The most compact factory in the world

It could have turned out very differently. Christof Müller was in America and was planning to study architecture there. But then the tourism industry discovered the picturesque Weissensee lake in Carinthia. His father, a second-generation timber engineer based nearby, was suddenly confronted with a large number of tenders. Office work, however, held no interest for him.

"The office? For my father, that was his left trouser pocket for receipts and the right one for expenses," laughs Christof Müller. With the father not wanting to tackle the new developments, the son decided against a permanent jump across the pond and headed home — and joined the Weissenseer company. He was just 21 years old at the time. As the third generation of his family to lead the company, he expanded its workforce to 34 employees based on a conscious decision — to grow the traditional wood construction company into a modern provider of highly insulated timber houses. For Christof Müller, it was an obvious evolution. "At the time, I was thinking about my experiences in America, about how easy it is to build a house over there. While over here, every house builder wants different dimensions. This is far too complicated." As building technology continued to evolve, the company's path into residential ventilation and the Passive House became a short one. "When we built our first Passive House 20 years ago and insulated it with 40 centimetres of cellulose, we had to really believe in what we were doing. It was something completely new, although it made sense and was almost logical for us," Müller recalls.

To this day, the company has remained true to the Passive House Standard and cellulose. And after the evolution, the revolution followed in 2008. At the company's new location in Greifenburg, the self-proclaimed "most compact factory in the world" was created. 

You can read the whole article in THE ISOCELLER 03