An Office Complex Built of Wood
Grand Central
Sustainable, transparent, and flexible: A state-of-the-art building ensemble, whose office areas can be easily adapted to meet individual tenant needs, has been built next to Vienna’s Floridsdorf Station. The composite timber construction method is particularly resource-friendly and proved to be a game changer in the field of structural engineering.
The real estate developer ORCA Group want to use the “Grand Central” building complex at Vienna Floridsdorf transport hub to exploit the potential of the booming region to the north of the Danube and to provide urgently needed lettable office space. The design brief: to create a sustainable new building that offers maximum spatial flexibility as a means of doing justice to the needs of a wide range of users.
Resource-friendly and energy-efficient constructional approach
By designing the office complex using the ecologically sustainable composite timber construction method we were able to massively reduce its CO₂ footprint. As the new building was built above the existing underground station and a former car park, it involved no additional soil sealing. A PV plant enables it to generate its own electricity.
ATP sustain, our research and specialist design company for sustainable planning and building, is accompanying the process of obtaining building certification in line with the klimaaktiv standard of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK). The objective is to obtain gold or silver certification.
Special vibration and noise protection
Given the location of the building complex directly above the underground reversing area and next to the suburban railway tracks at Floridsdorf Station, particular attention was paid to noise protection and to the electromagnetic isolation of the building – in order to optimize the comfort of the interior spaces. The building of the foundations was a particular challenge for the structural engineers due to the need to transfer all loads to the loadbearing structure of the underground tunnel. In addition to the requirement for vibration protection, these foundations also have to react to wind, tilting, and earthquakes. The composite timber construction method, with its lightweight elements, proved to be ideal in these circumstances because it reduces the weight of the building.
Our clients wanted a modern office building that combines maximum functional flexibility with ecological sustainability. Due to the unusual location, we had to use particularly light elements. The composite timber construction method with its lightweight elements allowed us to meet this requirement perfectly.
Siniša Macedonić
Architect, Lead Project Manager in Vienna
Transparency and flexibility in the spatial design
The six-story new building consists of two elements with a total of 12,000 m² of office space. The step-backs at the upper floors react to the strict urban planning requirements while also permitting the maximum exploitation of the building height. Continuous strip windows and cutouts in the main facade optimize daylight levels in the usable spaces deep within the building. Attractive open areas including a number of terraces and loggias provide a high quality user experience. The composite timber construction method permits particularly flexible layouts. This enables the rental areas to be adapted in line with the needs of each user – and everything is possible, from open-plan to individual offices.
