Winning Entry for EUROPAN 11 Vienna, Austria

The winners for the EUROPAN 11 challenge for Vienna, Austria were announced just last night, and the first prize, by unanimous vote, went to the urban design proposal of Dreiecksplatz (Triangle Square) by an international team comprising Artur Borejszo (PL, Architect), Leena Cho (US, Landscape Architect), Jason Hilgefort (US, Architect & Urbanist), and Andreas Karavanas (GR, Architect & Urbanist).

Excerpt from the Jury Comments:

The project gives to the city and the site owner a promising spatial concept which is “robust” enough to be adapted in phases and its respective parts by multiple authors. The quality of the project is the striking simplicity of the idea of the triangular space which is both public space and organizing principle; it succeeds in linking both sides of the railway without elaborate engineering.

The idea to group three different “landscapes” of housing around this square must be followed because it is their very differences, that ensures a “malleable richness” for the future development.

The way how the project deals with the level crossing could trigger new ways of integrating infrastructure in the local tissue: conflict points between different sorts of mobility systems are crucial nowadays.

The quality of the winning project is exactly to make a proposition of how to „de-instrumentalize“ the usual spatial regulations. Regarding the benefits of a successful integration, the city planning department should explore this innovative concept, finding ways to negotiate its implementation. In this way the project would become a pilot, contributing to necessary transformations of existing planning regulations.

Project Description from the Architects (Excerpt):

Located between the Vienna Ring and Vienna Woods, the site embraces the marks of both environment – urban and nature – as a basis for future development. Currently surrounded by houses with a large amount of private green space, what is needed in the site is a generous, quality public space that will invite and sustain diverse groups of community to gather, live and work by. Major forms of transit – bus, tram and bicycle – anchor three corners of the triangle-shaped plaza with an integrated train platform in the middle. Various residential, commercial and social programs both frame and spill out toward the public triangle and support its liveliness. Green space is maximized at all different scales, fostering health, education and social interactions, while each kind of nature – from ‘wild woods’ to herb garden – defines the atmosphere of individual housing zone.

Find more plans in the image gallery below. All images courtesy of Artur Borejszo, Leena Cho, Jason Hilgefort and Andreas Karavanas