Pressroom

The new office building of OMV's Schwechat Refinery, which was completed at the end of last year after a construction period of just 14 months, has been ceremoniously opened.

The office complex was integrally designed by ATP on the basis of its winning entry to a realization competition. "This is a building that I really enjoy entering," said Thomas Gangl, Head of OMV's Refining & Petrochemicals Business Unit, "on the one hand because it is a project that was completed on time and to budget and, on the other hand, because it acts as a truly attractive calling card for Schwechat Refinery."

Designed as a series of four volumes which appear to float above each other and are partly supported by expressive concrete columns the 13,000 m2 complex offers space for 300 employees. A clear aesthetic statement underlies the building's technically-determined appearance as a series of bridge-like and stacked elements. According to ATP's project leader, the architect Birgit Reiterer, the sculptural gesture opens up diverse spatial situations and visual relationships including internal courtyards that provide daylight and an elegant, colonnaded forecourt that marks the entry to the refinery.

The spatial program is perfectly adapted to the processes that occur within the building. In addition to this, the intelligent structural solution guarantees the maximum flexibility of the office areas. In the words of the head of the refinery Wolfram Krenn, whose colleagues have been using the building since its completion, "the new office building meets the need for a modern working environment while its attractive modern architecture is the ideal complement to the industrial setting of Schwechat Refinery."

A BIM model - a digital twin programmed with all the characteristics and behavior patterns of the future building - facilitated the lifecycle-oriented and energy-efficient integrated design of the project in partnership with the specialist design subsidiary ATP sustain. The spatial solution for the building takes advantage of the local characteristics to upgrade the site in ecological terms. Energy-upcycling results from the reuse of energy recovered from extracted heat in the form of steam.

ATP amongst the top 25 architectural offices – with the core competence of integrated design

Many years of experience in the integrated design of sustainable, lifecycle-oriented administration buildings enable ATP to design highly-flexible landscapes for communication and cooperation. ATP uses the creative potential of its more than 700 employees to create buildings that are tailor-made to support the core processes of its clients. This success is measurable: The well-known British magazine BD has positioned ATP architects engineers amongst the top 25 architectural offices worldwide.