The House

A new district is being created on the site of the former Aspang train station. It’s called Village im Dritten.

The area is in the third district between St.Marx and Rennweg. It borders Schweizergarten and is close to Arsenal and Belvedere. From here it’s about the same distance to the ring road (city centre) as to the main train station. That’s exactly what we like about this place: It’s very important to us to live centrally. We like Vienna and enjoy the advantages that urban living brings.

We want to be in direct contact with the city. That’s why we call our group Vis-à-Wien. This is where our house is being built. On the southern edge of the Village im Dritten, next to the park on Otto-Preminger-Strasse, right across from the new Aron Menczer campus.

After the property was advertised as part of a property development competition, we quickly decided to take part in the competition and won in March 2021. The house has been under active construction since the end of 2023. This means that our vision will become reality in just a few years.

Site

Vis-à-Wien occupies the north wing of the U-shaped building. „Conventional“ subsidised apartments are located in its east and west wings. In the corners, there are common and utility rooms in which the neighbourhoods have space to mix. Open, south-facing arcades run along the building and invite neighbours to meet and exchange.

Rooms

The apartments are mostly „double sided“ apartments, i.e. they have the possibility of natural light and ventilation on both the north and south sides. There are private, north-facing balconies as well as the semi-public, southern arcades. With a wide range of apartments of different scales and types, the house offers space for various life situations, household sizes and all kinds of people. For example, there are 1-room apartments, maisonettes and 5-room apartments for large families or shared apartments.

In addition to common rooms, there is also a large garden on the roof, which can be shaped and used by the residents together.

Materials

Our house will be built as a hybrid wood structure, whereby the respective material properties of wood and reinforced concrete are optimally combined in order to take ecology into account. There’s district heating, provided by the Village’s own geothermal probes, which are also used for cooling in summer.

The building opens its doors to the “Grätzl” and the neighbourhood through spaces on the ground floor level and basement. Our  “Grätzl Küche” (neighbourhood kitchen) together with  a multi-purpose room represent the heart of the house. They will offer space for guests and offer opportunities for collaboration, exchange and events. 

On the corner of the building, there will be a restaurant or café. Smaller businesses, such as a bicycle repair shop and seminar rooms are located next to it. In the courtyard there is a workshop, a food coop, seminar and hobby rooms in the basement next to the bicycle garage.

A kindergarten is moving into the courtyard, next to it are the residential units of the SOS Kinderdorf and those of an association for single parents.

The majority of our common areas are located on the top floors of the north wing: a kitchen & living room together with a playroom and a relaxation room connect to the large common roof terrace. 

Commercial areas are located on the ground floor of our house next to external community spaces. They will be rented out to cooperation partners and businesses.

A kindergarten will be integrated as well as areas for a co-working space, an event room, offices and rooms for smaller businesses. We are currently in discussion with various potential partners – associations and tradespeople – to define the operating concepts and space requirements.

Meetings, Workshops, Seminars

Our event room will offer space and will be rented out on a daily basis to club meeting, workshop, seminars,…

Non-residential areas

We are still looking for other cooperation partners who share our vision and can help to enrich our house and the neighbourhood. The prerequisite for renting commercial space in the building is an operating concept that helps in line with our vision to activate the ground floor and use it sustainably. It is particularly important to us to provide space to social institutions and socio-economically fair companies or businesses and to create spatial synergies.

The building will be ready for occupancy in early 2025. The provided rooms and the costs will depend on the size, location and equipment of the respective areas as well as on the rental conditions our association will take over from the developer as a general tenant. If you are interested and would like further information, please contact kontakt@vis-a-wien.at or mitmachen@vis-a-wien.at.

Vis-à-Wien ist Teil des Forschungsprojektes KLIMADEMO VIS-À-VIS – Partizipative Realisierung eines klimaneutralen Demonstrationsgebäudes Vis-à-Vis, das im Rahmen des Stadt der Zukunft-Programms durch die FFG gefördert wird.

Das Gesamtprojekt & -gebäude Vis-à-Vis – inklusive der Baugruppe Vis-à-Wien – soll dabei ein role model für viele andere Projekte werden: ein Demonstrationsgebäude.

Mit Vis-à-Vis sollen wesentliche Schritte in Richtung eines nachhaltigen, zirkulären Bauens unternommen werden. Über den gesamten Lebenszyklus von Planen, Bauen und Nutzen bis zum Rückbau werden die Programmierung des Hauses, die eingesetzten Baumaterialien sowie Energiequellen und -verbrauch betrachtet.

Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf der gemeinsamen Planung mit uns als zukünftigen Nutzer*innen: So wird erstmals ein co-kreativer Prozess umgesetzt, in dem der Hauptfokus auf dem Thema Klimaneutralität liegt. Unser Forschungsteam verbreitet über Fachkreise hinaus laufend ihr Wissen an ein größeres Publikum im Klimablog.

Klimaneutrales Bauen wird mit diesem Leuchtturmprojekt (be)greifbar und auf Augenhöhe verhandelt.