Interviews

Walter K. Holzmüller

Architect
Bregenz, 13.5.2014, 10:00

Interview: Wolfgang Fiel
Camera and audio: Gerhard Klocker
Production: Denizhan Fiel
Watch: German (50 min, HD) | English (3 min, Voiceover)

Walter K. Holzmüller

Born in 1946 in Bregenz, Vorarlberg. His parents ran a bakery. From an early age, he was obsessed with making things – ships, railways, airplanes, and buildings from paper-model sheets, best of all castles. And then rockets. At the end of his time at secondary school, he was due to talk to a careers adviser about his dream profession. He consulted the children's encyclopaedia to find out what it meant to be an architect, which to his parents' amazement turned out to be exactly what he wanted to do. This led him to a secondary technical school in the delightful Wachau Valley and to the Graz University of Technology, which at the time still operated on an intimate and informal basis. At the university he resolved always to work on his own and to focus thereafter on conversion and renovation projects, which in 1975 was still a relatively unregarded niche market. To the annoyance of the Federal Chamber of Architects and Chartered Engineering Consultants, he set up his own office, Konteradmiral Holzmüllers Architektonische Division, directly after finishing university, without doing the customary five-year period of practical training.