continued

Now Wolf Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky, partners of the firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, are making tall buildings more commonly accepted in Vienna. In the office of the "Coops" — the firm's insider-nickname — piles of paper sit on the desks beside high-end computers, representing the architects' dual respect for the earth-bound past and the cloud-seeking avant-garde.

The SEG Apartment Tower

The sky-blue SEG Apartment Tower is situated not in Vienna's center, but on the other side of the River Danube in a kind of suburb gradually becoming urban. This densification of office and residential high-rises is new here, but the area has become an El Dorado for those interested in water sports, disco, and inline skating.

Entering this vertical Garden of Eden, one is alerted to its novelty by the unusual shape of the glass-roofed entrance and the lobby, which is extremely spacious by Viennese standards. These are previews to the "climatic facade" that provides the building with an effective passive solar climate control system.

Those who choose to live here are expressing a chic individualism. Part of the attraction to the neighborhood and the apartment tower is thanks to the upper-floor terraced gardens that open up behind the huge, slanted glass facade. At last the longing of the Viennese for a garden has merged with the vision of living in the clouds.

Everyday life in the building seems characterized by an unusual openness. The tenants socialize in the ninth-floor "sky lobby" and attend regular get-togethers and workshops. The building's community gets along well and they enjoy meeting to discuss energy-saving measures with the architects.

A Climatic Facade

On the east side, the sky lobby becomes the "basement" of the common airspace that is open to the top in a shaft between the inner and outer glass skins. Jutting out into this space are individual apartment balconies where tenants enjoy year-round gardens This airspace is not only a kind of vertical indoor city space, it functions as a super-dimensioned convective system. A 16- by 10-foot (5- by 3-meter) shaft provides air circulation using sensor-controlled inlets.

On top of the building sits a huge, dark, cubical "air box." In the winter, the air behind the outer glass facade warms and rises to the air box, which functions as a heat-exchanger, returning hot air to the apartments. In the summer, the air box system powers cross-ventilation, blowing cool air into the apartments below. The so-called "cool head" also represents a prominent identification feature, visible throughout the quarter.

Blinds attached at the climatic protection cover are subjected to central computer control. However, the individual tenants can furnish their own shading without affecting the artificial climate in the air circulation space. Their privacy is protected from the street by the bold slope of the glass front.

The "climatic facade" with its integrated, terraced gardens creates a pleasant climate year-round, tempering the indoor climate of the individual apartments. A building physicist is connected online with the building and monitors its climate data. Formal efficiency evaluations are not yet available, but no tenants have complained about drafts.

One tenant tending her "sky garden" is an Italian architect. According to reports, she loves to rave about the Mediterranean flair of her garden between the clouds.

W-M.O. Tschuppik is an architect who teaches at the Technical University of Vienna.

The slant of the facade of Coop Himmelb(l)au's SEG Apartment Tower means that every floor plan is slightly different. Photo: M_Ziegelwanger Louvered and shaded balconies give tenants control over their local climates. Photo: M_Ziegelwanger Section looking east. Above the 9th-floor sky lobby is an open air shaft that creates a Mediterranean climate. Image: Coop Himmelb(l)au Section looking north. Image: Coop Himmelb(l)au East facing section showing sky lobby and computer-controlled louvers. Image: Coop Himmelb(l)au Computer-controlled louvers help to moderate the temperature within the climatic facade. Image: Coop Himmelb(l)au Architect's sketches of the passive solar concepts. Image: Coop Himmelb(l)au The distinctive entrance is the visitor's preview of novelty. Photo: M_Ziegelwanger   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.