Apartment Building Gasometer B | Coop Himmelb(l)au

After the four protected landmark gasometers from 1896 were shut down, the tanks’ functional fittings were dismantled but the walled shells were retained. Coop Himmelb(l)au and three other teams of architects worked out individual plans and developed novel residential forms suitable for the gasometers. Coop Himmelb(l)au’s concept for Gasometer B adds three new volumes to the existing structure: the “cylinder” on the inside, the “shield” as a striking addition visible from the outside, and a multifunctional event hall hidden inside the gasometer’s base area. The apartments in the “cylinder” are lit via the conical central courtyard or from the outside through the window openings in the historical gasometer wall; the “shield” addition is lit through a generous, northwardoriented glass façade with loggias. A shopping center connects all of the gasometers with one another and with a neighboring entertainment center; in the interior of Gasometer B, it also forms a buffer between the event hall below and the apartments above. The “sky lobby” on the seventh floor provides an additional break in the apartment zone and creates a common area for residents. “In order to display the building’s new content unmistakably on the outside as well, we materialized the empty volume in the interior of the cylindrical gasometer as a space, rolling it out like dough, and placing an identical volume in front of the gasometer in the form of a sign.” The 330 apartments offer various residential forms, ranging from three-bedroom maisonette and loft apartments to student apartments. The event hall is a column-free, self-supporting shell construction in the gasometer that is freestanding and not constructively connected to the residential building above it. Its operation is thus uncoupled not only functionally, but also structurally and acoustically, from the residential function. A smooth coexistence between residing and working, cultural and commercial use is made possible in this way.