Design tower

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Design tower
Design tower
The building at Praterstrasse  1
Basic data
Place: Vienna , Austria
Construction time : 2007-2010
Opening: December 13, 2010
Status : completed
Architect : Jean Nouvel
Use / legal
Usage : Hotel, restaurants, shops, bar
Room : 182 (including 26 suites)
Owner : Uniqa insurance
Technical specifications
Height : 75 m
Height to the top: 75 m
Floors : 19 floors, several basement floors
Elevators : 17th
Usable area : 53,000 m²
Floor area : 1,150 m²
Enclosed space : 225,000 m³
Height comparison
Vienna : 33. ( list )
address
City: Vienna

The Design Tower , colloquially known as Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom ( Sofitel for short ), is a high-rise in the 2nd district of Vienna , Leopoldstadt . In 2010, the building, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel , was inaugurated as the Nouvel Tower .

The building at Praterstrasse 1 was built on a prominent building site in the city center: by the Schwedenbrücke over the Danube Canal , between Praterstrasse and Taborstrasse . Uniqa Versicherungen AG is the builder and owner . The Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom hotel occupies the majority of the building .

history

Construction site

1962–2006 existing building of the federal state insurance

The building site on the corner of Praterstrasse / Taborstrasse in Vienna's Leopoldstadt is exactly opposite the historic city ​​center . The Schwedenplatz on the other bank of the Danube Canal is station of the subway lines U1 and U4 and the tram lines 1 and 2, are located in close proximity to the departure points of the Twin City Liner to Bratislava / Bratislava and the ÖBB buses to Vienna Airport and the Badeschiff in the Danube Canal.

Since Taborstrasse is the oldest street in today's 2nd district and the striking bridge over the Danube (today's Danube Canal) to the walled city was named here as early as 1464 , the immediate vicinity of the building site has been used for tourist functions for centuries. In 1591 the Einkehrgasthof Zum golden Lamm was located on a part of the current building site (Praterstrasse 7), and on another part (Taborstrasse 4) the former Hotel Zum Weisse Schwan ; The two accommodation companies were combined or expanded on the occasion of the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873 to later become the Hotel Continental (200 rooms, hall for 600 people, coffee house). a. Otto von Bismarck descended. In 1945 the hotel was badly damaged in the Battle of Vienna and was never rebuilt. During these fighting, almost all of the buildings on both sides of the central section of the Danube Canal were badly damaged or destroyed by artillery fire, which is why the contemporary architecture here has particularly shaped the cityscape since 1945.

1959–1962 the building of the federal state insurance, a steel and glass construction, was built on the construction site according to plans by Georg Lippert ; there were shops on the first floor. The insurance later merged with today's Uniqa insurance, which had its headquarters here from 1999-2004. After the completion of the nearby Uniqa Tower , the new headquarters of the group, the building, which was completed in 1962, became inoperable. Uniqa therefore had plans drawn up for a new economic use of the property and decided to build this hotel and commercial building.

draft

Jean Nouvel's design for the building was the result of a two-stage architectural competition organized by Uniqa. Nouvel put a tower on top of a multi-storey base structure; the connection between the base and the tower is created by a winter garden that tapers towards the top and extends over three floors. The tower seems to lean slightly to the left, towards Taborstrasse, so that, in the client's opinion, it looks like the counterpart on the other side of the street, the Generali Media Tower , which was also inclined towards Taborstrasse according to plans by Hans Hollein in 1994-2000 Forms portal to Leopoldstadt.

construction

The building under construction (June 2009); on the left the Generali Media Tower by Hans Hollein

The construction of the hotel and business building between 2007 and 2010 represented "an architectural and structural challenge". For this purpose, the Arge Stahlbau PS1, consisting of the companies Zeman and Strabag , developed "a unique and extraordinary assembly method":

A base building with a ground floor and five upper floors was built. Two complete support floors, each with around 450 m² and a total weight of around 1600 t, were assembled near the ground and the associated reinforced concrete ceilings were concreted to such an extent that the construction of the remaining eleven floors began after they were lifted to the final height (max. 27 m) using the hydraulic system the 8th floor was possible without further shelter. The steel support structure for the 13-storey tower was erected between September 2008 and July 2009.

Use and ownership

On December 4, 2010, the Stilwerk company opened its exhibition rooms (design center) on the first four floors. The Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom hotel opened on December 14, 2010 and takes up most of the building.

In June 2016, the owner, Uniqa Versicherungen, announced plans to sell. The real estate service provider JLL was commissioned with the sale. In February 2017, the sales process was declared over because Uniqa decided not to sell. In the course of this, it became known that closing the Sofitel was not an option, but that the Stilwerk designer shopping center would withdraw from the Austrian market for strategic reasons. Stilwerk closed permanently as of August 2017.

At the beginning of February 2017, plans for the construction of a start-up center by a group of investors in the Design Tower were also published. The opening is planned for the late summer of 2017.

structure

Panorama restaurant with a light ceiling by Pipilotti Rist on the 18th floor

The 75 m high building has a gross floor space of 53,000 m² with the following structure (from top to bottom):

tower

  • 18th floor: Panorama restaurant ( the loft with a light ceiling by Pipilotti Rist , restaurant with bar & lounge, opened as Le Loft )
  • 6-17 1st floor: Hotel Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom (five stars) of the Accor hotel group , 182 rooms (including 26 suites)

Base structure

  • 5th floor: Spa and wellness facilities (Spa & Fitness) , winter garden
  • 4th floor: nine conference rooms of the hotel, winter garden
  • 3rd floor: Stilwerk design center (until 2017), winter garden
  • 1st and 2nd floor: Stilwerk (until 2017)
  • Ground floor: Stilwerk (until 2017), hotel lobby
  • Basement: garage with 239 parking spaces

Architectural criticism

Design Tower at night (from the Carmelite Quarter )

The Viennese architecture critics commented inconsistently on the building after the opening. From Schwedenplatz and Taborstraße Jan Tabor sees “a huge designer ski boot” or a “huge tomb made of a comfortingly dark material”. He describes the shape of the building as “clumsy and yet chic”. The side facing Leopoldstadt is "very beautiful, especially at night". Tabor sums up the “change of contradicting perceptions” in the sentence “They are strange, the buildings by Jean Nouvel”.

Holleins Media Tower on the left, Design Tower on the right (from the Schwedenbrücke , with the Barmherzigenkirche in the middle in the background)

"The well-placed Nouvel-Kombibau, although it does not reach the quality of the exuberant Hollein Collagebau by a long way, is spreading here, pushing forward [...]." According to some, the " Stadttor ”considers Tabor to be“ the product of an anachronistic, picturesque town planning ideology from the Camillo custom time ”,“ an urban platitude, a townscape kitsch ”. “Holleins Bau is a playful collage, Nouvels Bau a spirit-free cocktail.” Twenty years ago, Nouvel would have been in the “international zeitgeist” with this design; today it is “a piece of retro modernism” that will hopefully not become “a trendsetter” .

Maik Novotny deals with the “ambitious puzzle of volumes and surfaces” much more gently. At the beginning he reminds us that in 1995 Jean Nouvel lost the competition for the neighboring Media Tower to Hollein, who realized a “coherent collage” here. In the now completed building, Nouvel won the competition against Hollein. The hotel wing balances "like an erratic block on the five-storey, diagonally cut plinth". Nouvels Bau shows "like a double Janus head in every direction a completely different face". The building is “most spectacular” at dusk and at night: “Here, the 'almost nothing' changes into a brightly colored something”. Thanks to the light installation by Pipilotti Rist, the restaurant ceiling on the 18th floor floats "like a flying carpet in the Vienna sky".

literature

  • Wojciech Czaja, Peter Rigaud: Light / Night - The Nouvel Tower in Vienna. Brandstätter, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85033-502-7 .
  • Keazor, Henry : “'(...) un plan plane pour révéler l'apparition-disparition'. Visual interfaces in the architecture of Jean Nouvels ”, in: Display │Dispositiv. Aesthetic Orders , ed. by Ursula Frohne, Lilian Haberer and Annette Urban, Leiden / Boston / Singapore / Paderborn 2019, pp. 431–448

Web links

Commons : Uniqa Nouvel-Tower  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ * See information from Uniqa, u. a .:
    Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ The new Nouvel Tower - an extraordinary contribution to Viennese architecture . APA-OTS, press release from Uniqa Insurance AG, December 13, 2010, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Nouvel Tower opened . ORF, December 13, 2010, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  4. ↑ To the golden lamb in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  5. ^ About the white swan in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  6. ^ Hotel Continental in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  7. ↑ Websites about the construction project Praterstrasse 1 ( Memento from September 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Website of Uniqa Insurance AG.
  8. ↑ a b c Base construction with a unique assembly method . In: Bauzeitung , March 31, 2009, issue 13/09, p. 6, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  9. ↑ Christian Salzer among others: UNIQA PS1 - A high-rise made of steel . In: Stahlbau , Volume 78, No. 10, October 2009, pp. 750–757, doi : 10.1002 / stab.200910090 .
  10. ^ Meinhard Roller, Christian Salzer: The steel structure of the UNIQA building in Vienna . In: Bauingenieur , No. 10/2009, pp. 401–408.
  11. ↑ Michaela Knapp: In the middle of the second: The new stilwerk on the Vienna Danube Canal . In: trend.at , November 29, 2010, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  12. ↑ Sofitel luxury hotel opens on the Danube Canal. In: Der Standard , November 28, 2010, accessed August 13, 2017.
  13. ↑ Ann Kathrin Hermes: Design Tower on the Danube Canal is not for sale . In: Die Presse , February 8, 2017, print edition February 9, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  14. ↑ New start-up center for Vienna . In: Die Presse , February 3, 2017, print edition February 4, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  15. ^ Claudia Zettel, Patrick Dax: Vienna is getting the largest start-up center in Central Europe . In: futurezone.at , February 3, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  16. ↑ UNIQA: Spectacular building scene in Praterstrasse 1 . APA-OTS, press release from Uniqa Insurance AG, February 26, 2009, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  17. ↑ Christine Imlinger: Vienna: A tower full of design - on sale . In: Die Presse , June 8, 2016, print edition June 9, 2016, accessed on August 13, 2017.
  18. ^ Martin Stuhlpfarrer: Design hotel and furniture on the canal. In: Die Presse , April 1, 2008, accessed September 18, 2009.
  19. ↑ Jan Tabor: The kaleidoscope. Giving presents on the Danube Canal . In: Falter , No. 50, December 15, 2010, pp. 44 f., Accessed on August 13, 2017.
  20. ↑ Maik Novotny: How difficult is nothing? In: Der Standard , December 17, 2010, print edition of December 18, 2010, supplement album , p. A4, accessed on August 13, 2017.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 46.4 "  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 47.8"  E