Hirschstettner Strasse, Vienna (AT)

The concept for this “Generations:Housing” focuses on creating an active neighbourhood that enables social contacts and low-threshold help. The two blocks offer 40 smaller “Smart” apartments with high subsidies and 78 cooperative apartments.
The site of this project confronts two very different types of urban form: on one side, family residences dominate; on the other, large heterogeneous volumes house storage facilities, supermarkets or offices. The integration of the new building establishes a transition between these disparate scales.
Thanks to their proportions, the two buildings, slightly turned towards each other, enter into dialogue with the existing school and form an ensemble. Wrap-around loggias and room-high windows create light and openness. The fully glazed ground floor houses a kindergarten and shared areas open to the park. In the larger buildings, which comprises two-thirds of the 118 rental units, a central atrium traversed by walkways brings natural light to all floors. It is also here that the inhabitants, of all ages, can stop for a moment to communicate. The attractively designed communal and outdoor areas offer additional living, meeting and working spaces and compensate for the small size of some apartments.

Client: Heimbau Gemeinnützige Bau-, Wohnungs- und Siedlungsgenossenschaft
Location: A-1220 Vienna, Hirschstettner Strasse
Architecture: Dietrich | Untertrifaller
Project management: Maria Megina, Melanie Högl
Competition: 2015
Construction: 2017-2019
Area: 9,492 m2
Capacity: 118 subsidized rental apartments, Kindergarten for 5 groups, 69 underground parking places

Partner
structural engineering: Raunicher+Partner, Vienna / HAVCR: Ernst, Olbendorf / building physics, fire protection: Röhrer, Vienna / electronics: AnlagenPlan, Vienna / landscape: Auböck+Kárász, Vienna / social sustainability: realitylab, Vienna / rendering: Expressiv, Vienna