City: Vienna

JAspern - Cohousing in Vienna

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JAspern - Cohousing in Vienna

Promotion and production Self-management Self-construction Cooperatives

Main objectives of the project

In Seestadt Aspern, located in Vienna, certain areas were designated for construction groups, leading to the implementation of a cohousing project by the JAspern construction group. This project consists of 18 residential units and stands out as one of the pioneering participatory housing initiatives in Seestadt Aspern. Noteworthy features include adherence to the highest energy standards, akin to passive house levels, as well as exceptional user comfort. Furthermore, the project embraces an innovative socio-cultural approach to community living and boasts a comprehensive building ecology concept, making it a well-rounded success.

Date

  • 2014: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: POS

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Vienna boasts a rich history of social housing, yet experiences of cohousing are relatively uncommon. JAspern represents a departure from the norm, paving the way for new community-building approaches. Remarkably, this project is not led by a traditional developer but rather by a collective of 18 pioneering families who collaborated closely with architects and constructors to bring their vision to life.

The building itself adheres to rigorous PassivHouse standards, ensuring exceptional quality. Notably, features such as point-supported ceilings, a flexible facade grid, and spacious room heights of 2.8 meters enhance adaptability in terms of usage, apartment layouts, and room sizes. Urban ecological considerations are also prominent, with provisions for urban gardening and extensive green roof areas. At the heart of the building lies a vibrant roof terrace equipped with a meeting lounge, a launderette, and spaces for urban gardening, fostering daily activities such as gardening, grilling, socializing, and celebrations.

Furthermore, JAspern served as a testing ground for the quality assurance tool "monitor aspern seestadt," underscoring its commitment to ongoing improvement and innovation. The building features a central ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery and individual volume flow control in each apartment. Energy supply is bivalent, utilizing both district heating and heat pumps.

Facilitating community engagement is the JAspern salon, a versatile multifunctional space standing at four meters high and optimized acoustically and climatically. This space, capable of accommodating up to 60 people, serves as a hub for both the house community and external individuals, hosting a diverse range of activities and events. Additionally, the building incorporates amenities such as a communal workshop, conveniently accessible via a ramp from the courtyard, and a bicycle garage located in the bustling basement area.

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Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Co-Housing Vienna

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Co-Housing Vienna

Policies and regulations
Financing
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

In the center of Vienna, in the so called Nordbahnhofgelände, an incubator of sustainable urban living is created: the Co-housing Vienna - Wohnprojekt Wien. The Co-housing project was finalised on December 2013, it consists of 39 apartment units, and it is located in an attractive newly developed, urban area.

Date

  • 2013: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Markus Pendlmayr
  • Architect: Markus Zilker
  • Architect: Katharina Bayer

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria

Description

The heart of the project is a self-organised community and the shared dream to live together in the city in a sustainable, collaborative and open-minded way. This way started from the very beginning with the participatory planning process of the communal spaces and the individual apartment units, continued with the creation of an alternative mobility system, a communal garden for the neighborhood, and ended up with the communal ownership of the building, in other words with active participation during all the levels of the projectŽs development.
One of the greatest challenges of the project was to achieve high individualisation inside the frames of community and to express it in terms of architectural design. Several communal spaces offer the possibility for exchange and communication while the individual apartment units can be spaces for retreat. The communicative architecture of the building promotes free and spontaneous encounters. The apartments and the common spaces were developed and designed from the very begining under the cooperation of the architects and the residents, allowing in this way alternative modes of living and flexible uses. The common spaces consist of the guest apartments, a sauna on the roof and on the lower floors, a communal kitchen, workshops and event rooms including a playroom for children. The project is hosting different models of living and working, multiple generations and diverse cultures under the same roof. The building is planned with almost passive-house standards and consists of a massive construction body with a wooden facade.

Size of the site: 4.783m²

Size of the building: 5.300m²
The energy efficiency is supported by a mechanical ventilation system with temperature controlled through groundwater and a photovoltaic installation on the rooftop.

At the end the Co-housing Vienna is a model for a new way of living in the city of Vienna.

Authors:

Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona

Centre for Secure Housing of Vienna – securing tenancies and preventing evictions

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Centre for Secure Housing of Vienna – securing tenancies and preventing evictions

Policies and regulations

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 1996:

Stakeholders

  • Fachstelle für Wohnungssicherung

Location

City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

There are many agencies, both public and civil society, designed to supervise the private rental sector and improve the tenant security. In Vienna, to prevent evictions and ensure fair tenancy procedures, the Centre for Secure Housing (Fachstelle für Wohnungssicherung – FAWOS) was established in 1996 to provide rapid, efficient help to persons facing eviction. It is an agency of the Department of Social Affairs, Social and Health Law of the city of Vienna.

Links

Authors:

Gleis 21 – We bring the village to the city

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Gleis 21 – We bring the village to the city

Urban Design

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2021: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: einszueins architektur
  • Architect:  YEWO LANDSCAPES GmbH
  • Constructor: Weissenseer Holz-System-Bau GmbH 

Location

City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Under the motto “Setting the course together”, the co-housing project Gleis 21 was planned in a participatory manner with the future residents, from urban development to the socket outlet. The property is located in the center of the new urban development area “Leben am Helmut Zilk Park” near the Vienna Central Station („Hauptbahnhof Wien“). The project and the cultural association of the same name want to contribute to the development of the district. Communication within and outward, is key at Gleis 21.

The co-housing project Gleis 21 builds on three major principles: “living in solidarity”, “indulging cleverly”, and “creating with media”. Solidarity is lived in a variety of ways, be it simple neighborhood services or a Solidarityfund for personal emergencies. Lived solidarity also includes certain appartements, that were planned in cooperation with Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst (a refugee aid organization), that can be given to refugees.

To help shape the cultural, social and media life in the newly developed quarter, a cooperation with Radio Orange, Okto TV and Stadkino Wien (cinema) was formed. The cultural Organization Gleis 21 is going to ensure a steady cultural program adapted to and in unison with its surroundings. A music-school on the lower floor rounds out the cultural scope of opportunity.
Extensive communal areas represent the focus of the communal aspect and offer space for common and individual use: from the communal kitchen to the library and sauna on the top floor to the workshop, studio and fitness room in the basement. The selection and details of community-spaces were made by the residents and form the center of communal aspects of the project.

The project was designed as a compact, zero-energy house („Niedrigstenergiehaus“) in a wood-hybrid construction and was built in a resources saving way.

The individually planned housing-units on the upper four floors are accessed via an open north-west-facing arcade and are all equipped with private balconies. The neutral and flexible structure of the building enabled each unit to be planned individually in collaboration with its residents

Authors:

Performative Brise- Soleil

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Performative Brise- Soleil

Urban Design Services and infrastructure Liveability

Main objectives of the project

The Performative Brise-Soleil transforms a challenging housing location into a space of abundance. It is part of an urban neighborhood offering affordable housing, social amenities, and commercial spaces. The vertical organization within the building allows for diverse flat types, including cluster-living and housing cooperatives. The Performative Brise-Soleil, a vertical "garden-shelf," creates a three-dimensional sphere of free space while serving as a noise shield. It acts as a parametric sculpture along the highway, deflecting noise and providing access to the apartments. The concrete structure reflects the building's inner complexity and incorporates open and closed surfaces. The use of climbing plants adds a layer of greenery to the building over time.

Date

  • 2018: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: StudioVlayStreeruwitz ZT-GMBH

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Translating constraints into spatial abundancy: Vertical free space for subsidized housing The architectural invention of the Performative Brise-Soleil turns an “impossible” housing location into exciting spatial opportunities, undermining the scarce realm of subsidized housing with abundant free spaces. The project is part of a new urban neighbourhood offering affordable housing (about 600 rental apartments) with additional social, educational and commercial uses in the ground floor. The bar-type (156 apts) forms the neighbourhood’s western edge, shielding off the highway-noise from the inner-area. Its ground floor provides a kindergarten, a workshop for handicapped people, a communal gym-space, and an office for caretakers of homeless people.

The complex vertical organisation within the bar allows for the stacking of diverse flat types, enabling a wide range of living-models, including cluster-living and housing cooperatives. The complexity’s common denominator is the Performative Brise-Soleil: a vertical “garden-shelf”, whose significant concrete structure converts the protective idea of a noise-shield into a 3-dimensional sphere of experiencing free space.

The Performative Brise-Soleil is a design-coup, which converts the defensive obligation of noise-protection into an inviting cosmos of co-living: the combination of type-mutation (vertical differentiation), landscape-infiltration, and living diversity transforms the noise-shield-bar into a socially sustainable and spatially generous vertical neighbourhood. Along the highway the Brise-Soleil represents itself as a parametric sculpture meticulously designed for orchestrating the proximity between highway and living. On the lower levels, a specific configuration of patios and balconies deflects the noise. Above, open access corridors, accompanied by sliding glass elements and storage boxes, offer both access and free space to the apartments, via bridges, framing single atriums above the “commons”, a generous neighbourhood-terrace on 5th floor. The Brise-Soleil reflects the curved building’s inner complexity: a stacking of different flat-types and landscapes, provoking synergies for a mixed housing program, which, aside from usual living models, involves housing-cooperatives, cluster-living, and special forms of generation-living. Construction and materiality emphasize the vertical diversity of flat-types. The concrete structure is used to extrapolate vertical diversity: the bar type’s depth alternates between 13 and 23m. Spatially, structurally and physically, the face of the Performative Brise-Soleil is the most significant element, hiding and expressing the building’s inner complexity at the same time. Its texture of open and closed surfaces consists of concrete as the main ingredient, reflecting the concept of adding value to a realm of scarcity. The concrete’s surfaces alternate between rough/raw, as created by the nonchalance of the construction-team, and elegant/noble, provided by a prefabricated relief of irregular vertical lines. Single glazing is discretely inserted for noise protection where necessary. Along the common terrace runs a plant-trough made of galvanized steel that accentuates the gentle curve of the building. From this trough, climbing plants grow along vertical cables, continuing the personalized greenery from the lower balconies and patios, which in time will cover the building with a layer of leaves, adding a secondary materiality.

Authors:

Europan – Wien, Austria

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Europan – Wien, Austria

Mismatches
Policies and regulations
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2022: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Arenas Basabe Palacios arquitectos

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Arenas Basabe Palacios was runner-up with their project Urban Software to E12 competition. Their project proposed a strategy prioritising the process over the final result, based on the generation of a flexible support able to react to the various scales and context conditions. This award allowed them to take part in the design of the Siemensäcker urban planning for a new 8 hectares residential neighbourhood in the north of Vienna. This urban project was developed through a collaborative process with a dozen or so offices of experts in urbanism, architecture, landscape, mobility, energy,etc.

Once the masterplan was passed in December 2016, the owner of the land (Austrian Real State) commissioned us with the design of 65 housing units, distributed in three blocks of different dimensions (sizes S, M, L).

The project takes advantage of the different building scales and free spaces foreseen in the planning to connect itself to the diverse urban fabrics that surround it and to adapt to the topography and landscape. The scale of the buildings is attenuated thanks to the volumes that project outwards from the façade, which also stablish specific relationships with the surrounding elements, spaces and axes. In parallel to the design of the architecture, we are still involved in the ‘Qualitätenkatalog’- the group of experts that collectively define the qualities of the free space, the landscape, the common parking space and the management of the non-residential uses of the neighbourhood. In this manner, individual decisions are made based on collective work, and vice versa: it is thus a design process that unifies the disciplines of the architecture and urbanism, establishing guidelines at building and neighbourhood scales simultaneously.

Each housing unit is organized around a nucleus of furniture, which integrates within every storage, installation and serving unit. Thanks to this, all living spaces are connected to the exterior, reserving for the ‘day area’ (kitchen-sitting room-dinning room) the area wich will enjoy, due to its two orientations, the most daylight hours.

Links

Authors:

Wien, Austria

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Wien, Austria_1

Wien, Austria

Mismatches
Policies and regulations
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2012: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: ex Studio uek
  • Architect: ARGEbKöb&Pollak + Alexander Schmoeger
  • Architect: goya ZT

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

After the competition, the team engaged in discussions with various stakeholders, including Wien Holding, GESIBA (the housing cooperative), the district head, and the Europan secretary. They refined their ideas and concepts and considered rezoning the area but ultimately decided to make slight adjustments to the urban plan instead. The project was approved to be realized under the Wienese Subsidised Housing framework, leading to the division of the site into three parts and the initiation of another competition called Bauträgerwettbewerb. Studio uek was invited to build one part of the project and contribute to the competition brief. Additional experts were involved to address landscape architecture and participation, resulting in rules and regulations that complemented the existing zoning. The project focused on urban porosity and connecting the housing project with the surrounding area. Two other teams were selected to build the remaining parts, each with their own housing concepts. Studio uek constructed 171 housing units, including sheltered housing and a geriatric day center, and incorporated common spaces and a roof-top route that connects the three parts. The participative activation process allowed residents to define programs for smaller communal spaces and participate in the management of rooftop flowerbeds and gardens. Just after the competition, the team entered in a discussion phase with several actors included Wien Holding, the head of the housing cooperative GESIBA, the head of the district and Europan secretary. They had to sharpen their ideas and their concepts. It was also discussed whether the team should consider rezoning the area but then they decided that through a slight translation of the urban plan without really losing a lot of the qualities, they could avoid this time consuming process. At the end of this first phase it was decided that the project should be realized within the framework of the Wienese Subsidised Housing, which meant that the site should be divided into three smaller parts and thar another competition called Bauträgerwettbewerb should take a place. The team was invited both to build one part of this project and to contribute to elaborate the competition brief. In order to pursue their idea from Europan competition, the team involved additional experts for landscape architecture and for participation and all together they formulated additional rules and regulations for this competition brief, which should complement the existing zoning. These rules concerned the configutation of the whole project, but also the character of the garden courtyard, the rooftop route, several main common spaces in each project part and thar should be included in each project a participative activation process.

Studio uek worked on this specific element of urban porosity, on connecting points between the outside road, the surroundings and the inside world of the housing project. Two Austrian teams were selected to build the two other parts of the area. The first one (ARGE Köb&Pollak / Alexander Schmoeger) on the North side worked on experimental housing providing apartments from a very small size like 30m2 up to big shared apartments. The second team (goya ZT GmbH), in the South part, focused on young and urban housing with a lot of sports and leisure facilities inside the housing project. Studio uek built 171 housing (of which 30 are sheltered housing) + a geriatric day centre. The three built parts have some common spaces dedicated, for some of them, to support the small community of the building and for some other, to offer possibilities to inhabitants of the whole project (like the “play and celebration space” in the studio uek part). A roof-top-route links the three built parts offering also collective spaces (like tenants flowerbeds, glass house, summer kitchen…)

The participative activation process allowed inhabitants to define the programs for smaller common spaces and they were also involved in the management of the flowebeds / garden on the roof.

Links

Authors:

300000km/s

Soft urban renewal in Vienna, Austria

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Soft urban renewal in Vienna, Austria

Mismatches
Policies and regulations
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2010: Rehabilitación

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: Vienna Housing Rehabilitation

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Soft urban renewal, implemented under the 1984 Vienna Housing Rehabilitation Act, is a non-disruptive approach that avoids demolishing historic buildings or displacing residents. It focuses on financial incentives for private homeowners and follows a decentralized and participatory method for building and neighborhood improvements. The emphasis is on improving housing standards without causing social segregation or gentrification. The scheme has successfully reduced substandard housing from 320,000 to less than 125,000 units through rehabilitation efforts. It has created affordable rehabilitated housing without changing ownership, resulting in over 715,000 fully equipped apartments. The approach prioritizes affordability, social inclusion, and the needs of vulnerable households. Redevelopment is managed by district offices, supported by private architects or non-profit building associations and funded by the city. These offices collaborate with tenants and owners to enhance housing stock, including green courtyards and communal facilities, while promoting connections to public transport. There are currently 13 district offices that actively involve vulnerable and socially marginalized households with the support of city funds. It is considered “soft” or ”gentle” as it does not involve the demolition of historic buildings or the construction of entirely new urban areas, nor does it displace and compulsorily rehouse residents living in renewal areas.

Legislated under the 1984 Vienna Housing Rehabilitation Act, the soft urban renewal created financial renovation incentives for private homeowners and was implemented through a decentralized and participatory approach to building and neighbourhood improvement.

Much effort has since gone towards improving housing standards, while avoiding social segregation and gentrification. The urban renewal has involved strategic subsidization of private housing rehabilitation, rather than the demolition of historic buildings. Public authorities first look at bringing empty flats into use and developing communal areas and then later address whole blocks of flats and creating new urban areas.[3] An evaluation of this scheme in 2010 found that soft renewal had made substantial improvements to living conditions in Vienna. From 1984 to 2001, through rehabilitation, houses that were categorised as substandard were substantially reduced – from approximately 320,000 (39 per cent of the total stock) to less than 125,000.

The renewal activities produced a large stock of affordable rehabilitated housing with avoiding a forced change of ownership or occupancy. One important result was the avoidance of social segregation and gentrification. A total of 2,160 buildings with 142,000 apartments were improved as part of the process of soft renewal and the number of fully equipped apartments rose from about 328,000 to more than 715,000.[1]

Notably, limited profit affordable housing is in relatively good condition, in part due to the business model which funds it that requires regular maintenance and periodic renovation. Chapter II on funding and financing affordable and inclusive housing has extensively elaborated on this matter. The soft renewal approach, which is both decentralized and interdisciplinary, prioritises affordability and social inclusion objectives, avoids forced change of ownership and enables rehabilitated housing to remain affordable to existing occupants. Particular attention is given to the needs of vulnerable households (the elderly and new migrants).

The redevelopment is managed by offices in each city district. These are run by either private architects or non-profit building associations and are financed by the city. They work with both tenants and owners to improve the housing stock; for example, by enhancing green courtyards, and making proposals for communal facilities and connections to public transport. There are now 13 district offices (Gebietsbetreuungen) which can also apply for city funds to involve vulnerable or socially marginalised households more actively.

Links

Authors:

Wien, Austria

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Europan-WienEuropan-Wien_2

Wien, Austria

Mismatches
Policies and regulations
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 2022: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Arenas Basabe Palacios arquitectos

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region:

Description

The process has been a collective effort based on negotiation, in collaboration with the local architectural team, Mascha & Seethaler, management experts (Raum&Co), mobility (Traffix), landscaping (Land in Sicht), energy or sociology, as well as representatives of the neighborhood, the soil promoters (ARE) and the MA21 office of the Vienna City Council; all of them active participants in the design process. The team published the story of this collaborative process as a comic (“Commons”), from the winning project of the Europan 10 competition in Vienna and its later development with a multidisciplinary team until its definitive passing by the Vienna City Council. “Commons” obtained recognition as an example of innovative, sustainable and democratic urbanism.

One of the most challenging issues of today is the question whether housing in itself, as a programme, has the power to generate an urban neighbouthood. “Garden>Courtyard” plays the ball straight back to the municipality, developers and users, suggesting an extrapolated concept of mixing with just a single programme-housing: housing with diverse models of living, diverse models of sharing, diverse models of developing, diverse models of financing, diverse models of landscaping, diverse models of maintaining.

Once the masterplan approved, the landowner (ARE, Austrian Real State) commissioned multiple architecture teams as well as different sporsors to develop an edification design. In the partnership with the Viennese enterprise for social housing and different cooperatives, a collaborative democratic and plural urbanism process was created. Arenas Basabe Palacios was commissioned with the design and execution of 11 housing blocks in different scales, including 82 housing units with a total of 9500 m2 constructed surface containing community spaces, shared parking facilities for bicycles and commercial spaces in the ground floor for zone.

The design respects the original urban idea and furthermore creates new potential based on the garden-matrix, which is structuring the new district. Each block is constructed around its garden while edification varies in height, bay and edification type: constructions of small scale (size S) contain single-family housing and duplex; Medium-scaled buildings (size M) as their taller complements (size L) serve as collective housing blocks and develop a diverse and porous urban process.

The materiality of the buildings accentuates this idea: Ceramic colour facades are facing the sun, while all living spaces are south-orientated and opened towards the garden. The more intimate bedrooms can be accessed through privacy filters in form of halls which contain service rooms installations and space for storage.

The dwelling´s interiors reflect the characteristic construction system: together with white carpentry, visible vertically perforated bricks (“Hochlochziegel”) are creating a sequence of neutral, flexible and reconfigurable spaces.

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Authors: