LORENZATELIERS

A city apartment building in the best tradition of “Socialist Vienna” at the industrial end point of city limits. In addition to that, on a property lot which did not really exist, since it was divided by streets and train tracks into residual fragments. Only through the driving spirit of Lorenzateliers was the street displaced to the long forgotten tree-lined alley to the north. The required park deck (due to the contaminated ground) functions as a protective barrier against the industrial zone and national road to the north. The apartment building itself meanders and loops between this base and the train tracks, generating modestly proportioned green spaces which even go so far as to reflect the copses of trees. From these overlapping buildings, numerous halfopen zones are created, generating a feeling of living protection: terraces, passageways, views outwards and throughwards. Green rooftop surfaces with common access, including sauna and fitness studio, along with urban gardening, are available to all residents. Rooms reminiscent of the very best of times back in the epoch of community building, when the city also gave serious consideration to common access. Thus, a communication-rich dialogue arises with another zone on the far side of the tracks in the Anton Schrammel Hof. Architectural design of the facade in residences is a dead subject for Lorenzateliers, due to energy norms and ordinances. Requirements of daylight, fire-protection strictures and limits on cost are the determinants of the ultimate design. What remains for the architect to determine is the form of the city. At the northwestern corner, the block along the Nussbaumallee becomes a bridge framing the view of the Gasometer from the inside. Thereby, orientation and awareness of place are generated. In the other direction, a passage from the public to the private zone, with a dramatic suctional effect. The identification and high degree of residential satisfaction of the inhabitants is the fruit of the diversity of apartments as well as of the wide-ranging offerings of spaces in front of and in between the buildings for purposes of relaxation, of encounter, of recreation.