Carme Pinós

School of Economics Departments building . WU Campus . Vienna

Carme Pinós . photos: © BOA . + archdaily . afasia

Our project can be defined as a play with parallelograms which on the one hand provides a systematic solution for a highly repetitive programme and on the other pursues the goal of creating a public square.

This game enables us to connect the two buildings provided for in the master plan by a pedestrian walkway that passes beneath them without needing to add another structure or bridge.
The idea is to interpret the spatial programme in a strict and flexible manner through a seemingly arbitrary or formal movement of the parallelograms. The building, which on the ground floor comprises the cafeteria and the library, reaches to the level of the street, and thus possesses a more urbane character. The nature of the other buildings, on the other hand, is more private because they are located on grassy hills which ensure a certain distance from the pedestrian pathways. Thanks to these hills the passage under the first building is also situated at a higher level.
The building, though obviously elongated and extensive, has a clearly defined centre which is the starting point of all connections. The entrance to the office building and the library is located at the centre of our project, beneath the passage through the first building. Perforated aluminium sheets act as protective sunblinds and generating ever changing patterns on the façade.
On the inside the parallelograms house offices, each of which are assigned two 1.20 m modules. Every two office modules of a building wing are at a distance from each other, which generates room for ancillary functions and storage needs in between. The play with volumes results in shifts, so that some of the hallways are arranged along the exterior façade where they are protected by metal lattices which act as sunscreens but at the same time ensure greater privacy on the inside.