Page 117 - AIT1221_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design smartvoll architekten, AT-Wien
Bauherr • Client Marktgemeinde Großweikersdorf
Standort • Location Hauptplatz 7, Großweikersdorf
Nutzfläche • Floor space 940 m (Amt); 1240 m (gesamt)
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Fotos • Photos Dimitar Gavizov, smartvoll architekten
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 142

COMMUNITY CENTER

IN GROSSWEIKERSDORF

What do community centres look like today? And what
added value can they provide? For Großweikersdorf in
Austria, smartvoll designed a customised, multifunctional
building in the heart of the municipality non-hierarchical,
democratic, open. In architectural and urban planning
terms, it is an asset for the village and a real place of en-
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counter in times of ever greater digital distance.

A bout 50 kilometres northwest of Vienna, in the southern wine-gro-
wing region of Lower Austria, lies the market town of Großwei-
kersdorf with its 3245 inhabitants. In the centre of the village rises the
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan 1 Gemeindeamt • Town Hall early classicist St. Georg parish church, built according to plans by Fi-
2 Vereinsheim • Clubhouse
3 Arztpraxen • Doctor’s practices scher von Erlach, with its neo-baroque church steeple, which was only
completed 100 years later. The new community centre of the town,
which was officially inaugurated a few weeks ago on 3 October, is also
located on the main square. From its very name, this community cen-
tre is explicitly not a town hall, not just a house for the councillors and
the administration, but a house for the residents of the community.
The design by the architectural office smartvoll architekten from
Vienna clearly reflects this self-conception. The elongated building
combines the municipal office, a clubhouse and medical practices
under a gable roof, a roof shape typical of the area. The building is
staggered into small individual houses and thus adapts to the scale of
the local architectural context. With the positioning of the building, the
architects created new, narrow alleys between the new building and
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +1 Lageplan • Site view the neighbouring houses or firewalls. The projections and recesses of
the building create small squares. Large squares with seating are loca-
ted at the front sides of the community centre. The public building has
an open and transparent appearance towards the main square. The
cantilevered roof seems to want to offer space and protection for all
members of the community. There are no thresholds – and thus no in-
hibition thresholds. Softwood and natural stone characterise the atmo-
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sphere of the interior in a completely unpretentious way. The foyer
turns out to be the citizens’ living room – a seating island with sofa,
carpet, poufs, armchairs, side tables and pendant luminaires. From
the foyer, large seating steps lead up to the open (!) level with the as-
sembly hall under the gable. The seating steps are a meeting point,
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waiting area and stage for the citizens – a roofed space inside – suitable
in all weathers and flooded with light, real instead of digital. This
Längsschnitt • Longitudinal section makes the new community centre a place for all generations.

AIT 12.2021 • 117