Office and Research Center Seibersdorf

The commission was to transform and extend an existing warehouse located on the grounds of the Research Center Seibersdorf into an office building. The office was to be designed for a research group comprised of various research disciplines, requiring a new building type which reflect ed their style of working. To encourage the flow of creative energy, emphasis was placed on shaping a dynamic volume: simultaneity of systems not only in the user’s working method, but also in the architecture. Different construction systems - old and new - exist at the same time and on the same level, which is readable on the various columns, volumes and their skins - the façade as a spatial element where transitional and interstitial spaces come into being. The room between becomes the balcony, the view becomes habitable. The warehouse addition takes on the form of a two-story beam penetrating the pre-existing structure and built over the street. This way, a “fissure” and, at the same time, a gateway within the building is created. Slight twists and turns of the shape produce opportunities for interstitial spaces, like the entrance area to the office tract. With movable wood and textile walls the building is spatially flexible.