Haus Havanna – Tabakfabrik Linz

The listed Haus Havanna in Linz, built in the 1930s based on plans by Peter Behrens and Alexander Popp, was revitalised by Kaltenbacher Architektur and Steinbauer architektur+design. The redesign introduced a new facade for the previously light-deprived building and reimagining its interior spaces. A glass curtain wall, composed of 70,000 glass blocks, now envelops the six-storey building, covering a total surface of 1800 square metres. To align with Behrens’s original structural grid, the loadbearing steel elements are concealed within the joints between the glass blocks, visible only as horizontal window bands that support the structure. The use of glass brings natural light into the previously opaque tobacco warehouse, now repurposed for office and educational use.