The two Highrise-Superblocks in the outskirts of Linz, Austria, have been constructed in the early seventies as a part of a huge suburban urban development scheme. Due to various reasons this development plan was modified after the first highrise construction was done and since then these superblocks are irritating elements in the small-scale dominated suburban cityscape. While in the seventies the apartments were all occupied by workers of a local steel company, during the eighties the housing policy changed and people also from outside the company got access to rent apartments.

As the social situation within the buildings was deteriorating because of the lack of a comprehensive housing policy and conceptional misunderstandings in the design, it was finally decided to demolish the two blocks by spring 2003 and to construct alternative accomodations for the inhabitants.

The Conversion project was developed without commission challenging a solution for the remaining physical structure. The existing steel frame with concrete slabs on every floor makes it quite simple to add and subtract elements within the existing grid. Therefore two loops containing public and semi-public facilities were introduced in order to rescale and structure the bigness of the blocks and to increase the activity profile within the buildings in order to improve social control mechanisms. The remaining volumes contain again apartments, stressing a small scale “neighborhood-like” atmosphere with shared facilities and green spaces. The apartment type is based on a two storey L-type which can be planned in different dvelopment stages according to family sizes and social relations.

The basic concept was to create grammatical rules respecting the existing grid and giving a potential for variation between certain limits for a new programme. The relation between public and private spaces can be varied as the apartment type itself within certain boundaries without alteration of the main concept of mixed usage.

FUNCTION
Residential, Office, Leisure                                      

COMPLETION 
2006                                                       

CONSTRUCTIVE SYSTEM
Steel, Glas

EMAIL

(C) Kurt Handlbauer, 2006