Studio Salvi Weber

Description

The Apostelhof in Vienna transforms the site of a former wholesale seed business and metalworks into an inner-city residential complex. Four buildings from different periods – a late-19th-century townhouse, an industrial brick structure, a post-war building and a complementary new addition – are not homogenised but further developed as distinct architectural layers. The project treats the existing building stock as both resource and identity. The specific qualities remain legible: the industrial scale of the brick structure, the spatial sequences of the townhouse, and the smaller-scale organisation of the post-war building. The new building completes the ensemble as an autonomous layer and clearly expresses its structural logic. Additive interventions respond sensitively to the existing structures. Historical façades are reinterpreted rather than reconstructed; materials are developed further rather than concealed. «Monochrome rather than monotonous»: the characteristic red of the brick remains the defining tone, linking old and new into a coherent whole. The landscaped courtyard functions as the spatial centre of the ensemble. Studio apartments, artists’ studios and shared spaces allow for diverse modes of use. Building within the existing fabric is understood here as a careful transformation: an architectural approach that conserves material resources, respects the built substance and maintains the legibility of the different historical layers within the urban context.