered volumes, arranged like a string of pearls, extend across the full length of the site and connect with the existing urban edges.”
The façade will combine glass, recycled concrete and timber. Solid and transparent sections, cantilevers and recesses are designed to admit daylight while providing solar shading.
An atrium connects offices and shared spaces
A broad plaza will lead to the main entrance in the central block. Beyond it, a foyer in a light-filled atrium will connect the building’s sections.
The northern block will house the BusinessCenter offices, combining rooms for confidential meetings with flexible open-plan workplaces and spaces for informal exchange. Its modular layout will allow the offices to adapt to changing requirements. The bank says the workplace concept follows the principles of activity-based working.
Meeting rooms and shared facilities will sit around the central atrium. These include a marketplace intended as a social hub, a Future Lab and a business lunch area with a rooftop garden. The lower southern block will accommodate a kindergarten and a fitness area, among other uses.
Public green spaces and reuse of the tower
Much of the mature tree canopy will be retained. New public green spaces and a children’s playground will accompany the plaza, while landscaped roofs will provide places for employees to take breaks. The campus landscape is planned to connect with a larger green corridor.
The proposal follows an earlier planning framework for the Wildbergstraße area. In March 2025, the City of Linz recommended retaining and reusing the Sparkasse tower, reorienting the main entrance towards a new Sparkassenplatz opposite the Bruckner Tower and developing Wildbergstraße as a greener connection through the district.
Photovoltaic panels, geothermal energy and planted roofs are included in the proposal. The bank says the campus is being planned as a zero-emissions building, with fossil fuels excluded, and is intended to meet klimaaktiv Gold and EU taxonomy requirements. It also specifies a sponge-city approach and buildings designed for long life, flexible use and dismantling.
Images: Courtesy of HENN
