Laboratory for the intelligent building automation LOXONE Campus

The Loxone Campus was inaugurated in Kollerschlag, Austria, near the Czech and German borders, last year and thus wrote a new chapter for the dynamically developing Loxone company. 

The architectural masterpiece fits harmoniously into the plein-air of the green hills surrounding the town of Kollerschlag. And this is one of the paths where this year’s packed programme of events, organized by our magazine for its partners and entrepreneurs from the field of development and facility management, went. The visit to the Loxone Campus in Kollerschlag, Austria, took place at the invitation of Pavel Lískovec, Branch Manager of the Czech branch in České Budějovice. 

Loxone Campus

The total area of the campus is 8 ha, but it is not noticeable at first glance, because the Campus is perfectly integrated into the undulating terrain. It includes, among other things, warehouse premises and a logistics centre with an area of 6,000 sq m, offices with a capacity for 300 employees, as well as an hotel complex with 80 rooms, a restaurant and a wellness centre with an outdoor heated infinite pool. Everything is equipped with modern intelligent building automation systems.

The entire project cost EUR 70 million. The planned budget was 12% lower, which is remarkable following the changes in the prices of construction work, because no special solutions had to be implemented during the construction, which was excellently designed by the ARKFORM studio and was, from the beginning, fitted with top technologies. 

Harsh beginnings

There are two owners behind the company, and no other shareholders, which helps a lot in making strategic decisions in order to move forward.

When the founding members of the company, Martin and Thomas, were building their houses at the beginning of 2008, they were already faced with the fact that there was quite a lot of technology inside – heat recovery, air conditioning, heating, heat pumps, shading, lighting, etc. So, they looked around the market to be able to connect all the technologies together and not become their slaves. That was also the initial impulse when they started thinking about the connection of all technologies in houses. After two years, the portfolio gradually began to expand and today, it produces lights, speakers, etc., but according to the founders, Loxone is still primarily a software company.

The initial vision was that when you come home, there will be an appropriate temperature and tuned up energy consumption, which has worked out great. Many difficulties had to be overcome in the initial five years. There was even a moment of a threat that they would withdraw from the project and the company would come to an end, because not everything went exactly well at the beginning. The reason was that people – clients – did not know the new technologies. They were new to them, and at that time, building automation belonged to luxury real estate, etc. However, despite the crisis, the company managed to be directed to further growth. 

How did the Campus originate

In 2018, the owners Martin Öller and Thomas Moser, the founders of the Loxone Group, took a 100-day holiday and although they had been involved with everything until then, they handed all the competence over to the managers. The employees didn’t know what was going on, and the owners did not follow what was happening inside the company at all at that time because they trusted ‘their’ people. In those ‘free’ days, they strategically considered what the production programme would be in the next 10 years. That is when the idea to build LOXONE Campus was born. First, they cleared up what the size of the premises needed to be. This resulted in a 13-storey building that was originally supposed to be built in this beautiful country setting full of green fields and meadows. However, this idea did not find understanding among the local authorities.

So, they started to think about a campus that would fit in here and blend in with the surroundings. Although there is a 600-kW photovoltaic system on the roof, there are almost 80% green roofs. When you build offices for 300 people, everything needs to be thought through, which resulted in the motto: in order for employees to do a good job, they need quality facilities. 

Restaurant Glorious Bastards

That is why one of the attractions is the franchise of the famous Glorious Bastards chain known from Vienna, Linz and Salzburg. It is characterized by an industrial style and a firmly set design. Another thing was the thought that the employees as well as the partners would need to be educated. That is why many people come here not only from Europe, but from all over the world. The complex therefore also includes an hotel, which will be 80% filled by the LOXONE company with their clients and partners.

Pavel Lískovec, head of Loxone’s České Budějovice branch, says: “This year, we have seven training sessions planned here from us, from Czech. If each of the cooperating countries or local branches does the same, the sessions will be taken in turns over and over again. When designing the complex, the architectural plan took into account people’s need to also have a place to relax. That is why there is also a wellness centre with an outdoor infinite pool for relaxation there.”  

The Loxone managers wanted to be able to present new technologies and equipment at the Campus, so it was necessary to build a lecture hall as well as large warehouses sized to meet the requirements for the next 10 years.

Pavel Lískovec adds: “It is kind of a short story about the creation of LOXONE Campus. We thought that it was the height of what the owners wanted to prove. Nevertheless, they have recently announced that this is only the beginning. This campus is one big laboratory. We started with luxury villa residences. Today, we deal with ordinary family houses and apartments with lesser civic amenities, but developers are increasingly asking us to prepare for building automation, even with regard to today’s EU requirements. So, instead of having one expert for each system, we connect them all together, which results in great savings – there is no need for that much hardware, and we bring much more comfort into the project.” 

Arnošt Wagner

Photo: DE&FA Archive

Great thanks for the invitation and the above-standard possibility of a two-day tour of the entire LOXONE Campus, including areas where a regular visitor cannot get to, go to Pavel Lískovec and his Czech colleagues. At the same time, we also greatly appreciate the warm welcome and invitation to the gala dinner extended by the owners of the company and the main managers of the LOXONE Group.