PPag architects_EUROPAN 06, WIEN
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vision 2020: implizite lösung des angeborenen österreichischen Wunsches nach dem Haus im grünen durch das angebot großer privater Freiräume / Vision 2020: the typical Austrian’s desire for a house in rural settings is implicitly solved by offering larger private open spaces
PPag architects_PACEjKA, DEUTSCH-WAGRAM
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landmark hill in the lowlands instead of building in nearby Vienna, a small ambitioned developer finally opted for deutsch-Wagram in Lower Austria. A former Federal railway site directly bordering the railway station d-W (built in 1837 as part of the first Austrian railway line) develops into a shining example of value creation. this upwardly stepped artificial hill (Lower Austrian Building regulations type iii) provides a home for different uses. With a bakery, hairdresser and florist on the ground floor and hotel rooms strewn between flexible offices of different sizes on the upper floors, the hill’s top floor houses a cafeteria and bar offering panorama views. the whole thing is topped by a kind of displaced park for all on the uppermost roof. General access is provided throughout by means of a flight of cantilevered steel steps on the outside, linking all of the broad terrace steps. these can also be used as a pavement, recreation and outdoor work area for the adjacent inner uses. An elevator is the sole means of accessibility inside the building, providing direct access to the offices via small shared areas. the façades are clad with grey sound-proof bricks with an undulated surface, as are common along railway lines, looking a bit like needle-stripe. they run in straight lines from top to bottom, merging with the column elements on the inside. strip windows developing between the rows of columns reach the floor to allow outside access, and develop parapets to arrest a fall. the resultant grove of columns growing from the terraced structure emit magnetism, which the inner walls follow. the building, which faces all directions on the ground floor, too, closes the station forecourt to the west. directly merging with the area comprising gravestones of former station guards and an existing railway control centre, the restaurant garden also adjusts optically and atmospherically to its environs.
Popelka, Poduschka, Novotny / SPEAKING ARCHITECTURE 978-3-99043-637-0 April 2014 www.birkhauser.com