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

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

With the design of a Georgian specialty restaurant, Gregor Eichinger, the doyen of modern Viennese coffeehouse architecture, has once more shown his sure touch. A relaxed and pleasant atmosphere is created with the help of sophisticated but smoothly integrated, unobtrusive details. Despite the sensitive overall design of all areas, the necessary flexibility, too, has been ensured – swivel lamps safeguard direct illumination of all tables for various seating arrangements. Movable separators encourage patrons to create privacy between their own zone and the adjoining tables.

• Bauzeit: 2012
• PlanerIn: eichinger offices
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1 Nestroyplatz, U1/U4 Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

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 most notable stylistic element is a re-interpretation of traditional Viennese block architecture and its characteristic façade structure. Individual buildings designed as multi-unit dwellings for approx. 220 flats encircle courtyard zones and provide for private green spaces. Tranquil ground-floor areas form a base, while staggered loggias and winter-gardens define the façade outlook.

• Bauzeit: 2007-2009
• PlanerIn: NMPB Architekten
• Client: Wohnfonds Wien
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U1-Vorgartenstraße, bus 11A, stop: Hillerstraße
• Accessibility: The open-air zones are publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The magenta glass parapets of the balconies on the south-western building façade provide a striking long side for adjoining Rudolf Bednar Park as well as, due to the ground-floor section resting atop stilts, a “gate” to the park. An unusual trait of the spatial concept for the flats is the development of a sort of “inside houses” extending across several levels and presenting a unique, individual face.

• Bauzeit: 2007-2009
• PlanerIn: PPAG
• Client: GESIBA
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U1 Vorgartenstraße
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The most notable stylistic element is a re-interpretation of traditional Viennese block architecture and its characteristic façade structure. Individual buildings designed as multi-unit dwellings for approx. 220 flats encircle courtyard zones and provide for private green spaces. Tranquil ground-floor areas form a base, while staggered loggias and winter-gardens define the façade outlook.

• Bauzeit: 2006-2009
• PlanerIn: Walter Stelzhammer
• Client: MIGRA
• Building type: Residential

The park on the area formerly occupied by Vienna’s Northern Railway Station is the city’s biggest new park since the one created for the 1974 Vienna International Horticultural Exhibition and thus a pioneering example of public open space design. The intelligently planned interplay of different sites, zones for play and active movement, bodies of water and groups of trees stimulates manifold atmospheres and moods for social interaction to benefit both local residents and visitors.

• Bauzeit: 2007-2008
• PlanerIn: Hager Partner
• Client: Stadt Wien
• Building type: Public places
• Reachability: U1 Vorgartenstraße
• Accessibility: The open-air zone is publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

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 two new Underground stations are aboveground structures with generous glazing in the upper sections. Bright, high-quality materials and the artistic illumination concept ensure a pleasant mood at any time of day. The Stadion station features additional security installations and stairways to accommodate the large crowds attending sports events.

• Bauzeit: 2003-2008
• PlanerIn: Architekt Katzberger
• Building type: Traffic
• Reachability: U2 Messe/Prater, U2 Krieau, U2 Stadion
• Accessibility: The stations are publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

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 load-bearing structure of the existing Praterstern station is used for the new, 15-metre-high glazed hall that links Venediger Au and Praterstrasse as one large-scale distribution level between Underground, trains and private car traffic. Three structures housing shops and stores dock onto a passage leading to the avenue Prater Hauptallee.

• Bauzeit: 2005-2008
• PlanerIn: Albert Wimmer ZT GmbH, Boris Podrecca
• Client: Stadt Wien, ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG
• Building type: Traffic
• Reachability: U2 Wien Praterstern
• Accessibility: The station is publicly accessible
• The concept for the Praterstern hub originally developed by Boris Podrecca was not implemented; by way of compromise, Podrecca was commissioned with redesigning the square.
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

• Bauzeit: 2004-2005
• PlanerIn: Baumschlager Eberle
• Client: MIGRA
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U2 Messe/Prater
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

In the Gründerzeit period, Ilgplatz was a promenade area that, however, soon fell into disuse. With its patterned pavement, the refurbished square invites passers-by to stroll along a water basin; among the imaginatively styled and varied seat designs for different user groups, the Gründerzeit “green ring” re-emerges in modified and contemporary form.

• Bauzeit: 2003-2004
• PlanerIn: Richard Zeitlhuber, Karin Zeitlhuber
• Client: Stadt Wien
• Building type: Public places
• Reachability: U2 Messe/Prater
• Accessibility: The open-air zone is publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The tower erected on an elliptical layout with its indulgently clinging, "tilted" add-on, which functions as a lobby at ground level, offers maximum sophistication regarding façade design. The multifunctional hall with its convex/concave lattice shell serving as roof structure meets the expectations of contemporary multimedia appeal promised by the exterior.

• Bauzeit: 2001-2004
• PlanerIn: HNP architects
• Client: UNIQA
• Building type: Office and government
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz, U1 Nestroyplatz
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

Peichl und Partner, Norbert Erlach, Gerhard Mossburger, 2003
Situated between Ausstellungsstrasse and Vorgartenstrasse, the new Vienna Trade Fair Centre is composed of a 26-metre-high cylindrical conference building and a 96-metre-high trade fair tower, a steel structure. Both elements boast an aluminium-glass façade; the tower serves no function apart from its signal effect.

• Bauzeit: 2002-2003
• PlanerIn: Peichl und Partner, Norbert Erlach, Gerhard Moßburger, Vasko + Partner Ingenieure
• Client: Stadt Wien, Chefren Leasing GmbH, MBG
• Building type: Museums and exhibitions
• Reachability: U2 Messe/Prater
• Accessibility: The forecourt is publicly accessible, while the fairground only during exhibitons
• Foto: MA19

The first Danube Canal "tower" signals a new gateway to the 2nd municipal district. Adapting to the existing building stock and providing for potential new high-rises, the quasi-sculptural edifice is composed of several elements: a stone block, a metal/glass block and an oblique, rampant glass prism topped by an LED screen.

• Bauzeit: 2001
• PlanerIn: Hans Hollein
• Client: Generali
• Building type: Office and government
• Reachability: U1/U4-Schwedenplatz
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The current stadium complex is composed of three sections dating from different periods. The core building (1931) was designed by Otto Ernst Schweitzer; the outside sheath (1959) is by Theodor Schöll, and the roofing (1986) was devised by Erich Frantl as a suspended frame structure spanning 277 x 233 metres, considered one of the biggest of its kind worldwide. The elastic steel roof moreover excels due to special innovations for its load-carrying system and superlative formal standards.

• Bauzeit: 1985-1986
• PlanerIn: Erich Frantl
• Client: KIBA
• Building type: Sports and recreation
• Reachability: U2 Stadion
• Accessibility: only during events
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

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