Known for its prominence among Austrian lakes, 83% of Wörthersee’s shores are closed off by private developments. One of the remaining plots with potential public access to the lake is the Vienna Boys‘ Choir campus located in Sekirn. The 8 hectare plot is used by the choir in the summers and remains unused for the rest of the year. Their ambition is to keep the plot for future generations of the choir as well as to open it up to the general public for all-year-round cultural activities. Its slowly deteriorating existing buildings and diverse landscape offer a case study for reuse strategies of local resources and material waste streams for its future development.
Today‘s extractive material practices demand a paradigm shift in the resource consumption within the construction industry. Our built environment must now be regarded as a resource and strategies of adaptive reuse must finally be perceived as a viable architectural approach. Transitioning towards circular building practices commands ‚new‘ values, characterised by the use of local, regenerative resources and material waste streams paired with a circular understanding of material sourcing, processing, assembly and disassembly in the context of the territories they ultimately depend on.
The design studio will focus on the renovation of the ‚Ferienheim‘, the largest building located on the Vienna Boys‘ Choir campus in Sekirn. Built in 1965, the building has since housed the annual summer camp of the choir, offering infrastructure for rehearsals, performance, accomodation, hospitality and leisure activities. Due to its lack of maintainance and sporadic use over past decades, the building is currently in urgent need of repair. On the occasion of this year‘s 525th anniversary of the choir‘s existence, the renovation process marks a turning point in the potential future role of the building as an all-year-round cultural venue, operating at the intersection between the private activities of the Vienna Boys‘ Choir as well as hosting diverse public programmes for a range of local, regional and international stakeholders.
Through a series of systematic research tasks – by analysing existing building components, adaptive reuse best practices and shared space typologies – the course will aim to propose holistic architectural, material and programmatic strategies for the future use of the ‚Ferienheim‘. All outputs will ultimately serve as a foundation for the actual renovation process in the near future.
The course is part of ‚Culture in Residency‘, a series of design studios by TU Wien that contribute to the ongoing development of the UNISONO campus: a long-term transformation of the Vienna Boys‘ Choir campus into a testing ground for interdisciplinary research, production and education on circular economic practices in the Alpe-Adria bioregion.
SS 2023
Integratives Entwerfen SS 2023 / 15 ECTS
Kick-Off: Thu 2.3.2023, 15:00-18:00, HS17
Site Visit Sekirn: 3.3-4.3.2023
Regular meetings: Thu 09:00-14:00
Excursion to Atelier LUMA (Arles, FR): 29. - 31.3.2023
Mid-term: 31.5.2023 in Sekirn
Finals: 29.6.2023 in Vienna (WSK Augarten)
**Please note**
It is not possible to take both 'Adaptive Reuse' and 'Material Library' courses in parallel.
However, there will be organised joint sessions between both courses that will enable exchange.
