Wörther See Museum

A museum is a meaningful cultural and educational institution. The target group includes both tourists and the local population. The museum should serve as a world of experience for entertainment, as a place of education and culture offering content for understanding and using Lake Wörthersee as a leisure and living space. As an intellectual place, the museum is intended to promote reflection on the future design of the Wörthersee region.

A museum connects
The WSM stands for the entire Lake Wörthersee region and, in addition to the exhibitions, is intended to be a contact point and starting point for tourism, a sales area for a selected range of products and merchandise and a venue for cultural events.

A home for culture
The former cinema will become the center of a culturally influenced tourism and thus complement the existing offers. With temporary exhibitions and cultural events, it will also be attractive to locals in the WS region all year round.

Bad weather program
The museum focuses on the entire Wörthersee region, past and present. In the central two storey high room of the former cinema, sights and culturally significant places are presented and described.

For locals and tourists
The WSM works all year. It also creates knowledge and identification with Pörtschach as an important place on the lake. In addition, cultural initiatives and places of dialog within Pörtschach are to be supplemented and strengthened by the WSM in the long term. Joint programs such as local “long nights” or gallery tours can work well in transitional periods. Without its own gastronomy, the museum is ideally complemented by existing offers.

Qualified jobs
If the museum is to operate professionally, it needs qualified staff and is also attractive as a regional employer.

Building programming
The former cinema is a public building that is very prominently positioned on Monte-Carlo-Platz and defines the location spatially. As a “second center”, the building should offer public functions with year-round potential. The existing tourist information center and the museum complement each other perfectly.

Wörthersee Museum as MUSEUM Plus
The WSM stands for the entire Wörthersee region beyond the region and, in addition to the exhibitions, should be a contact point and starting point for tourism, a sales area for a selected range of products and merchandise, as well as a venue for cultural events.

A home for culture
The former cinema will become the center of cultural tourism and thus complement the existing offerings. With temporary exhibitions and cultural events, it will also be attractive for locals in the WS area all year round.

The cinema by architect Baumgartner
“The cinema is characteristic of Baumgartner's later buildings, which have retained all the elements of his Secessionist architecture and thus fit seamlessly into the existing ensembles” [Achleitner]
The cinema as a typical example of the “Wörthersee architecture” is itself an exhibit. Its central location close to the lake, which is also accessible by public transport and boat, makes it an excellent location for a museum.

With respect for the existing building and its history of use
The history of use of the building and the building itself are already museum-like. The original qualities of the building have been lost due to interventions in the structure. These are the inspiration for the new spatial interpretation of the existing building.

Peanutz Architekten, 2023