School of Arts
Competition: #WIENCALL
Organizers: Start for talents
Location: Am Hof, Vienna, Austria
Project year: 2020
The problem of designing the modern environment of the new school of arts in historical development has its features, as the planning structure and development of old quarters are created in other socio-economic epochs and are difficult to introduce new forms. The task of the project is to maximize the historically valuable development and at the same time breathe new life into it.
The first step in the design is to first analyze where the object will be located. The site has a very high degree of development in terms of infrastructure and pedestrian accessibility. It is surrounded by a fairly dense historical development, and near it, there are several different public objects (church, museum, etc.).
Besides, the square is actively used by pedestrians, residents to hold seasonal fairs, as well as tourists as an excellent place to inspect the historical environment. Especially this square is important for the perception of the monument Mariensäule from far viewpoints. This results in a direct continuous link between Ferbergrasse and Am Hof.
The second solution is the radii of indents from historical development to preserve viewpoints. The largest radius (r = 35 m) needs to depart from vertical architectural dominant - columns for its visual perception. All this led to a Г-shape of the development spot with the allocation of a pedestrian connection.
The second step is the need to preserve the ability to review the historic buildings surrounding the square.
The most appropriate solution was to round the corners of the building spot. Although this volume is in contrast to the surroundings, its presence does not disrupt the integrity of the composition.
There is also a limitation of the height of the volume, which does not exceed the maximum parameters of neighbouring historical buildings. Among other things, the rounded volume practically does not interfere with the view of the historical facades behind it. The eye of the observer flows around it, without meeting obstacles in the form of corners and solid planes.
The third step is the creation of a modern image of the school of arts. Despite the need for an original solution in the design of this object, it is also worth taking into account the place of design - the centre of the city square in historical development.
To increase the area inside the building itself and preserve the spot of development on the ground, it was decided to expand the volume by 1 m on the last floor of the facility.
The next stage of the design is the analysis of materials, colour and texture solutions of the surrounding development, as well as the analysis of the metric and rhythmic composition of the historical environment.
A neutral light shade brick was chosen as the first material, which would not conflict with the surrounding facades. It is applied on the side of the square, which allows not to divert attention from architectural dominant and serves as a neutral background to historical development. Each building has its own meter and rhythm, however, most have a pronounced vertical axis, it was decided to design an average vertical membership of the facades, to maintain the overall architectural expressiveness of the historical development.
The second material uses mirrored aluminium panels on opposite sides of the square to sense the subtle nuances of historic buildings.
At this stage, it was decided to turn the volume with the mirror panels at the top by 5 degree to create an interesting refraction game of reflections. By reflection, the facade of the building depicts opposite facades that appear to be refracted, as in the kaleidoscope, due to slightly different tilting of the panels. Thus, the new building is a paradoxical effect of both the strong presence and absence there. It turns out to be a kind of natural "media platform" which constantly changes - depending on the time of year or even weather: after rain for some time there are beautiful sweats, after severe frost - unique patterns.
