Information Box

The project was prompted by an invited competition for a temporary information box at the major construction site of Vienna Central Station. The typology of a “flying” square box developed in the competition was used for several years as a test arrangement for irregular load-bearing structures and vertical public spaces and was further developed in numerous variations.

A volume elevated high above the main urban arteries was investigated, which spans a complex public space on its underside, a vertical open space for sports and music events, an urban body that can be used for media. The amorphous and dynamic underside of the building as the fifth and most important “façade” adds a dimension with a high potential for spatial differentiation to the conventional perception of the city. The vertical load-bearing system of irregular columns and the suspended load-bearing system of a net membrane formed only by tensile forces were initially considered independently. The supports were optimized for the position of the box in relation to the specific situation of the subsoil using an iterative, algorithmic process.

In a further programming step, the load-bearing system was refined in such a way that it utilizes the geometric boundary conditions of the columns and their different spatial relationships: An organically branched, generatively optimized bar network combines the suspended and upright supporting elements into an overall system that simultaneously forms the spatial basis for vertical access, for numerous column-free platforms and for a media façade.

“The project stages the 'elevated box' theme with an interesting static system that designs the zone between the city level and the info box level as a symbolic intermediate space. In this way, the access elements and construction form an independent architectural area [...] The underside of the box is designed as a luminous media façade and, together with the steel mesh of the suspension, acts as an ephemeral body of light in the urban space.”
- from the jury minutes of the jury meeting on 14.3.2008