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Rooftop Remodeling
Falkestrasse 

The Falkestrasse loft conversion, in the inner city of Vienna, was the first realized deconstructivist building in the world, gaining international recognition for its new kind of architecture. 

Sketch by Wolf dPrix

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Coop Himmelb(l)au

Quote

There are no alcoves or turrets on the roof, no context of proportions, materials or colors but, instead, a visualized line of energy which, coming from the street spans the project, thus breaking the existing roof and thereby opening it.

Wolf dPrix

Project info

The law firm Schuppich Sporn & Winischhofer wished to extend their offices upwards. The attention was focused on a large meeting room, flanked by several smaller office units. The project is comprised of two stories with a height of 7.80 m, and a surface area of 400 m². The spatial layout consists of a 90 m² meeting room, three office units, a reception area and adjacent rooms. It is also possible to use the space as an apartment.

The preliminary design from 1983 depicts a corner solution — if there really is such a thing as a solution in architecture. There were no alcoves nor turrets on the roof, no context of proportions, materials or colors, but instead, a visualized line of energy which, coming from the street, spanned the project, thus breaking the existing roof and thereby opening it. This space-creating taut arc – an element of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s architecture that has progressively been gaining importance since 1980 – is both the steel backbone of the project and its posture. The open, glazed surfaces and the closed, folded or linear surfaces of the outer shell control the light and allow or restrict the view. Both the views from outside and from within define the complexity of the spatial relationships. The differentiated and differentiating constructional system, which is a cross between a bridge and an airplane, translates the spatial energy into constructional reality. The planning and construction work took one year each and were completed on December 23rd, 1988.

Project insights

Location
Vienna, Austria
Client
Schuppich Sporn & Winischhofer
Start of planning
1983 
Start of construction
1987 
Opening
1988 
Gross floor area
400 m²
Gross volume
2 400 m³
©

Duccio Malagamba

©

Duccio Malagamba

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