Garden city of Puchenau

The garden city of Puchenau seen from the opposite side of the Danube

Garden City I

The garden city Puchenau is a residential complex planned by Roland Rainer in Puchenau ( Upper Austria ), which is based on the idea of the garden city concept and was built in a total of three components from 1963 to 2000 along the Danube between Au and the joint route of Rohrbacher Straße and Mühlkreisbahn .

history

Since the first component, which was realized from 1963 to 1968, the goal has been the optimal social and economic conception of a compact low-rise building . This should be achieved by testing minimum parcel sizes, economical development of the system through narrow, lightly paved footpaths, underground garages, energy supply by means of solar systems , hot water preparation by solar collectors , secluded private outdoor spaces and garden courtyards, natural green spaces and small structures in the development. The infrastructure includes after-school care center, kindergarten, elementary and secondary school, church , doctors, shops and playgrounds. In addition, the Mühlkreisbahn connects the residential complex with the provincial capital Linz, which is only 5 or 7 minutes away by train, by means of two stops in the garden city (“Puchenau” and “Puchenau West”) .

In the context of scientific evaluations from 1973, the garden city of Puchenau was given a positive report with regard to economic viability , psychological effects and social coexistence , which means that the compact low-rise complex is in contrast to other large housing estates such as high-rise complexes such as Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis ( Missouri ), can be regarded as a success. For Rainer, the skyscraper always represented a place of residence, from which the residents flee to their second home in the country on the weekend.

In 1978 the second part of the garden city of Puchenau began. Here, however, instead of building with concrete , hollow brick was used again for the masonry .

A few years before Rainer's death, the third component was finally built from 1998 to 2000.

The entire facility was commissioned by the non-profit housing association Neue Heimat . Some of the apartments or terraced houses are owned by the residents, and some are rented by Neue Heimat .

During the three stages of building the garden city, Puchenau grew into a community with over 1000 apartments.