HERMANN KAUFMANN

Hermann Kaufmann was born in 1955 in Reuthe, Bregenzerwald (Austria) and comes from a family with a long tradition in the carpentry business. At that time it was a matter of course to help in the parental business where he got to know great directly the possibilities and the fascination of the building material wood but also the way of technical thinking what moulded essentially his work as an architect. The decision to study architecture was also influenced by his uncle Leopold Kaufmann, outrider in wood constructions and protagonist of the architectural development in Vorarlberg, under whom he learned as intern the hand tools of an architect.
He graduated his studies at the Technical University in Innsbruck and the Technical University in Vienna, where he was essentially shaped by his teacher Professor Ernst Hiesmayr. After two years of practice, 1983 he founded his own architectural office
consortium with Christian Lenz in Schwarzach.
His attitude as an architect is influenced by the ideas of the classical modernism as well as by the debate on the context. Central theme of his work is the search of comprehensive answers to sustainability of building and sounding the possibilities of modern wood
constructions.
Numerous halls for carpentries and other businesses attest to his purposeful design concepts for wooden structures which are architecturally elaborated also effective for community halls. Beside numerous single-family houses the project list is completed by
cautious renewals of old building substances in sensitive village contexts which prove his fine sense in handling with existing architectural culture and landscape. Housing constructions developed to a main task especially in connection with wood and questions of energy as well
as school buildings and public buildings.
He started his teaching activity as guest lecturer at the Liechtenstein School of Engineering and as visiting professor at the Graz Technical University and the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Since 2002 he has been a professor of architecture, with a specialisation in timber and laminated wood constructions, at the Munich Technical University.