As Austria’s biggest cultural complex, the MuseumsQuartier set within the revitalised ensemble of the former imperial stables dating from the 18th and 19th centuries constitutes an urbanistic axis that links old and new cultural spaces of Vienna through its modern implants, multifaceted institutions, squares and open spaces.

• Bauzeit: 1998-2001
• PlanerIn: O&O Baukunst, Manfred Wehdorn
• Client: Stadt Wien, MUQUA Errichtungs- und Betriebs GmbH, Republik Österreich
• Building type: Urban planning
• Reachability: U2-Museumsquartier, U2/U3-Volkstheater
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible, while the individual museums are accessible during normal opening hours
• A walk from the MuseumsQuartier to the historic city centre leads through the Imperial Palace or Hofburg (J. E. Fischer v. Erlach, J. L. v. Hildebrandt, G. Semper, C. Hasenauer and others, since 1279) – a complex encompassing numerous courtyards and a widely ramified network of individual buildings and wings that has evolved organically since the Middle Ages.
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

In this Baroque ensemble set in the midst of the popular Augarten park, a modern concert hall for the Vienna Boys’ Choir was built despite some very vociferous protests. The MuTh (Music and Theatre) Hall offers space for 400 spectators. The contemporary architectural style signals the modern continuation of a traditional Viennese cultural heritage.

• Bauzeit: 2010-2012
• PlanerIn: archipel architektur kommunikation
• Client: Wiener Sängerknaben Konzertsaal Betriebs- GmbH
• Building type: Theater and concert
• Reachability: U2 Taborstraße
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

In October 2013, Europe’s currently largest new university building was inaugurated next to the Vienna Prater. The campus of the new Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) comprises 6 buildings covering an area of 90,000 square metres as well as an intelligently designed open space conceived as a “walk-along park” with different stations. The core of this group of buildings designed by leading international architects is the Library and Learning Centre by Zaha Hadid.
Planned as a “green” building, the project is also to serve as a showcase of ecological and economic sustainability.

• Bauzeit: 2009-2013
• PlanerIn: Landschaftsarchitektur, BOA büro für offensive aleatorik
• Client: BIG, Projektgesellschaft Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Neu GmbH
• Building type: Public places
• Reachability: U2 Messe-Prater, U2 Krieau
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible, while the restaurant/bar zones are accessible during business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

The new city quarter “Viertel Zwei” is situated on a roughly 40,000-square-metre plot extending between the trotting track, the new Trade Fair Centre, the Vienna Stadium and the new U2 line along Vorgartenstrasse. Extremely varied regarding both facilities and uses, boasting excellent architecture and permeated by interesting open spaces, the different elements - Hoch Zwei, Plus Zwei, Rund Vier, Biz Zwei and Hotel Zwei – emerge proudly along the northern periphery of the Prater.

• PlanerIn: Henke Schreieck Architekten, Martin Kohlbauer, Zechner & Zechner
• Building type: Mixed use
• Reachability: U2 Krieau
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

After the covering of the Danube riverside motorway, this site, which originally had been singled out for the aborted Vienna-Budapest World’s Fair of 1995, was envisioned by the development company WED to become a new urban expansion area. Since 1998, intense construction activities include housing estates and office towers in this satellite centre efficiently linked to Vienna’s city by the U1 Underground line.

• Bauzeit: 1990-1999
• PlanerIn: Margarethe Cufer, Hans Hollein, Adolf Krischanitz, Hermann Czech, Arata Isozaki, Roman Delugan, Gustav Peichl, Heinz Neumann, Michael Loudon, Wilhelm Holzbauer
• Client: WED
• Building type: Urban planning
• Reachability: U1-Kaisermühlen - Vienna Int. Centre
• Accessibility: The open-air zones and churches are publicly accessible, the lobby of the Tech Gate Tower is publicly accessible, model of Donau City on 1st floor
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The DC Towers (Donau City Towers) designed by Dominique Perrault will add a decisive accent to Vienna’s skyline. The original design provides for 2 towers obliquely facing each other to create an aerodynamic flow edge while also forming an urban square at street level. With a height of 250 metres, the already erected DC Tower 1 is not only Austria’s highest building, but also a new city landmark. The second, somewhat lower tower is still awaiting construction.

• Bauzeit: 2010-2013
• PlanerIn: Dominique Perrault, Hoffmann - Janz ZT GmbH
• Client: WED
• Building type: Mixed use
• Reachability: U1 Kaisermühlen-VIC
• Accessibility: observation deck, cafe/restaurant during business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

On the area formerly occupied by the Northern Railway Station, a new neighbourhood – mostly composed of subsidised housing – emerged in several stages around Rudolf Bednar Park, which was completed in 2007. The individual project stages were dedicated to different themes, such as “intercultural housing” or “housing for the young and the young-at-heart”. Individual sub-projects, e.g. “Wohnen mit uns” (Living with Us) or “Bike City”, moreover stand out due to their concepts – in this case, for self-determined housing and housing for urban cyclists. Many renowned Austrian and international architectural studios created designs for this venture, leading to the emergence of a modern and vibrant urban quarter. By 2030, dwellings for a total of 20,000 inhabitants will have been built here.

• Bauzeit: 2008
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U1 Vorgartenstraße
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

The ground-floor zone of Bike City and its adjoining wing time2live is entirely dedicated to bike use, wellness and an attractive communal space opening into a spacious residential courtyard. Large lifts, wide corridors, bike garages on all floors as well as in front of flats are likewise part and parcel of the concept.

• Bauzeit: 2006-2008
• PlanerIn: königlarch architekten
• Client: GESIBA, BAI
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U1 Vorgartenstraße
• In 2003, an urbanistic idea competition with the motto “Living by the Park” was organised for the lot adjoining Rudolf Bednar Park. The architectural studio PPAG was awarded the project directly adjoining the park, while königlarch architekten was commissioned to design the adjacent Bike City.
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The Post Office Savings Bank is a milestone of Viennese Modernism. One of Otto Wagner’s masterpieces, the elegant building on Ringstrasse with its impressive counter hall presents particularly innovative solutions to technical-structural details while fulfilling the highest aesthetic standards.

• Bauzeit: 1903-1906
• PlanerIn: Otto Wagner
• Client: k. k. Postsparkasse
• Building type: Banks and stock markets
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz, tram 2, stop: Julius-Raab-Platz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

This multifunctional building with a hotel and top-floor restaurant was erected on the site formerly occupied by the UNIQA company headquarters and sets a clear signal in Vienna’s Danube Canal area. With its remarkable volume, the striking glass cube blends both prominently and fittingly with the overall cityscape and the historic buildings across the Canal.

• Bauzeit: 2007-2010
• PlanerIn: Jean Nouvel, HNP architects
• Client: UNIQA
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: The shopping arcade is publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The Wien City ship docking station is more than just a pier for ships. Rather, the building creates the missing link between vibrant Schwedenplatz square and the peaceful bank of Danube Canal and thus offers an urban site on the water with a surrounding promenade. The building serves as a canopy for the waiting area of the city cruise ships and the Twin City Liner to Bratislava. Inside the structure, there is a 2-level café/restaurant with a pleasant view of Danube Canal. The interior of the café was designed to recall the Italian espresso culture of the 1950s.

• Bauzeit: 2009-2010
• PlanerIn: fasch&fuchs.architekten
• Client: Wiener Donauraum Länden und Ufer Betriebs- und Entwicklungs-GmbH
• Building type: Traffic
• Reachability: U1/U4-Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

A masterful contrast between old and new is created by incorporating the eaves heights and window grids of the adjacent Gründerzeit buildings into the proportions of the avant-garde glass skin of this new office building. On the inside, the office storeys open up towards a glass-covered atrium; the penthouse "huddled" amidst the roofscape conveys novel perspectives of the city.

• Bauzeit: 2001-2003
• PlanerIn: Henke Schreieck Architekten
• Client: Zürich Versicherungs AG
• Building type: Mixed use
• Reachability: U2/U4 Schottenring
• Accessibility: Only from outside
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The Austrian pavilion designed by Karl Schwanzer for the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 impressed with its innovative suspended steel construction, which resulted in a seemingly floating block. The pavilion was disassembled and reinstalled in Vienna as an art museum in 1962. After its rehabilitation and enlargement by Adolf Krischanitz, it was reinaugurated in 2011 with the new name “21er Haus” as a branch of Austrian Gallery Belvedere and now serves as an exhibition venue for 21st-century art.

• Bauzeit: 2008-2012
• PlanerIn: Adolf Krischanitz
• Client: Burghauptmannschaft Österreich, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
• Building type: Museums and exhibitions
• Reachability: Tram D, station: Quartier Belvedere
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

Vienna’s cityscape will change fundamentally over an area as a big as the 8th municipal district. The redesign of this former terminus as a through station that will become a hub of international train service served as the trigger for a radical urbanistic evolution of the entire area. The architecture of the new Vienna Main Station signals openness, transparency and generosity. The roughly 25,000-square metre rhomboid canopy spanning the platforms is an eye-catcher that can be seen from far off.

• Bauzeit: 2007
• PlanerIn: Albert Wimmer, Ernst Hoffmann, Hotz Architekten
• Building type: Traffic
• Reachability: U1 Südtiroler Plattz - Hauptbahnhof
• Accessibility: The station is publicly accessible
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

With its rising "wing", this structure – called a "recumbent high-rise sculpture" by the architects – is to be perceived from the cars passing by on the city motorway and far beyond its physical location as a signal, landmark and initial project for a new urban development area on the site of a former slaughterhouse yard.

• Bauzeit: 2002-2004
• PlanerIn: Architektur Consult, Domenig & Eisenköck
• Client: mm Liegenschaftsbesitz GmbH
• Building type: Office and government
• Reachability: tram 71, stop: St. Marx
• Foto: Rupert Christanell