THE DC TOWER

By the very talented ar. Dominique Perrault photos courtesy of Michael nagl kopie; credit due to him The highest building in Austria was designed and constructed by the architect ar. dominique perrault, and it was inaugurated only last week. about the tower in his own words… when an architect delivers a building, it is usually an extraordinarily emotional occasion, defined by the culmination of a lengthy process of mediation. This process ranges from the absolute potentiality of early concepts to the precise tuning in situ of final details. an actor, for a period of time, the architect steps out of the scene in the never-ending growth of territory. He steps down as leader and gives his former employers full control of the situation. This is the point at which architecture makes the shift from a state that is mostly intellectual and conceptual to one that is profoundly physical and actual. Since the beginning, when we first organized an international competition for the construction of the final remaining piece of Donau City, the site has given enormous possibilities ever since: an open terrain, facing imperial vienna, embedded in the geography of the danube, lying on a plateau on the river’s eastern bank, like a bridgehead to two viennas; and this is what kindled my interest in this project the most; to be able to breathe life into a public space that is situated on an esplanade. We even took use of the opportunity presented by this assignment to create a real entrance gate to Donau City. The brief sought for a scheme that was unmistakably mixed-use, which was an essential need for the germination of the modern urban vibration that we planned to generate in and around the towers. The towers perform the role of two separate parts of a colossal monolith that seems to have split into two unequal half. Once opened, the towers create an arch with undulating and shimmering facades that bring the newly formed public space to life in the emptiness created there. The towers seem to be dancing on their platforms as they are slightly angled toward the river in order to start a conversation with the rest of the city. They do not turn their backs on anybody, neither the old Vienna nor the modern Vienna. The construction of the first of the two towers was completed only the week before last, and the astonishing end product is largely because to the significant contribution made by the hoffmann-janz architectural firm. The undulations of the folded facade indicate the entrance point of this new polarity, creating a new way to read the skyline of Donau City. These visual aspects of the folded facade are what generate a new way to read the skyline. A tension is created as a result of the contrast between the folds on one facade and the strictness of the other three facades; this tension electrifies the public area at the tower’s base. The skyscraper takes on a liquid, immaterial quality thanks to the folds in its facade, which also provide it a malleability that perpetually adjusts to the light, a reflection, or an event. We have worked closely with Gaelle Lauriot-Prévost, the associate designer, to give the building a very tangible and present feel across the internal areas. The construction is neither concealed, nor does it attempt to deceive the observer. It is possible to get your hands on the exposed concrete structure. The large and comforting physicality of the tower is contributed to by the use of stone and metal in the circulation areas and lobbies of the building. We have made an effort to steer clear of a trend that is prevalent in the construction of modern architecture, which is to conceal the actual labor that the architect does, such as stitching, suturing, contextualizing, and anchoring the project in the surroundings. The design does not appear until a later phase. Towers that float above the earth are an excessively harsh design choice because they resemble architectural structures that are objects in themselves. They have to settle down and establish themselves in the ground of cities and other locations where their urban material may be discovered. The fundamental horizontality of the city and the public space need to be brought into alignment with vertical trajectories in order to accomplish the goal. The work that was being done on the base and foundation of dc tower 1 was quite exciting to see. The tower’s position in respect to the ground is established by the architectural arrangements. The public area on the rear facade of the building ascends in a sequence of staggered steps from the level of the esplanade all the way up to the ground reference plane. This topographic sculpting launches the tower and produces a spatial interface that is accessible to everyone. As a result, the emergence of such a physical item is both conceivable and acceptable as a result of these two factors. On the other three facades, metallic umbrellas gradually emerge from the ground on the approach, which helps to ease the violent nature of the eruption while also mixing the city and movement into the future of the skyscraper. Important work still has to be done on the neighborhood edges in order to showcase the geographical elements of this urban setting and make better use of the river bank. The city of Vienna has shown, with the construction of this first tower, that the periodic and controlled emergence of high-rises can contribute to the creation of the city and produce modern, cost-effective, high-energy performance mixed-use buildings that are adapted to the needs of metropolitan businesses and the lifestyles of metropolitan residents. Please visit globalhop.indiaartndesign.com in order to see the photographs.