HOPPE architects

cubic fluidity

Fluid spaces are widely associated with malleable forms and softly undulating overflowing shapes. But how can one create fluid continuous spaces, if legal and economic constraints suggest a cuboid, how blur the boundaries between the inside and the outside or define their interfaces with little interstitial space to exploit?

casa nina is a small private residence on a small sloping garden plot in Vienna’s 13^th district. Building regulations stipulate a maximum footprint of 50 m² and a maximum building height of 4.5 m. Economy and spatial requirements calls for maximum utilization of the given envelope.

Difficult to access because of its location right in the middle of an allotment of small garden plots with view towards Vienna’s city centre, the building called for a high degree of lightweight construction and the use of prefab materials and components.

The design negotiates the complex contextual parameters, such as position, orientation, spatial limitation and limited development potential on the one hand, and on the other hand the inhabitants’ requirements for privacy, openness towards the garden, view to the city and their desire for open and bright spaces.

The building sits on site asymmetrically, thus maximizing the continuous garden area and blocking the view from the street. Maximized opacity towards the South and to public circulation paths shields the building’s interior from observations as well as from overheating, while it opens up completely towards the North, yielding an unblocked view towards the city and extending the interior space into the garden.

Extensive glazing and sliding doors connect the living spaces with the terrace and the adjacent garden. light wells, openings, apertures and lightweight staircases bring light into the basement. Fluent spaces, minimized construction, three-dimensionally conceived spaces, voids, surprising views, bright surfaces and white materials prevent a sense of spatial constriction inside the small building and establish a spatial and atmospheric continuity between indoor and outdoor spaces.

The project has received the “gebaut 2013” award as one of the best buildings completed in vienna in 2013. find all the prize winners here.

address: elisabethallee, 1130 vienna (at). client: private.

date of completion: 07.2013

project team: HOPPE architects – Robert Neumayr with Kushtrim Hajdari and Alex Neversal.

consultants: kppk Vienna, bauklimatik Vienna.

photographs: hervé massard.

address: oskar kokoschka platz 2, 1010 vienna (at). client: competition. date: 02.2012

project team: Zaha Hadid Lab: Zaha Hadid Architects, PxT, moh architects, Arch. Christian Kronaus, unsquare architects.

consultants: ARUP London, FCP Vienna, Rabl ZT Graz.

The structure of Espoo seems typical for a town that has undergone several phases of urban development pursuing different architectural concepts and creating a distinct pattern in the now existing urban fabric. The result is a discontinuous urban sprawl. Most notably the modernist conception of separating different functions leaves the existing city centre, that mainly contains public functions and the train station, disconnected from the southern parts of the town. At the same time the separation of car traffic from pedestrian circulation, the latter running on elevated high walks, adds to the dysfunction of the city centre as a working urban environment. On the other hand the excellent means of public transport in the region suggest that pedestrian movement and use of public transport should be given priority over private transportation.

The immediate surroundings of the city centre consists of large scale housing schemes that, due to mass production, lack identity and fail to establish a sense of community. These operate at a rather large scale and create a lack of clearly defined urban spaces.

The project’s strategy is to tackle both of these two problems simultaneously by proposing a structures of high connectivity that gradually unfold between the existing tissues of the urban fabric and connect them with the redeveloped centre of Espoo. These multi-linear structures will create different degree’s of privacy and foster the development of local identities while still rooting them in their urban context.

The suggested pattern consists of 5 urban threads, each connecting Espoo’s city centre with other parts of the city. Each linear thread is treated independently and designed to establish a thread neighbourhood developing its own local identity and community once completed. Common continuous pathways running from one end to the other strongly root these threads in their surrounding, not only linking their own residential buildings together but also inviting the inhabitants of adjacent areas to use them to conveniently reach the city centre and the train station by walking or cycling. Motorized transportation is confined to the main roads. As the threads are gradually realized more and more parts of the town become attached to the centre.

The 5 Thread Neighbourhoods are organized as a series of smaller unit neighbourhoods, linked together by a common circulation system. A unit is the system’s smallest entity, designed to create a more private community among its inhabitants. A unit consists of two housing blocks arranged towards a common elevated courtyard designed as a landscape element and concealing a car park This courtyard in turn is part of the pathways running to the city’s centre, open on two sides, allowing for visual connections with the Nordic landscape.

All the five threads together will establish – once completed – a distinctive new town quarter, that in time will develop its own identity. As the threads will be used by all the city’s inhabitants to get into the city centre they will enhance communication and thus interlock existing communities throughout the city. At the same time they provide a solution for Espoo’s existing circulation problems. Finally the threads converge in the centre where they add new structures and facilities to the centre as the demand for them rises with Espoo’s increasing density. We suggest to continue the threads across the railway creating a partly elevated new public plaza that connects the two parts of the existing city centre.

location: city of espoo (se). client: europan 7 competition. date of submission: 06.2003. status: lost.

project team: unsquare architects. project architects: thomas hoppe, robert neumayr. guest star: andreas hawlik.

]]> http://www.unsquare.at/?feed=rss2&p=298 0 http://www.unsquare.at/?p=194 http://www.unsquare.at/?p=194#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2001 09:25:06 +0000 0801 http://www.unsquare.at/?p=194 unsquare architects are happy to finally announce the completion of beef only, the conversion of a 180 m2 of derelict attic space into a contemporary continous yet differentiated loft space. the entire loft is designed as one open space that can be subdivided by movable partitions of different degrees of tansparency and sports a continous yellow concrete surface throughout, as well as bespoke furniture, also designed by unsquare architects.

address: rauscherstrasse 22, 1220 vienna (at). client: ulrike schmidt.

date of completion: 09.2001

project team: unsquare architects – bayer.hoppe.olbrich + neumayr.

project architect: robert neumayr

photographs: lothar prokop.

the volume develops on the maximum footprint of 35 m2. it contains an open living space, a cooking area, a bathroom block and a sleeping area with a skylight. the inclined front glass facade can be slid open completely to expand the living room into the exterior. from there a ramp – partly designed as a stair – leads through the site into the water, creating a 3-dimentional movement from the site’s back entrance to the river.

address: strandbad, 3400 klosterneuburg (at). client: family sas-zaloziecki. date of completion: 09.1999

project team: unsquare architects – bayer.hoppe.olbrich + neumayr. project architect: klaus olbrich

photographs: unsquare architects, adsy bernart.

project team: andreas hawlik and robert neumayr.

tutor: andreas treusch.