The Reuse Garden is a unique urban design-build project developed by i.sd_Structure and Design at the University of Innsbruck, in collaboration with the Amt for Grünlagen and funded by OeAD Student Housing GmbH. The project features a newly designed garden area in front of the recently completed student housing building on Südbahnstraße/Karmelitergasse in Innsbruck. It is embedded in a research agenda at i.sd focused on novel design methods that utilize the reuse of materials from deconstruction, such as concrete rubble (PhD researcher: Muchen Yan).
The garden layout was chosen through a student competition conducted in a research-led design studio led by David Kienpointner and Moritz Riedl. Participants were tasked with developing an ecologically sustainable open space concept for an area of over 400 m² and 75 m in length. Over the course of a semester, five design proposals were developed and continuously refined through discussions with representatives from the City of Innsbruck and the architects of the student housing project (Hanel and Manzl). The winning proposal was ultimately implemented by the City of Innsbruck.
In follow-up seminars, students transformed reclaimed concrete rubble into public urban furniture, now installed in the reuse-themed garden at Südbahnstraße/Karmelitergasse. The project demonstrates how irregular and hybrid reused materials can be reimagined through experimental construction methods, adaptive joinery, and circular design strategies.
Students / Furniture concept design: Julian Duggen, Jan Buley, and Dominik Obkircher
Students / Garden concept design, 1st prize in student competition: Max Estermann, Sarah Körling, Jan Schambach
Structural Consultant: Moritz Heimrath (Bollinger+Grohmann ZT GmbH)
Consultancy Biodiversity: Marion Chatelain (PhD), Applied Animal Ecology Research Unit, UIBK
Funded by: OeAD Student Housing, Amt für Grünanlagen – Planung und Bau Referat, City of Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck
Supported by: Werkstätte der Fakultät für Architektur, UIBK; Strabag; Erdbau Arno; ALU Schneider
