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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