Residential Park Neue Donau

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Residential Park Neue Donau
The distinctive Neue Donau high-rise building northeast of the Neue Donau residential park

The Neue Donau residential park is a residential complex in Vienna's 22nd district, Donaustadt , which is funded by the City of Vienna and was built between 1993 and 1998, including the planning phase, based on a design by the Australian-Austrian architect Harry Seidler .

The residential park, located on the plateau of the Danube embankment motorway , consists of a total of seven apartment blocks, which are arranged at an angle to each other to ensure an unobstructed view of the Danube. The complex was built with 533 apartments, common rooms, garages, a kindergarten and a cinema complex. Next to it is the Neue Donau high-rise , which was also planned by Harry Seidler and is kept in the same style as the residential park itself.

Location description

The Neue Donau residential park extends on the left bank of the Danube along the Rudolf Nurejew Promenade. Due to the location on the New Danube and the proximity to the Danube Island, there is a high level of recreational value and good accessibility. In addition, the area is connected to Vienna's public transport network with the U1 underground line at the Kaisermühlen VIC station at the end of the Reichsbrücke . Along the banks of the Danube, there are further examples of important urban development projects in the 22nd district of Vienna with the UNO City , the Donau City and the DC Towers . At the same time, the residential park is in the spatial and historical context of the traditional Viennese community housing , which is represented by the Goethehof and the Marschallhof with its three residential towers directly behind the complex.

Building land and urban development

The origin of the construction site of the Neue Donau residential park goes back a long way to the first Viennese Danube regulation between 1870 and 1875 and the second Viennese Danube regulation from 1972 to 1988, during which the Danube Island was raised in the course of the flood protection project , creating the New Danube as a relief channel. These measures made it possible to develop the former floodplain. The Vienna urban development plan of the 1990s ( STEP 94 ) contained a strong increase in construction projects and densification concepts that permanently changed the cityscape. A major project in this was the overplating of the Danube bank A22 motorway and the resulting Kaisermühlen tunnel . The eight-lane carriageway was spanned over a length of 2,150 meters with the help of concrete girders and covered with box-girder ceiling panels. The overplating and the associated gain in space was related to the unsuccessful planning of the Expo 95 . Since the City of Vienna wanted to organize a world exhibition in 1995 in collaboration with Budapest , it began to expand the area around the UN City . After numerous preparatory work had been carried out, the Viennese decided in a referendum in May 1991 against hosting the world exhibition. The expansion of the banks of the New Danube remained an integral part of Vienna's urban development plan, also with the aim of binding the inner city closer to the Danube and enhancing the value of the part of Vienna on the other side of the Danube. The Donaucity and the Copa Cagrana to the north and the Neue Donau residential park and the Neue Donau high-rise to the south of the Reichsbrücke were then built on the surface of the overplating .

Historical context

The Viennese urban development plan and the Viennese municipal housing development of the 1990s were subject to a strong socio-political change and had to meet its requirements. Due to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and later Austria's accession to the EU , the city received a new geopolitical position: Vienna moved from its easternmost point of view in the western world to the center of Europe. This changed position was also reflected in new, large projects, such as the planning of the 1995 Expo . In addition, the need for subsidized housing increased, as there was an unexpected increase in population - on the one hand due to increased immigration due to the Yugoslav wars and on the other hand due to the opening of Austria on the eastern borders. The Neue Donau residential park construction project was therefore due to the need for new living space and was also part of the upgrading of the area on the left bank of the Danube.

Procurement

The architect Harry Seidler , who was born in Vienna, was expelled from Austria in 1938 because of his Jewish origins, is based in Australia and works internationally, was commissioned for the Neue Donau residential park. After the City of Vienna awarded him the Golden Medal for his services to architecture in 1989, the City Councilor for Urban Planning and Urban Development Hannes Swoboda asked him in 1993 whether he could draw up a master plan for the area on the New Danube that had been gained by plating the A22 urban motorway . As a result, the architect not only made an urban planning draft, but also designed the entire residential complex. The construction project was not only located on one of the most sought-after building sites in the city, but was also intended to mark a high point in Seidler's work, because at no other point in his career was one of his comprehensive master plans implemented one-to-one - this fact honored him. Manfred Nehrer and Reinhard Medek acted as contact architects for the seven-part building complex, as well as Marco Ostertag for the associated cinema center and Moser architects for the Neue Donau high-rise that was later built.

Construction program and developer

The Neue Donau residential park was realized by the property developer ARWAG, which mainly belongs to the City of Vienna and Bank Austria . Two other developers were brought in, each with a stake of 30%: BAI and SEG. This development cooperation resulted in a mixture of subsidized rental apartments and subsidized and privately financed condominiums. This division is in the sense of a social mix and thus a common approach in social housing in Vienna in the 1990s. Today these subsidies have already expired and the apartments belong to 210 private owners who can now rent them out with free rent.

Since the Neue Donau residential park was financed with municipal subsidies, Harry Seidler was bound by many building specifications. A total of 533 apartments were created, which, as determined by the Housing Department of the City of Vienna, comprise 54 m², 75 m² and 90 m². The type with two bedrooms on 75 m² is most common. Except for the smallest apartments, all apartments have their own balcony or private garden. In addition, a few non-subsidized units with 130 m² were created, which are located on the top floors and are connected to private roof terraces.

In addition, the building complex includes common rooms, a kindergarten with access to the Danube promenade, a police station and a cinema center at the head of the Reichsbrücke. The latter has meanwhile been torn down again as it turned out to be unprofitable. The Danube Flats are now to be built on the newly gained area .

architecture

A first development study from 1993 by Viennese urban planning shows the plan of a classic perimeter block development , in which hardly any apartment would have had a clear view of the Danube and in which the residential towers of the Marschallhof behind would have lost their view.

Point high-rise of the Marschallhof
In the Neue Donau residential park with a view of one of the high-rise buildings of the Marschallhof

Harry Seidler decided on a different solution. The three primary goals of his design were already visible in his first concept sketch. The seven apartment blocks of different lengths, which were arranged at different angles to one another in the open field, not only gave their residents an undisturbed view of the Danube, but also ensured this for the 15-storey high-rise buildings of the Marschallhof behind them . Thirdly, the inclination made it possible to distribute the load over a large area on the girders of the motorway cladding, increasing the height of the buildings from a maximum of six to a maximum of nine floors. By stepping the building parts in the direction of the bank, both the unobstructed view and the load distribution were optimized. Harry Seidler also let the area slope down towards the Danube promenade, creating different heights for the generous open spaces with views of the water. The three-storey underground car park, which was attached to the motorway below the residential complex, also served to develop the otherwise car-free area. The outdoor area was divided into public, semi-public and private zones with one meter high, white painted, curved walls without interrupting the wide lines of sight.

As a counterpart to the garden walls, the balconies, which dominate the façade, are composed of vertical wave forms. This is not only for design reasons, but also for practical reasons, because the total area of ​​the balconies could not exceed a certain size in order to be subsidized. The architect wanted to make optimal use of the space and therefore opted for the curved shape, as this creates enough space to sit on the broad side, while the narrow end is sufficient for stepping out. With the help of dotted glass parapets, the unobstructed view from all balconies was secured without being exposed to the promenade visitors, which also avoided the individual privacy protection of residents, which architects feared.

On some blocks of flats in the Neue Donau residential park there are aluminum reliefs by the designer Lin Utzon

In addition to the white colors and the clear building edges, the use of ribbon windows and the round staircases to the roof terraces can be counted among motifs of classic modernism .

architectural art

The link between architecture and art was a constant part of Harry Seidler's designs. In the case of the Neue Donau residential park, the artist and daughter of the architect Jørn Utzon , Lin Utzon, was commissioned to design the art on site at the architect's request . She designed abstract, amorphous aluminum reliefs that can be associated with leaves or waves. These huge applications, some of which are coated with gold, can be found on the narrow sides of some apartment blocks and on the Neue Donau high-rise, which was built later, and strengthen the link between the individual buildings.

The artistic work thus also reflected the principles of Harry Seidler. Despite the clear, abstract, radically modern shape of his buildings, he managed to maintain the connection to the surroundings shaped by the river and thus achieved his own goals for good architecture. “ I like architecture to be a crystal clear, sculptural, proud thing that stands in nature, in contrast to it visually but very much appreciating nature. "(German:" I want architecture to be a crystal clear, sculptural, proud thing that stands in nature, in contrast to it, but extremely appreciative. ")

literature

  • Philip Drew, Kenneth Frampton: Harry Seidler. Four Decades of Architecture , London 1992, ISBN 0-500-97838-7 .
  • Wolfgang Förster: Social Housing - Innovative Architecture. Harry Seidler: Wohnpark Neue Donau Wien , Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7913-2703-8 .
  • Hans Melzer, Rudolf Rinner: A22 - Donauuferautobahn overplating in the area of ​​the Marshallhof , in: The structure. Perspektiven, 7/8, 1997, pp. 107-111.
  • Urban Development Vienna MA 21C - District Planning and Land Use Northeast, MA 18 - Urban Development and Urban Planning (Ed.): Vienna, Danube Region. Der Stand der Dinge , Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-902015-35-7 .
  • Urban Planning Vienna MA 18 - Urban Development and Urban Planning (Ed.): Wien Städtebau. Der Stand der Dinge , Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-902015-23-3 .
  • Birgit Trinker: Vienna district handbooks. 22nd district Donaustadt , Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85431-231-8 .
  • Maria Welzig, Gerhard Steixner: The architecture and me. A balance sheet of Austrian architecture since 1945 conveyed by its protagonists , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-205-99316-0 .
  • Karl Zillinger: The series archive images. Vienna-Donaustadt , Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-451-7 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Zillinger 2008, p. 7.
  2. ↑ cf. Urban development Vienna 2001, p. 59.
  3. ↑ cf. Urban planning Vienna 2000, p. 15.
  4. ^ Förster: Social Housing - Innovative Architecture . 2002, p. 41 : “Structural engineering: Slab over the motorway: the eight-lane Danube bank motorway is bridged by three-meter-high concrete girders with a maximum span of 27 meters at a distance of three meters. The space between the upper and lower ceiling panels accommodates the elevator pits and cellar compartments for the apartments. Due to the inclination of the building blocks, a more economical load distribution is achieved. "
  5. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, p. 34, cf. Urban planning Vienna 2000, p. 11.
  6. ↑ cf. Urban planning Vienna 2000, p. 9.
  7. ↑ cf. Dellora 2016, min. 49: 49-51: 04.
  8. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, p. 36
  9. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, p. 36
  10. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, p. 37
  11. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, p. 34
  12. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, pp. 35-36
  13. ↑ cf. Steixner / Welzig 2003, pp. 88-89.
  14. ↑ cf. O'Neill 2014
  15. ↑ cf. Förster 2002, pp. 39-40.
  16. ↑ Dellora 2016, min. 02: 00-02: 11

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 45 ″  N , 16 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  E