Visualizations: © BOKEH

Client
FH Campus Wien House of Health Sciences GmbH

General planing
F+P ARCHITEKTEN ZT GMBH
WGA ZT GMBH

Gross floor area: 42,870 m²

Net floor area: 39,700 m²

Site area: 13,300 m²

Built-up area: app. 7,600 m²

Upper floors: 9

Basement floors: 3

Competition 2021: 1. Price

House of Health Sciences

1100

Vienna,

Favoritenstraße 226,

Austria

Won through a design competition in 2022 this project provides extensive new teaching facilities for the Fachhochschule Campus Wien, the largest university of applied sciences in Austria.

The new House of Health Sciences offers space for highly specialized practical and theoretical teaching rooms for Applied Nursing Science and Health Sciences. With the FH Campus Wien as the training provider, 800 additional training places will be created here in the Department of Health Sciences by the year 2025/26, thus counteracting a major challenge of our time, the shortage of skilled workers in health care and nursing.

The new House of Health Professions provides not only highly specialised technical and theory teaching spaces for healthcare sciences, applied nursing and social sciences, but also administration offices, academic and library facilities, a specialist library, refectory and formal assembly hall.

The design concept provides a clear and understandable design solution to the challenge of accommodating a wide range of spaces in a compact, efficient and sustainable building across a sloping site.

This project features a new square which will form the central meeting space for this new university campus for 12,000 students.  Below the campus square sits two storeys of car parking decks, a large assembly hall, the main refectory kitchens, storage and building services, plus general theory and seminar study rooms.  Generous circulation spaces provide informal group and individual study and networking spaces, with daylight brought deep into the building plan from above.

Above the campus square the main building is formed as a ring building around a courtyard with a broad opening on the two lower floors connecting the campus square to a new courtyard within the main building.  The lower two floors are designed as an open glazed plinth, allowing views in to the main entrance reception, refectory and general theory lecture halls and classrooms.

Above this transparent plinth a larger multi-storey main building with a more opaque facade appears to float, accommodating three storeys of technical and practical teaching rooms and four storeys of administration offices and meeting rooms above.  This main building steps back at upper levels to ensure maximum daylight in the calm central courtyard.  The ring-shape of this building enables efficient connections, the corridors feature open plan spaces with views out and planted balconies to ensure an relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

The entire project features extensive natural planting throughout – from the campus square, central courtyard, through to the internal planted balconies to roof terraces with meeting and study spaces enjoying views across Vienna and lower Austria as far as the Schneeberg to the south.