Vienna, Gasometer City, J.Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, M.Wedhorn, W.Holzbauer
Project type
An austere, monumental city with deep links to its imperial past, Vienna occasionally takes us by surprise with a bold decision that goes against the tide - such as its decision to build a purely post-modern shopping centre by Hans Hollein right across from the front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, in the midst of Gräben.
A similar project, which is in some ways even more radical and bolder, involves four large gasometers constructed by Emperor Franz Joseph in the late nineteenth century in the Viennese industrial zone of Simmering.
Classified as protected heritage buildings in 1981 for the quality of their architecture, and still in use until 1986, the buildings were abandoned thereafter, until Manfred Wedhorn, an expert in protection of heritage buildings, launched an idea for converting them. A competition was held in'95, won by Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Manfred Wehdorn himself and Wilhelm Holzbauer.
Though it enjoys financial aid from the City of Vienna as well as additional support in the form of a extension of the city's rapid light urban transit system to the site for rapid connection with the city centre, the project has raised much debate, with supporters of contemporary reuse of the old buildings to restore them to the life that only results from daily use opposed by detractors of the project who see it as commercial speculation in opposition to all principles of protection and conservation - for in actual fact only the outside of the original buildings has been preserved - and to current standards of living.
For the circular plan, traditionally unsuitable for residential use despite the large radius of the gasometers, the high density of construction and the obvious absence of consideration for sunlight and orientation in the design of the buildings clearly goes against the current trend of attempting to restore variety and identity to residential neighbourhoods, in a return to the "anthill" form of development that gave rise to the anonymous "dormitory suburb" apartment buildings of the '50s and '60s.
On the whole, the project is conceived as a sort of self-sufficient microcosm.
Gasometer City is built in a sort of shopping mall construction in which straight stretches - the walkways outside the gasometers - alternate with covered plazas constructed inside the buildings.
The functional distribution involving a mixture of different uses privileges commercial space on the ground floor, of course, with offices and residential units on the upper floors.
The most innovative, contemporary solutions are offered by Jean Nouvel and Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Nouvel - ever attentive to situations on the fringe and fascinated by continuously evolving locations - creates a sparkling interior of metal and glass; the continuous play of reflections, refraction and transparencies gives us peeks of the original structures, in a visual coexistence of the ancient with the contemporary, void of mediation or maquillages, emphasising and summing up the current situation of the European cities as a work in progress.
Coop Himmelb(l)au, on the other hand, addresses the subject with that controversial alienating impact that is the most recognisable aspect of its style: the design solution, which incorporates a large underground auditorium, prefers the deconstructivist approach, constructing a sort of bent "shield" which doubles part of the façade.
Wehdorn's project stands out for an indoor garden and an eco-friendly designed terraced structure, while Holzbauer 's is the only case in which the indoor plaza is absent, as the central axis of the gasometer is occupied by its elevators; the result is a central block of building from which three compact sections depart, divided by internal courtyards penetrating the perimeter of the existing building.
This unusual project has been highly successful: almost all the units in Gasometer City are already occupied, and the presence of different functions in the same area means that the development is busy both day and night.
The centrality of its location close to the Prater and the unusual solution make the development attractive to young people, prevalently from a middle to high economic and cultural background, who are attracted by the seduction of a self-sufficient space which, while somewhat reminiscent of a big shopping mall, is ennobled by the attraction of industrial archaeology and the prestige of some of the biggest names in international architecture today.
Elena Franzoia
Link:
www.gasometer.at/
http://www.photopage.net/Gasometer/gasometer.shtml
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