Gerhard Mitterberger :
Hauptplatz in Gföhl

The brief for this space, created by roads leading into it gradually becoming wider, a square, a main square was a complex one: Dense traffic, a traffic-reduced pedestrian zone, areas for a venue and a market – clearly defined zones for everyday usage and an open area for special occasional uses. The basic concept for the design is the empty space, an idealised rectangle inscribed in the organic space created by the way the rows of houses move away from each other and marked on the asphalt as an area of granite cobblestones.The traffic layer is defined by cut and sand-blasted stone, which reduces the rolling noise, only minimally framed by angled or flush kerbing. The fountain, a profane counterpole to the church but like it free-standing, once the central communal drinking water supply for people and animals and the supply line in the event of fire, is to become an open square following the restoration, and so a protected accessible surface in the middle of the traffic. The tall clover-shaped stone shell around the traditional historical column is to be replaced by a curved section of wall and scattered lying monolithic blocks of granite: rough cut stones laid with broad joints, drilled, cut and polished. Then the purest of design restraint in the bus stop to the side in front of the church: a pavilion of stainless steel and glass.
(Gerhard Mitterberger)