erz Residential Building

Vienna, Austria

Photo © Hertha Hurnaus

Architects: pool Architektur

Location: Erzherzog-Karl-Straße 195, 1220 Vienna, Austria
Year: 2011

The development plan for the area Erzherzog-Karl-Straße – Lavaterstraße scheduled a variety of programs and typologies. The “inner” northern area is characterized by housing, comprising different levels of density. At the rims, along the encompassing streets, higher buildings (Bauklasse II and III)with commercial use on ground floor were envisaged. Building lot 1 is to be found at the intersection of those two structures – whereas southern Erzherzog-Karl-Straße does not only expose this but all the sites to an enormous noise pollution.

Our design is divided into free-standing single-family houses in the courtyard and a flexed slab alongside the streets, which simultaneously serves as a noise protection wall for the housing area behind.

The slab’s stretched part is oriented in east-west direction. Due to the rotation of the gable, parallelly to the building line, an efficient circulation with three stair cases und three central corridors, and, moreover, in respect of challenges and constraints by the surroundings, a clearly structured building emerges, which allows for a lot of architectural freedom and spatial quality: The additional cubing which was gained by the rotation of the gable, was not only used to increase the floor space, but was added to the living area. Subsequently a total of 107 units and 32 different types were generated which living rooms mounts up to a height of 3.9 metres.