WH ARENA | Vienna, Austria | International Competition
# transreal architecture
#super-descriptive #relational #ordinary #holistic #ecological #speculative #figurative #enjoyable #playful #ironic
The recent history of the Arena typology is characterized, practically, by the formal resolution of how to define an envelope -facade- around a central void -where the show focuses. As a strategic reaction to this problem, and with the clear objective of creating a difference in the world of Arenas in order to place Vienna as a benchmark in a new sensibility, we propose 2 strategic conceptual shifts:
1/ From the centre to the perimeter:
It would not really be about shifting interest but expanding it. We propose that the show not only be limited to the interior but that, with a more public vocation, go to the perimeter of the arena programmatically activating its closest urban context.
2/ From the facade to the roof:
To support this thesis, the problem would no longer be that of defining a façade but that of a roof that protects and weatherizes precisely that new and activated public perimeter, thus promoting social relationships in the Arena environment. This goes from being an object of contemplation, inert on days when there are no events, to being a place in its own right full of daily life. So the new enclosure is deliberately designed as a kind of covering, a thin canopy, a different but familiar roof at the same time. This intermediate perimeter space is thought of as a kind of greenhouse, in which a multitude of characteristic tree species will domesticate and weatherize this new large space. This comes to be in line with the Viennese tradition of large greenhouses as public places. This new “Palmenhaus” is thus thought to become a multipurpose venue for small and large-scale events.
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