Wirtschaftspark Breitensee

The “Wirtschaftspark” Breitensee (a new business area) carries on the tradition of a historical business location in the 14. District of Vienna. The former Wilhelminian industrial area was transformed into a modern, catalyzing business park following the deconstruction of the old building stock and the general restructuring of the area. The surprisingly small-scale structure of the façade of the new building is what makes this ensemble unique; while the functional glass KAPILUX W from OKALUX ensures an optimal exploitation of daylight in the unadulterated, loft-like interior.

Successful Concept of Urban Density

HOLODECK architects, (architect Marlies Breuss and architect Michael Ogertschnig) Vienna, had won the urban planning competition and implemented the restructuring of the area in three phases. The result is a mixed-use industrial park with an urban flair. The already existing manufacturing firms have been joined by new production facilities, offices, ateliers and live-in studios for creative branches. An event location and catering businesses round up the atmospheric whole. The individual components are connected hrough the center court on which a compactly designed four-storey building was constructed which in turn is attached to the existing manufacturing buildings through a bridge-like component.

Homage to Traditional Industrial Construction

The interior of the multifunctional new construction reflects the architectural tradition of a classical factory building. As can be seen in the exposed skeleton supporting structure, which, with its ceiling height of at least 3.28 m, allows for generous lofts to extend across the entire spatial depth. These can be divided into various sizes down to one-man offices. The architects consciously did without suspended ceilings and raised floors as well as any other form of cladding, thus constituting a clear tribute to the historical industrial construction on the one hand while reflecting a modern standard of new construction in terms of energy efficiency on the other: The building structure itself is the thermal mass ensuring comfortable indoor climate at low running cost.

Façade Matrix

The outer shell of the new building also follows the idea of functionality without complicated electronic control. The mullion-transom façade on steel substructure displays a seemingly arbitrary but actually exactly planned combination of transparent, translucent and self-contained partial areas. “We wanted to offer a certain spatial depth”, is how architect Michael Ogertschnig from the project team at HOLODECK architects describes the idea. “The translucent façade elements diffuse the light glare-free deeply down to all of the floors: this allows a flexible use of the entire area as fully adequate working places.” This is made possible by KAPILUX W from OKALUX, an insulating glass with an integrated white capillary slab. Incident daylight is evenly diffused into the room through capillary tubes, thus conspicuously improving the illumination of the depths – an effect needed in rooms illuminated from the side when the sky is overcast. On days with high solar radiation on the other hand, KAPILUX reduces the glare of the sun as well as the formation of hard cast shadows creating a comfortable atmosphere and optimal illumination of the working places.
“The translucent elements are an important component in our façade concept which is why we looked for a high-quality and proven product which we found in KAPILUX”, explains Michael Ogertschnig.

The OKALUX functional glass also fulfills the high heat protection standard of the building shell. In addition to the highly heat insulating aluminum cassettes for the covered areas and the triple glazed transparent areas, the triple glazed KAPILUX W with 20 mm capillaries in the cavities and U-values of 0.8 W/m²K also make an important contribution to the saving of energy.

Like the clear windows, the translucent elements are carried out as rigid glazing or as units which can be opened depending on the area of use. There is also sun-shielding metallic fabric in frames which can be rearranged by hand in front of the façade so that office users can always adjust the degree of illumination and the solar radiation to their individual requirements.