Erste Bank Campus, Vienna

Vienna’s central railway station was only com­pleted in 2014 and at the moment build­ing works are in full swing right next to it. The new-build area – dubbed Quartier Belvedere with ref­er­ence to the near-by Belvedere Palace – is the upshot of an ur­ban-plan­ning anomaly whereby two railway sta­tions, Vienna South and Vienna East, used to be sit­u­ated side by side over a vast area of ground there. A large plot was freed up for re­de­vel­op­ment and re­build­ing when they were pulled down and re­placed by a single central railway station for trans­port pro­vi­sion pur­poses. The city opted for a mixed res­i­den­tial, com­mer­cial and leisure quarter. The area has a key ur­ban-plan­ning role to play in linking up several bor­oughs that border it.

Henke Schreieck opened up the Swiss Garden side in their com­pe­ti­tion entry and both spa­tially and vi­su­ally trans­planted the park op­po­site into the in­te­rior of the new campus. The ar­chi­tects set store by cre­at­ing special spaces – both inside and out. The main issue inside con­cerned pro­vid­ing equal-sta­tus work­sta­tions for all em­ploy­ees. The Erste Bank campus ac­com­mo­dates just about all the bank’s Vi­en­nese em­ploy­ees at a single lo­ca­tion and the ar­chi­tec­ture is such that all work­sta­tions are sited at windows and offer dif­fer­ing views of the city. The in­di­vid­ual build­ings de­scribe various kinds of single or double arcs and make a par­tic­u­larly organic impact as a col­lec­tive entity.

A mul­ti­far­i­ous spatial land­scape has taken shape between the in­di­vid­ual struc­tures that is partly open to the public and creates a line of transit from the park towards the central railway station. The various units are con­nected up and in­ter-ac­cessed via a twin-storey atrium. Door and window handles in Stain­less Steel Satin Matt were fitted that har­monise with finely crafted fin­ishes and coat­ings. Reasons of quality and func­tion­al­ity led the ar­chi­tects to select two FSB handle models in Stain­less Steel notable for their rugged­ness and time­less el­e­gance.

Photos: Werner Huth­macher