Residential complex Leopoldauerstrasse

At the beginning of the 1990s, the French magician of steel and glass was invited by a group of future tenants of an apartment building in Vienna's 21st district to realize their dreams of housing. Similar to Nouvel's Arab World Institute in Paris, the architect became very familiar with the conditions in the Austrian capital and, as is his custom, expressed universally applicable principles of living in Vienna through his forms.
The very urban situation is quintessentially Viennese - a quiet inner courtyard behind the barrier of apartments has become an evergreen of urban living. Nouvel likely drew inspiration from the works of Adolf Loos when he crowned the apartment building with an arched roof, which he complemented with his favorite anti-gravity visor. The interior of the luxury apartments also shows a slight inclination towards raumplan, though very modestly; in any case, the apartments across four floors readily invite spatial play.
Nouvel's typical red color, which he also used on parts of the administrative complex Golden Angel in Prague, pleasantly complements with the occasional green partitions that aim to protect the privacy of the apartments. After a thorough inspection of the site, I must state that Nouvel did a good job.