Palais Thinnfeld – Haus der Architektur in Graz

The present palace was built in 1741–42, but the site already contained seventeenth-century structures. Architectural research shows that parts of two predecessor buildings were incorporated, a typical process in the dense Mur-side suburb where owners expanded and unified existing properties rather than always starting from empty ground.

Anton Erhard Martinelli, a Vienna-based court architect, provided the plans for the main tract, while Georg Stengg was involved in execution. The building is comparatively modest in scale, especially beside larger aristocratic palaces in central Graz, but its proportions and restrained façade give it a formal presence on the corner of Mariahilferstraße and Südtiroler Platz.

The mansard roof and basket-arched portal belong to the original Baroque composition. Pilasters and stucco decoration articulate the façade without producing the dramatic sculptural density of Palais Wildenstein or Palais Attems. This makes Palais Thinnfeld an instructive example of elite urban building at a smaller scale.

The upper floor contains four important stucco ceilings. Their leaf, band, lattice and decorative comb motifs were created by specialist stuccoworkers associated with the original furnishing campaign. These interiors survived substantial later changes and are among the strongest historical reasons for the palace’s protected status.

Visitors should look for the tension between the historic shell and the exhibition installations. HDA does not recreate eighteenth-century domestic rooms; it uses them as active contemporary spaces. The palace therefore reveals its history through surviving surfaces rather than through furniture staged as a noble household.

HDA was founded in 1988 but spent its first two decades elsewhere in Graz. The institution moved to Palais Thinnfeld in January 2008 after a major revitalization led by ifau – institut für angewandte urbanistik – and Jesko Fezer. The opening was marked by a public programme, house tours and cultural events.

The renovation is important because it did not treat preservation and contemporary architecture as opposites. Historic elements were kept visible while new infrastructure and exhibition functions were introduced. The result is deliberately not a neutral white cube hidden inside an old shell. The building remains legible as a Baroque palace even when it hosts an exhibition about twenty-first-century urban systems.

This approach matches HDA’s mission. A house of architecture should be able to demonstrate reuse, adaptation and critical preservation through its own premises. Palais Thinnfeld therefore operates as both venue and case study. Visitors interested in adaptive reuse should pay attention to thresholds, floor transitions, lighting and display elements as carefully as to the exhibition content.

Since moving here, HDA has used the palace for exhibitions, lectures, symposia, workshops and public discussions. Some events fill the house far beyond the quiet atmosphere of daytime gallery hours. The architecture changes character when the rooms become debate spaces or social gathering places.

For travellers, this means no two visits are exactly alike. A normal afternoon exhibition visit is calm and compact, while an opening, Architekturtage event or festival programme can make the small palace intensely active. Check the programme to decide which experience you want.

The 2008 move also placed HDA directly beside Kunsthaus Graz, one of the most recognizable contemporary buildings in the city. That juxtaposition gives the institution a powerful teaching tool outside its own rooms. A discussion about preservation, adaptive reuse or urban contrast can begin in a Baroque palace and continue across the square at a twenty-first-century museum whose form deliberately rejects the surrounding historic geometry. Few architecture centres have such an immediate comparison built into their location.

The renovated palace also makes clear that adaptive reuse is not the same as reconstruction. HDA did not attempt to recreate a complete eighteenth-century residence with period furniture. Instead, the project preserved significant fabric and allowed contemporary uses to remain visibly contemporary. Exhibition panels, audiovisual equipment and event furniture therefore sit inside rooms whose historic ceilings and proportions remain legible. That honesty about new and old is itself a useful architectural lesson.

HDA defines architecture broadly. Its programme addresses buildings, urban planning, public space, housing, infrastructure, climate adaptation, cultural heritage and the politics of how places are made. Exhibitions are only one tool. Lectures, walking tours and building visits often take discussion directly into the city.

The institution also helps administer the Architecture Prize of Styria, awarded on a recurring basis to outstanding recent buildings. This connects HDA with current professional practice and gives visitors a route into architecture beyond famous tourist landmarks.

HDA serves as a collection partner for the nextroom architecture database, helping document significant contemporary architecture in Styria. This ongoing documentation means the institution participates in building an archive of the region’s present, not only interpreting its past.

The Architecture Archive Styria, established in cooperation with Graz University of Technology, extends that role. The archive includes tens of thousands of images and plans and numerous models from important Styrian architects and offices. Particular attention goes to the post-war “Graz School,” whose experimental architecture gained international attention from the 1960s onward.

For architecture students, researchers and specialist travellers, these networks make HDA far more useful than its small floor area suggests. Even when the current exhibition does not match your main interest, staff and programme material can point toward buildings, archives and debates elsewhere in Graz.

The institution’s public role extends beyond professional architects. City debates, housing questions, climate adaptation and public-space design affect everyone, and HDA deliberately brings these subjects into formats that non-specialists can join. Walking tours and discussions are often the easiest entry point for travellers who enjoy cities but do not read architectural drawings fluently.

Its position within European and Austrian architecture networks also matters. HDA is a member of Architekturstiftung Österreich, the LINA European architecture platform and the international confederation of architecture museums. These links help bring visiting architects, research and exhibitions to Graz while giving Styrian architecture a wider audience. The result is a programme that moves between local questions and international examples rather than treating regional building culture as isolated.

The project runs only through 4 September and presents drawings from his student years, work connected with Günther Domenig’s office and later independent practice. It was developed with architecture students and the Architecture Archive Styria.

The short duration matters. A visitor arriving on 6 or 10 September should not expect the Hellweger display simply because it was current at the start of the month. HDA’s standard exhibition hours describe when the institution opens exhibitions, but the programme still determines whether a show is installed.

The next major exhibition opens on 16 September, with normal public viewing from 17 September to 20 November. “Timber Architecture with PEOPLE. PLACE. HOUSE. COMMON SENSE.” examines timber construction beyond the simple assumption that wood automatically makes architecture sustainable. Social, cultural, spatial and technical conditions are all part of the analysis.

The HDA version expands the exhibition with international examples and research from Graz University of Technology. This creates a strong local connection because Styria has major forestry, timber-industry and timber-research sectors. The exhibition therefore links global architectural questions with regional expertise.

Weekend tours are scheduled on Saturdays at 15:00 and Sundays at 11:00, with additional tours available by arrangement. These are especially useful for international visitors because architecture exhibitions often use drawings and technical material that become clearer with guided explanation.

The September gap between the Hellweger pop-up and the timber exhibition is a useful reminder that HDA is a programme-driven institution, not a permanent-collection museum. Installation and dismantling periods are part of how such spaces operate. A traveller who arrives during a changeover may find the office active while the gallery is not presenting a normal exhibition. Checking the current programme is therefore not optional if the exhibition itself is the reason for your visit.

The timber exhibition is particularly relevant in Styria because forestry, wood processing, engineering and architectural research all have strong regional importance. By adding TU Graz research to international case studies, HDA turns a broad sustainability topic into a conversation with local expertise. Visitors can therefore use the exhibition as a starting point for noticing timber construction elsewhere in Graz and the wider province.

HDA’s standard exhibition hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00, with Monday closed. Graz Tourism lists general admission as free. Office hours are Monday through Friday 11:00 to 17:00, but office opening should not be confused with a guarantee that an exhibition is installed on every weekday.

Südtiroler Platz/Kunsthaus is the nearest major public-transport stop and is served by several tram lines through the city centre. The palace is almost beside Kunsthaus Graz and only a short walk from Murinsel, Mariahilferkirche and Hauptplatz. For most visitors, public transport or walking is easier than driving.

Cultural listings identify HDA as barrier-free, and the 2008 conversion was designed for public use. However, HDA does not currently publish a detailed accessibility specification for every room and event configuration. Contact the institution if you need precise information about step-free seating, toilets, hearing support or access during a crowded opening.

There is usually no need to reserve for a normal exhibition visit. Guided tours, city walks, building visits and workshops can require registration, especially when capacity is limited. Always read the event page rather than assuming free admission also means unlimited attendance.

Allow forty-five to sixty minutes for a standard exhibition and more for talks or guided tours. The ideal continuation is outdoors: compare Palais Thinnfeld with Kunsthaus, the Iron House and the surrounding Mur-side district. HDA is designed to make visitors look at the city differently after leaving the gallery.

For visitors with only one hour, the most efficient sequence is to begin with the historic entrance and ceiling details, then spend most of the time on the current exhibition, and finish by stepping outside toward Südtiroler Platz. The square, Kunsthaus and Iron House immediately provide real urban examples of the questions HDA raises about preservation, contrast, reuse and public space.

Weekend guided tours add value because architectural exhibitions can contain technical drawings, plans and models that are not always self-explanatory. The Saturday 15:00 and Sunday 11:00 tours announced for the timber exhibition are especially useful for visitors who want interpretation without arranging a private group. For other exhibitions, check whether comparable tours are offered.