Hybrid Timber Office Building

Grand Central, Vienna

The “Grand Central” office building at Vienna’s Floridsdorf Station is a hybrid timber building par excellence, because the building complex had to be built as quickly as possible, due to its extremely busy location. In addition to this, this environmentally-friendly building method was also a game changer in terms of the key structural requirement – that the building had to be as light as possible due to the fact that it is supported by the metro tunnel that passes below it. The elegant role played by the (completely invisible) use of timber in the integrated design of the building with Building Information Modeling (BIM) comes as a particularly pleasant surprise.

Functionally flexible, light, and rapidly realized
The objective of the “Grand Central” building complex at the Vienna Floridsdorf transport hub is to exploit the potential of the booming region to the north of the Danube and to provide urgently needed rental office space. The designers were required to conceive a new building that offers maximum flexibility in the use of the spaces so that it can meet the needs of a wide range of tenants. The hybrid timber building method facilitates a particularly flexible division of the spaces – from open plan to cellular offices. The six-story new building consists of two elements with a total of 12,000 m2 of office space.

Resource-friendly and energy-efficient building method
ATP architects engineers planned the building complex using the ecologically sustainable hybrid timber building method, which enabled the ecological footprint to be massively reduced. In addition to this, the new building was built above the existing structure of the metro and a former car park, as a result of which no green space disappeared under concrete. A PV plant supplies the building with its own electricity. ATP sustain, the research and specialist design company for sustainable designing and building, accompanied the design process in order to obtain building certification in line with the klimaaktiv standard of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK). The aim is to achieve Gold or Silver certification.

Special vibration and noise protection
As the building complex at Floridsdorf Station is located directly above the turnaround area of the metro and next to the suburban railway line, special attention was paid to the design of the noise protection and the electromagnetic separation of the building – in order to ensure optimal interior comfort.
The design of the foundation was a particular challenge for the structural engineers due to the fact that all of its weight has to be carried away by the loadbearing structure of the metro tunnel. In addition to the need for vibration protection, this structure also reacts to the impact of the wind, tilting, and earthquakes. The use of the hybrid timber building method and lightweight elements proved to be ideal in this situation, due to their major contribution to the reduction of the weight of the building.

High-quality user experience
The step-backs at upper level react to the strict urban planning rules while enabling the building height to be optimized. Continuous strip windows and recesses in the facade ensure the optimal lighting of the usable spaces deep with the building. Attractive open spaces with numerous terraces and loggias add to the high-quality visitor experience.

