Apostelhof in Vienna is an inner-city quarter developed from an ensemble of four buildings from different periods. On the site of a former seed wholesaler and metalworks, the project brings together Gründerzeit architecture, industrial brick buildings, a post-war building and a complementary new building into a shared spatial structure. The buildings are grouped around a planted courtyard, which acts as the connecting centre and gives cohesion to the heterogeneous ensemble.
The architectural approach responds to the different characters of the individual buildings and develops them further in the tension between autonomy and a shared appearance. The characteristic red of the brick building remains the defining tone and is continued in all added elements – monochrome rather than monotonous. Historic façades are interpreted, not reconstructed; new components deliberately reveal their constructive possibilities.
Through the combination of existing fabric and new construction, a variety of living and working spaces is created, with different floor plans and spatial qualities. Studio apartments, artists’ studios and shared zones foster exchange and appropriation. Apostelhof understands urban renewal as a gentle continuation of the existing fabric, in which different layers of time are preserved as part of the city’s memory and written forward.
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