Hangar-7 at Salzburg Airport is far more than just an unusual home for unusual aircraft. The impressive steel and glass construction is a place where art, passion, technology and very refined living meet.
Constructed as a “home base” for the historical aircraft collection of the Flying Bulls, Hangar-7 is an architectural landmark that reaches out far beyond the grounds of Salzburg Airport - an imposingly dimensioned shell construction that communicates dynamism and weightlessness.
Viewed from the outside, the hangar’s form inevitably invites comparison with a wing. Inside, the expansive dome appears to weigh virtually nothing - in spite of its over 1,500 tons. The impressive steel-and-glass construction also serves as a fascinating backdrop: the hangar hosts frequent large-scale art Exhibitions, is a top-ranking culinary hotspot, and serves as a meeting-place for people who value the finer things in life - at private dinners, at business meetings or as part of numerous events ranging from soirées to large presentations.
TECHNOLOGY AND PLEASURE
The steel-and-glass shell, which planning and construction took nearly four years, encloses a truly exceptional collection of aircraft: for several years now, the Flying Bulls have been purchasing historical flying machines and restoring them to airworthiness.
The collection includes jets, a seaplane and several warbirds from the nineteen-forties and ‘fifties. The collection’s newly restored centrepiece is a DC-6B which once belonged to Yugoslavia’s head of state, Marshal Tito.
The second focal point at Hangar-7 is fine dining: alongside the Carpe Diem Lounge Café, which serves international finger -food, and two elegant bars, the hangar’s Restaurant - known as Ikarus - has attracted particular attention since its opening in late summer 2003. Under the aegis of Eckart Witzigmann and the management of executive chef Roland Trettl, Ikarus plays host to a concept unique the world over: a different guest chef appears here each month, and the list of international stars thus brought to Salzburg has already included such greats as Martin Dalsass, Marc Haeberlin, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Jean-Georges Klein and Jonnie Boer.
ART AND FLIGHT
The HangART-7 programme sponsors young artists and current art in an innovative way, in particular by making them accessible to a wide audience. With contemporary art exhibitions, the HangART-7 programme presents an innovative platform for emerging artists. Ever since its creation, the impressive glass and steel building has been conceived as a place for the synthesis of creativity and technology. Hence also its motto - air and art. The fact that aviation technology and art have a joint home at Hangar-7 facilitates vision and the liberation of personal capabilities.
A further highlight of the recent past was “Masters of Origami”, one of the most comprehensive exhibitions in the 2000-year-old history of origami, the art of paper-folding. Between July and September 2005 over 200 folded works of art introduced more than 73,000 visitors to the world of Japanese paper-folding. Other fascinating exhibitions in Hangar-7 showed the Wright Brothers’ unique collection of photographs from the early days of flying, large-scale sculptures by Jos Pirkner, the well-known artist from
East Tyrol, and, in summer 2004, the inspired flight objects by internationally renowned Belgian artist Panamarenko.
EXCEPTIONAL EVENTS
Thanks to its interesting architecture, its location and, last but not least, its size, Hangar-7 is also perfectly suited for large -scale events of all kinds - which it proved most impressively at its grand opening on 22 August 2003: it stood at the centre of the aerial theatre piece “Taurus Rubens” and the “Helicopter Quartet” of Karlheinz Stockhausen, which was performed as part of the Salzburg Festival. Since then, Hangar-7 has been the site of numerous events, ranging from presentations of international brands and companies to meetings of high-ranking politicians and scientists. This is due not least to the special atmosphere inside the hangar: both technologically and artistically, it is inspired and inspiring.
ARCHITECTURE
The Architecture Of Hangar-7 At Salzburg Airport Interprets The Commonalities Of Art And Flight: A Wing Profile Cuts Through The Air, Generating Lift… And An Airplane Flies. The Design Of Hangar-7 Is Based On This Wing Profile, A Leitmotif Lightly Draped In Glass.
The decision to build Hangar-7 was really a very pragmatic one: the Flying Bulls needed a new home for their collection of unique historical aircraft. This collection had grown considerably over the years, and the old hangar was no longer large enough.
It would have been a pity, though, to put this special collection in a hangar with the architectural appeal of a shoebox. Hence, a plan was born to construct the world’s most beautiful home for aircraft, and this plan was realized within four years. The ambition was to link modern technology with the mythical dreams of flight - not just to create a dignified home for rare antiques, but also to establish a place where technology, art and passion meet: in short, far more than simply an aircraft hangar.
An initial glance at the commanding, glassed-in shell construction makes the project’s high-minded goal of giving the airplanes their own “sky” seem neither presumptuous nor unrealistic. One immediately thinks of a wing, and is taken by the dynamic form’s near-weightlessness - in spite of the generously dimensioned building’s nearly 100 meters’ length and 60 meters’ width. Even just the gateway is 40 meters wide.
The utilitarian but innovative interior of the two glass towers and the hall is a logical continuation of the overall concept: on the ground floor, just off the entrance area, lies the Doppler Foyer, in which visitors can experience and understand the phenomenon named for Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, as well as a lounge and the office area. The first floor contains a restaurant (Ikarus) and a spacious deck from which the hangar’s interior can be viewed. Further up one finds the Mayday bar, lounges and a further, special bar - which hangs from the ceiling: the Threesixty bar’s glass floor affords its guests a spectacular view onto the aerial fleet of the Flying Bulls.
Salzburg architect Volkmar Burgstaller was charged with making the plans for Hangar-7 reality: Burgstaller oversaw the elaborate process of experimentation - done via 3-D simulations and CAD software - necessary to fine-tune the complicated structure.
DATA AND FACTS:
Hangar-7 was opened on 22 August 2003, following four years of planning and construction. The main hall of Hangar-7 is approximately 100 meters long, 67 meters wide and 14.5 meters high. The structure contains 7,000 square meters of glass and 1,200 tons of steel. 1,754 glass panes of varying size, some of them specially curved, were used. The combined length of the silicon fillings between the panes is 16 kilometers. Area covered by superstructure: 4,100 m2; actual hangar footprint: 3,700 m2; hangar gate: 350 m2; maximum clear span: ca. 95 meters by 66 meters; excavated material: 45,000 tons.
First Published in Men's Passion Issue #22 May 2010
