Austria Center Vienna, Vienna (AT)

The Austria Center Vienna ACV is Austria’s largest convention center, with 24 halls for up to 30,000 participants. The building from the 1980s needs a modernization concept that primarily reorganizes its access situation and the forecourt. After a multi-stage competition, the entry by Dietrich | Untertrifaller and Vasko + Partner won the jury over. A new entrance building with three further entrances will distribute the flow of visitors to the event areas better and allow parallel access to the different levels. An attractive roofing upgrades the forecourt on the Danube plateau.
The central element is a widely projecting, 7,500 m² grid-shaped roof structure. The delicate steel framework with a roof membrane made of transparent foil pillows rests on just four columns and forms a light-filled, prestigious entrance hall. The wave-shaped sail connects the different areas and public paths of the quarter and defines Bruno Kreisky Square as an urban meeting place and event area. Mobile partitions along the orthogonal ceiling grid enable to close the space under the sail und to create a multifunctional hall in different sizes and room configurations – for large gatherings as well as for intimate meetings.
Two mirror-symmetrical additions with now four equivalent entrances distribute the flow of visitors in a logical and intuitive way. The upper floors are accessed via staggered foyers and generous air spaces. A glass-fronted gallery on the first floor connects the entrances and creates an attractive visitor’s tour. This way, the convention center can operate in a spatially flexible way and interconnect areas as well as use them separately. The bridge structure spans the two new foyer buildings and appears to float beneath the roof structure. Floor-to-ceiling glazing grants views of the forecourt to all convention visitors and creates a visual link to the surrounding public area.

Client: IAKW-AG (International Amtssitz- und Konferenzzentrum) Vienna
Location: A-1220 Vienna, Bruno-Kreisky-Platz 1
Architecture: Dietrich | Untertrifaller
Project Management: Michael Porath, Doreen Rehmer-Jeitler, Björn Osmann
Competition: 2017
Construction: 2019-2022
Area: 5,746 m² entrance building, 4,203 m² temporary hall / canopy

Partner
general planner: ARGE GP ACV Dietrich | Untertrifaller + Vasko+Partner, Vienna / structural engineering: Bollinger Grohmann Schneider, Vienna / rendering: Tobias Riepl, Vienna