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Josef Weichenberger Architects

Josef Weichenberger Architects

Vienna, AT

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PEL - residental development “Leben am Obsthain”

The settlement lies in a large meadow with fruit trees. The open space is characterised by a gently waved topography which through the redeployment of excavations on the site can be styled like dunes. So emerges a landscape on the outskirts of the town with a special identity: the houses are embedded in a space sequence of soft hills and troughs, in a grove of apple, pear, cherry and nut trees. The chosen typographic idea is both an artistic and an ecological grasp of the space. It gains life from a dynamic “re-contextualisation of the existing” through the redeployment of the earth material on the site: In the history of the cultural landscape of the marchfeld there has been marked riverbed characteristics, troughs and wandering dunes in a state of continual change.

 

Structure typology

We obtain the opportunity to develop our buildings “on the slope” through the newly created three-dimensional landscape. The construction “plays” with the slopes in the landscape and a number of configurations through various combinations of the two basic types, each bringing its own particular qualities. We hereby achieve a differentiated and rhythmical building typology which in a sequence of linked and free standing combinations of the buildings creates ever changing townscapes. In doing so, particular attention is paid to a relaxed ground floor zone, the contact areas of the building are reduced and a visual connection of the transportation spaces with the garden landscape through the construction is made possible.

Building typology

The developed building forms enable an optimised alignment of the common areas through a high differentiation. Through the minimising of the depths of the buildings provide the living spaces with a high degree of exposure to sunlight, alignment and orientation. In addition, there are no interventions inside the buildings for carrying the structure. The small span lengths of the ceiling panels enable a large degree of flexibility in the floor plan – an ideal stating basis for customised development, from the loft apartment to apartments with a number of rooms. Part of the roof spaces can be accessed and used in various ways, for example as a vegetable patch of a roof terrace. The arranged open spaces are attributed to the covered roads, footpaths and cycle paths as well as the open but covered parking spaces and the garden and terrace spaces which bring about various qualities of allocation and orientation according to the shape of the ground. There are no fences – either between the gardens or bordering the common green spaces – with the clear aim of enabling smooth transitions between the spaces. Through the grouped alignment of the buildings, particularly suitable building typologies occur whose arrangement makes them ideal for multi-generation residences and large families. Apartment sharing for senior citizens could also be created. Those buildings which have the possibility of creating a ground level, barrier free apartment would ideally lend themselves for granny-flats for people with simple care requirements.

 
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Status: Built
Location: Vienna, AT
Additional Credits: Photos by: Erika Mayer (Josef-Mayburgerkai 2a, 5020 Salzburg;+43 676/7433081; info@erikamayer.at)