hernalser Office and Residential Building

Vienna, Austria

Visualization © pool

Architects: pool Architektur

Location: Hernalser Gürtel 1, 1170 Vienna, Austria
Year: 2013

The site is distinguished by its exceptional urban location: It constitutes the southern tip of a building block accompanying the Guertel, Vienna’s outer ring road. Situated in front of an unobstructed open space, it is freely accessible on three sides. Moreover, the urban development plan allows for a vertical accentuation of the building volume. The first-rate connection to public transport, the proximity to the subway and to the city’s cycling network and the extraordinarily high frequency of traffic running past the site qualify it for office use.

The structure, which was shaped according to urbanistic and architectural requirements is covered by the generous grid of window apertures, that allows for highest flexibiilty on the office levels. Doing so, the monolithic appearance of the structure is reduced in an almost arbitrary way. The building is clad in bronze-coloured, perforated aluminium panels. The underlying thermal isolation is wrapped in a black foil, the understructure covered in black as well. Thus, a harsh contrast between the twinkling surface of the eloxated aluminium panels and the black underground is created. The perforation of the panels adds an extensive pattern to the structure, which makes up for different Moiré effects, due to the oberserver’s point of view.