Market & School

The building “Markt & Schule” has been erected as the central project of the masterplan “Breite Furt” of LORENZATELIERS. It was on this very spot and at this juncture that a shift in paradigms took place: away from the con­ventional manner of construction in a commercial zone reaching out to future urbanization. Between 2002 and 2009, all the typical designs were rejec­ted. For the very first time, Vienna was demanding that wastelands of parking lots lining the streets in commercial zones had to go. City planners resol­ved to trailblaze a path to the future at this impor­tant west-east connection. Lorenzateliers was gi­ven the opportunity to solve an ensnared situation: minimum fixation of building-complex height, a ga­rage beneath the marketplace, an open-spaced square to round out the heartbeat of Atzgersdorf. It was particularly important for the ongoing deve­lopment of this residential district to build a school. The search for a suitable location had gone on for years, climaxing in the successful proposal by Lorenzateliers after several utilization studies to de­sign a 17-classroom primary school on the roof of the grocery supermarket, without doubt the solu­tion best suited to the public interests. The school project fulfilled the requirements of the social infra­structure and launched the quest to implement a further 3,500 already planned apartments. This is an example which can point the way to courageous city planning’s future, for it supplies concrete proof of how commercial zones can be better utilized. On the northern side of the building behind a translucent screen, the developed public zone is located, providing the school children with a daily adventure on their way to school. The all-day pri­mary school is conceived within an atrium struc­ture. Its central courtyard gives the building a quiet inner core, generates clarity and easy orientation of pathways. In the atrium and on the rooftop, a variety of recreation and game-playing zones are being created. Free-time areas are on the rooftop. The grocery store was given a slight uplift thanks to the parkdeck. It opens onto a new open square which will become an urban meeting place. Thus, the successful basis for the urban space is already set in the zoning plan. New passages and connec­tions replace old barriers, raise living quality in this city district. It is a catalyzer for this entire part of town.
The vertical layering of functions – parking, shop­ping, school – is the moving force for both form and structure of the building. A clear separation of the individual activities is clearly apparent in the design of the facade. In order to develop this chal­lenging project, many stones which lay in our path had to be painstakingly removed, the aim of innu­merable discussions. The ultimate result was exem­plary: an unusual pilot project which can liberate similar problem districts, also in other cities.