AllesWirdGut to Design Citizen-Friendly School for Administration in Vienna

Austrian practice AllesWirdGut has been named winner of the competition to design the new Vocational School for Administration in Vienna's Embelgasse. The winning concept is seeking to make the new school citizen-friendly and learning a part of public life again.

Project Description from the Architects:

The only enclosure around the new school in Embelgasse is the perimeter of the block.

With its large glass surfaces, the ground floor affords an insight into everyday school life, opening the inside of the block to the street. The outward appearance of the new vocational training school is characterized by openness, transparency, and throughviews.

On the upper floors, what is going on inside the school is presented, in a typecase-like grid pattern, as part of the facade and thus of the street space.

In this way, the close connection between administration and the public finds positive architectural expression on both sides.

Through a generous two-level lobby, students have direct access to the classrooms that begin from the second floor upward. The lobby brings the airiness of the courtyard into the building.

Classrooms are kept transparent toward the circulation and communication areas – a continuum of interrelated learning, working, and communication spaces.

Complementing this is a number of varied outdoor spaces: a shady inner courtyard, a sunny roof terrace and a courtside terrace on the second floor so that students have an outdoor space close at hand at any time.

Project Details:

Project: Vocational School for Administration
Location: 1050 Vienna (A)
Client: City of Vienna
Competition: 02/2011
Gross floor area: 5,820 m²
Planning: AllesWirdGut Architektur ZT GmbH

See more plans and drawings in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of AllesWirdGut.