Construction has begun on a museum and events centre designed by architects Coop Himmelb(l)au for Austrian bread company Backaldrin.

The Haus des Brotes (The House of Bread) will be a shimmering, sculptural creation located at the company’s headquarters in Asten, northern Austria.

The building – formed of a concrete rectangular base supporting a wooden and steel-clad structure – will contain a customer information centre, events rooms and a two-storey ‘cabinet of curiosities’ exhibiting an assortment of interesting and eclectic objects.

The base building houses the 120-capacity workshop and events space, with the gallery housed above in a circular atrium. There is 1,850sq m (19,900sq ft) of gross floor area overall.

The exhibition is inspired by those once organised by wealthy collectors in the Baroque period, and features several curios – some of them themed around baking and bread – individually suspended from the top of the atrium. A spiral staircase provides access to the two exhibition levels and a variety of observation points.

Construction on the House of Bread is expected to be completed this year. Coop Himmelb(l)au have used 3D CMC (computerised numerical control) technology to prefabricate many construction elements and shorten building time, and there will be minimal interior finishes as the timber shell will be left exposed.