The Existing as a Resource

We are demolishing buildings of the 1990s due to obsolescence of their program, even if the high quality of their materials could support a change of use. This diploma proposes an alternative to the total demolition of the 23 years old Europa-Pavillon in Vienna by combining adaptive reuse and material reuse to extend the life of the building.

How much of the Europa-Pavillon can be kept, readapted, or reused within the same structure? What are the possibilities within the existing typology? How much intervention is necessary for a new program while keeping demolition to a minimum?\nThe material and component catalogue builds the foundation of the design. Although every intervention involves some degree of demolition, the goal is to keep it as a last resort and try to find meaning in the existing building structure. It is necessary to consider what happens to a material or component when it leaves the building and what happens to the building when the material leaves. Materials and components that are hard to dismantle, reuse or recycle should rather stay in the building and the design will work with them.\nThe goal is not to fulfill an exact program but to reuse the existing conditions. The approach for the transformation is to provide barrier-free housing in combination with a cafe, atelier, workspaces, and a physical therapy center. The new program creates a new dynamic between the existing building and the site, where different users with different needs can interact.\nMost internal walls of the former patient and service rooms remain in place. New wooden frame walls are added to define living spaces to create apartments. A significant aspect of the intervention is the new layer of loggias in the direction of the courtyard. A new interaction with the outdoors is brought into the existing space without taking square meters from the park. A timber frame addition occupies the available area of the former roof terrace. The idea is to achieve variety in the floor plans within the existing constraints and provide larger units than those on the floors below. The new floor accommodates ten new apartments and a shared space with a small kitchen. The load-bearing walls follow the existing rhythm and grid of the skeleton structure of the floors below. \nThis approach results in approximately 80% of the building remaining on site. Around 60% of the extracted components are relocated on-site and integrated into the new design.