DC Tower I By Dominique Perrault Architecture (FR)

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

Dominique Perrault Architecture has inaugurated the tallest constructing in Austria, the iconic DC Tower 1 in Vienna, with an undulating “folded façade”.

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“From the begin the project supplied a web site with amazing possible: an open terrain, facing Imperial Vienna, embedded in the geography of the Danube, lying on a plateau on the river’s eastern bank, like a bridgehead to two Viennas.” says the architect. “But the website was not virgin territory as many prior projects had been conceived for it. So there was a conceptual ‘already there’, a completely fascinating virtuality.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“Very early on, what kindled my interest most in this internet site was the bridgehead with the rest of the Donau City district, with the river banks but also the situations for breathing life into a public space on an esplanade. We took advantage of this commission to design and style a genuine entry gate to Donau City.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“Reversing objectives for earlier improvement projects envisaged here, WED specifications referred to as for a decidedly mixed-use plan, an indispensable situation for germinating the contemporary urban vibration we were proposing to produce in and around the towers.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“The towers function as two pieces of a gigantic monolith that seems to have split into two unequal halves, which then open to produce an arch with undulating and shimmering façades that bring the newly designed public space to life in the void designed there. Dancing on their platform, the towers are slightly oriented toward the river to open a dialogue with the rest of the city, turning their backs on no 1, neither the historic nor the new Vienna.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“Today, the first of the two towers is up and the outcome is really amazing, thanks notably to the invaluable collaboration of the Hoffmann-Janz architecture workplace. The visual qualities of the folded façade generate a new way to study the skyline of Donau City, its undulations signaling the entry point of this new polarity. The folds contrast with the no-nonsense rigor of the other 3 façades, making a tension that electrifies the public space at the tower’s base.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“The façade’s folds give the tower a liquid, immaterial character, a malleability consistently adapting to the light, a reflection or an occasion. For interior spaces, on the other hand, with Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, the associate designer, we have attempted to make the creating really physical and present. The structure is not hidden, does not evade the eye. The exposed concrete framework is touchable. Stone and metal used in lobbies and circulations contribute to the tower’s generous and reassuring physicality.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

“With this initial tower the city of Vienna has demonstrated that the punctual and controlled emergence of high-rises can participate in generating the city and produce contemporary, economical, high-energy functionality mixed-use buildings adapted to metropolitan business requirements and lifestyles.”

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

DC Tower I in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture, photo: © DC Towers / Michael Nagl

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B’ Tower By Wiel Arets Architects

B’ Tower is a combined retail and residential project completed by Wiel Arets Architects.

It is positioned in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and was finished in 2013.

B’ Tower by Wiel Arets Architects:

“The B’ Tower, positioned in the center of Rotterdam, is composed of 3 distinct volumes of retail and residential plan, and is a contiguous extension of Marcel Breuer’s 1955 ‘Bijkenkorf’ division shop. Standing at a height of 70 m (230 ft), its plinth encompasses retail whilst its subsequent volumes are composed of 54 studios and 24 apartments, respectively. The city of Rotterdam mandated in the mid-1990s that a portion of newly built structures in its center incorporate housing intrinsically, the B’ Tower is one particular of the 1st of these buildings, in search of to impart and sustain an urban vibrancy within this rapidly restructuring district.

Adjacently sited to a pedestrian promenade, the tower’s retail and lobby are accessed by foot, while its residential system provides extra entry alternatives for automobiles and bicyclists. Specially designated elevators allow this automobile entry, which rise 4 stories to an elevated park that offers direct access to the building’s core. This two-story and 64 space auto park allows for views onto the city’s surroundings beyond a ribbon of transparent glazing, disclosing the initial of several cinematographic experiential sequences inside this hybrid tower.

Foreseeing a feasible future conversion of use, the tower was created so as to let for the transformation of its residential units, which currently function as short keep apartments, into cooperative housing. The ground floor retail space is multi-storied in height, exposing itself to the adjacent pedestrian promenade, and columns within each and every corner of the tower enable for completely flush glazing. The upper storied residential volumes feature generously sized balconies, each admeasuring 4.8 x 2.1 m (15.7 x 6.9 ft), offering the tower’s residents with outside entertainment space in a position to accommodate a 6-particular person dinner party table.

A collectively balanced heating and cooling technique is embedded inside each floor slab, with each other with electrical and IT options, regulating the flow of ventilation to and from the tower at all instances. Power for heating is circulated all through every slab by way of the area’s central ‘district heating’ program, whilst cooling is collectively developed within a central device just before its distribution. This holistic strategy to the interior climate allowed for the seamless integration of the heating, cooling, electrical, and IT elements, which service the tower’s environmental wants with out dictating its design and style. Capping each the roof of the elongated retail space and the prime of the tower are locations of green vegetation.

Interior living spaces are outfitted with kitchens created by WAA in collaboration with Alessi and Valcucine, with most remaining residential furnishings created by WAA in collaboration with Lensvelt. All bathrooms are equipped with the WAA Il Bagno dOt bathroom series fixtures, which are made by Alessi, Laufen, and Oras. Special to the uppermost and cantilevered volume’s residences are façade facing bathrooms, enabling one particular to soak in an oversized bathtub although overlooking the skyline of Rotterdam under and beyond.”

Photos courtesy of Wiel Arets Architects

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