DEVELOPMENT AREA
5,6 ha
INTERVENTION AREA
1,3 ha

THEME
The project works on two levels: first, it has to manage the conflict of connecting across the railway line by dealing with the topic of a possible bridge (economically and programmatically), and the conversion of areas along railway tracks. Second, and architecturally, it has to solve the transition between a recently built housing complex and the railway line. How can urban ambitions transgress the usual type-solutions and interpret anew the existing values of the area?

CONURBATION
The EU-expansion makes Vienna the centre of a conurbation between Bratislava, Budapest and Brno. Vienna's social housing which achieved mythical status in the "Red Vienna"/1920s is saturated in the city expansion zones. In the southern area a fragmented mix of infrastructure, housing complexes, industrial areas and agricutltural green has to be reevaluated. Development issues are to revitalize deindustrialized sites and to deal with fragments that suffer from their contaminated location. By improving the connections to the local nodes such as park&ride areas and local subcenters the city wants to raise the urban quality on a local level.

SITE
Being squeezed between the railway and a new subsidized housing complex the site communicates with its local neighbour as well as with its federal one – the train.
The local neighbourhood conditions are diverse: a social service amenity waits for expansion, single family houses resist any change, commercial uses demonstrate modesty, a housing complex shows Vienna’s social commitment, a container firm networks globally.
Its connection to the district’s center with important amenities is blocked by the railway so that the site marks a dead end for the local traffic. The bridge-project should not only overcome the barrier but provide a new basis for the future development of all local and federal actors.

PROGRAM (at urban and architectural scales)
The site suffers from its disconnection from the fast public transport system (only bus stop available). Therefore, the housing project should provide specific qualities which supplement the disadvantages (advanced types which allow living/working models, diverse flat-sharing communities) and related facilities/amenities on ground floor (commercial, non-profit uses…)

• a social-medical care center wants to extend with a socially committed program
  
• infrastructural improvements have to be verified: the concept of a bridge which also could provide a public surface (the pathway as a place to stay) and building programs (strategy of evaluating the investment and overcome the considerable height barrier), or alternative urban improvements have to be evaluated;

ISSUES

social/functional
The intervention has to strengthen the local mobility especially for pedestrians and bicycles. Diverse models of apartments/housing should avoid social segregation, involving the commitment of the social-medical care program. Infrastructural improvements have to focus on the integration of the site into the city fabric.

sensitive
The ambiguity between the contamination and quality of the railway line has to be addressed. Also, the site’s role as a place to live and a place to be crossed should be considered. How to reinterpret the space of an industrial area in stage of conversion and disappearance?

sustainability
Beside a sustainable improvement of local accessibility the idea of the bridge reflects the link to a network of existing green areas by connecting a patchwork of green fragments and strips: the riverside of the “Liesing”, playgrounds of housing complexes/schools and a park.