City Lofts Wienerberg, plot E West

Wienerberg City - is a typical example of “current investor urbanism” (Robert Temel), which does not rely solely on sufficient connections to public transport but also on architectural mixing, which is intended to help quickly developed urban neighborhoods bridge the gap in urban growth. This was given particular attention here. Even in the naming of individual plots such as Esplanade, Sky Loop, or City Loft, an urban atmosphere was created. The Fuksas administrative tower Twin Tower from 2001 tried to adhere to the architectural footprint but completely neglected its urban role, finding itself as a solitary building in a lost location. Seven other plots were dedicated to residential buildings. In the northern row of Wienerberg City, there are two high-rise residential towers by Coop Himmelb(l)au, one by Delugan_Meissl, and one by Albert Wimmer, in front of which are three blocks by Coop Himmelb(l)au and Atelier 4, followed by a school, a block by Cuno Brullmann and Delugan_Meissl. Both of the last building sections enjoy the privilege of undeveloped areas on the southern side. To the west, south, and east, the complex is enclosed by three residential buildings from Gert Mayr-Keber, Helmut Wimmer, and Günter Lautner.
Plot E West - by Delugan_Meissl differs from its neighboring buildings in the Vienna district of Wienerberg not only functionally. The program for City Lofts consists of a kindergarten, offices, workspaces, and residential units. All this is squeezed into eight floors with a clear height of 2.38 m. Another of the conditions was to create a specific new kind of high-quality and variable housing. The architects did not settle for merely stacking the ceilings of individual floors over each other without any internal connections, but created a spatial entanglement that generates constantly different work and living environments. The clear height of the living rooms was increased to 3.38 m, while the bedrooms and workspaces facing north were constructed lower. This height zoning, combined with a complex system of access corridors, results in an unusually large number of apartment types (a total of 47 variants): from studio apartments, through apartments expanded by half a floor, to duplex apartments. On the northern facade, the living units are separated by fully glazed strips meant for offices or as hobby boxes, while the rest of the wall consists of L-shaped windows leading into the bedrooms. The southern facade consists of loggias. The meandering railing of the loggias made of black photovoltaic panels quotes the spatial story unfolding inside the house.