Rooftop Remodeling Falkestrasse | Coop Himmelb(l)au

The loft conversion in the Falkestrasse in the inner City of Vienna was the first realized deconstructivist building in the world and gained international attention for this new kind of architecture. 

The law firm Schuppich Sporn, Winischhofer wished to extend their office upwards.

The attention was focussed on a large meeting room. Adjacent to it several smaller office units were to be designed. The project constitutes two storeys with a height of 7.80 m, with a flat area of 400 m². The spacial layout consists of a 90 m² meeting room, three office units include an office space, a reception area and adjacent rooms. It would also be possible to use the office as an apartment.

The preliminary design of 1983 depicts the corner solution. (If there really is such a thing as a solution in architecture.) There are no alcoves or turrets on the roof, no context of proportions, materials or colors but, instead, a visualized line of energy which, coming from the street spans the project, thus breaking the existing roof and thereby opening it.

This space-creating taut arc – an element of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s architecture that since 1980 has progressively become more important – is both the steel backbone of the project and its posture. The open, glazed surfaces and the closed, folded or linear surfaces of the outer shell control the light and allow or restrict the view. Both directions of view, that from outside and that from within, define the complexity of the spacial relations. The differentiated and differentiating constructional system, which is a cross between a bridge and an airplane, translates the spacial energy into constructional reality. The planning and the construction took one year each and was completed on December 23rd, 1988. 

Project Data 

Design: 1983

Design Development: 1987

Construction: 1987

Completion: 1988

Floor Area: 400 m²

Cubage: 2.400 m³

Project Team

Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU – Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, Wolfdieter Dreibholz

Design Principal: Wolf dPrix

Project Team: Project Architect: Franz Sam

Project Team: Mathis Barz, Robert Hahn, Stefan Krüger, Max Pauly, Markus Pillhofer, Karin Sam, Valerie Simpson

Structural Engineering: Oskar Graf, Vienna, Austria