OKZT OFFICES & APARTMENTS 2019 - 2021

The scheme reactivates the many years vacant commercial ‘base’ of a former sports outlet in a prominent, 70’s 13-storey development in the centre of Klagenfurt, Austria.

On the Feldmarschall Conrad Square front, a ground floor ‘hub’ space interconnected through an open, communicative staircase with two levels of offices for an engineering firm are accommodated. The interiors of the offices are designed to create a conversation between the exposed 70’s structural elements and new, crisp interventions.

A generous, central east-west passage connects the ground floor with the opposite west side (Geyerschütt), where the building is adopted into eight apartment units on the first and second level, a shop, parking and storage facilities. All apartment units feature a cantilevering balcony, animating the building’s rear side. Alongside the western party wall, a row of trees is proposed in order to minimise the current expansive hardscaped parking surface, providing natural shade and connecting to the opposite green space of the historic city wall. Beyond the ‘base’, renovation works are limited to a light renovation of the existing apartments’ entrance / stairwell and the provision of a disabled access.

The new façade constitutes an energy efficient envelope, horizontally striated with continuous meandering aluminium panels and generous glass panes. While on the Square front the articulation of the facade remains austere and follows the current envelope, on the rear, the banding adopts a more playful, cascading articulation.