Wood Housing Seestadt Aspern

Vienna, Austria

Photo © Hertha Hurnaus

Photo © Daniel Hawelka

Architects: Berger+Parkkinen Architekten

Location: Maria-Tusch-Straße 6, 1220 Vienna, Austria
Year: 2015
Client: EBG Gemeinnützige Ein- und Mehrfamilienhäuser Baugenossenschaft reg. Gen. m. b. H.

A sequence of parallel building volumes differentiated in terms of scale utilises the large building plot D12 in the south-eastern part of the Seestadt Aspern. The complex with a total of 213 apartments and eight shops apparently consists of a group of clearly recognisable individual timber houses in the form of slender, compact individual volumes.The staggered layout creates different kinds of courtyard-like spaces and a variety of visual relationships. The various parts are connected to each other by three rows of access decks that run in a north-south direction. These three circulation routes offer a varied spatial experience provided by a sequence of light-flooded staircases, internal corridors and open access decks onto which communal terraces are docked. The serial, linear basic structure offers great flexibility in laying out very different types of apartments and consequently allows a good mix of residents. The apartment floor plans are conceived flexibly. They can be altered later in a variety of ways. Although they have an excellent energy balance the buildings still open generously to the outside. Combined with the use of timber as a construction material this gives the entire complex both lightness and depth.