“Kabelwerk” Apartment house, building site J in Vienna-Meidling, A
description

A solution whose great generosity makes it unusual in the area of subsidised housing; in terms of urban design it also plays an important role in this new district. Typologically this is a hall building that occupies a key position between the approach from the north and the internal sequence of squares in the complex, and the transverse route forming the main access. Despite the high density called Hubert Hermann’s team was able to produce considerable residential quality, always in connection with outdoor spaces. Above all the huge circulation hall, which is inserted in the double loaded building and extends through all levels (as the urban planning connection to the south), creates a spatial added value that conveys to the residents the feeling of living in a privileged situation. The design is extremely complex. Slightly sinking the surface of the square on the south side means that the rooms in the plinth level are well lit and therefore not used merely as service spaces. The children’s playroom, a hobby room and so forth are also very sensibly located here. On the west side the lower floors have an open loggia zone with planting troughs – a green second skin. Above this level there are balconies that are visually connected to each other by their fair-face concrete parapets and orange side walls. On the east side there are maisonettes and small apartments that can be allotted to them, which also allows different generations to live together. There are tenants’ gardens at ground floor level. The building has no less than eight floors, but horizontal articulation effectively reduces its massiveness.
DATA

Client: Kabelwerk Bauträger GmbH
Competition: Stadt 2000
Start of planning: 2003
Start of construction: 2006
Completion: 2007
Usable floor area: 12.000 m2
Enclosed volume: 35.400 m3
Residential units: 135
Outdoor area: 1.790 m2
Landscape planners: Heike Langenbach, Anna Detzlhofer
Project management: Hannes Zergoi