The main challenge at Albertina Passage was to recreate an abandoned pedestrian underpass at the very center of Vienna into a modern dinner club for up to 300 persons. Our target was to design a club that is suitable for an elegant dinner as well as for a big party night. Hence, the design includes live music, a restaurant and a lounge. Our idea was to include these functions in one concept.

The centerpiece of our design is a white sculpture which includes main functions like the stage for live music, the DJ Pult, two bars as well as a lounge area in the back. The seats and dining tables are aligned just around of this center. In order to guarantee a perfect view to the stage also from behind they are adjusted on three steps. We connected the dance floor quite in front of the stage which is another eye catcher for the people sitting around. Furthermore due to this position the dining area achieves more intimacy without being excluded from the action.

The entrance reminds of the former function of the Albertina Passage. People enter the dinner club just in front of the Vienna State Opera and are guided through stairs and kind of an s-shaped "tunnel" into the main area passing the reception and the cloakroom. The first thing which guests see is again the center with the stage. Our design consists of modern elements combined with classic details. While the sculpture appears very futuristic the design of the dining area is inspired by American bar tradition from the 1950s and 1960s. Role model was Quentin Tarantino's "Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest" from his film "Pulp Fiction".

The material of our main design object is Corian, one of the most multifunctional materials. A big advantage of this material is that it allowed us to make one whole surface. This can be experienced optically and haptically. Unlike our modern centerpiece we wanted to create a contrast to it when we designed the walls. Hence, we decided to use a warm material in opposition to the Corian. The walls are shaped in a 3-D design which plays with the lights and shadows.

All in all the Albertina Passage seems to be a place full of inconsistency only at first glance. However, on closer examination its elements assemble as a whole. Albertina Passage is Vienna's first dinnerclub. It is a club to be experienced and which is not to be discovered in the first place.

+ About Söhne & Partner Architects

Architecture

Our architecture is as unique as our clients

A building must always engage in a dialogue – with its surroundings and the people who use it. Our architecture is always tailored to the needs of the people who live, work or spend their leisure time in our buildings. We also pay attention to our buildings' surroundings, and use them as a source of inspiration. Because the brief, site and client are never the same twice over, every project is unique – and so are our solutions.

Services

People are always free to question what we are doing

We take a structured approach to problems, and solve them creatively. Ideas are only as good as their ability to overcome challenges and meet needs. Even at the preliminary design phase, we use virtual reality tools to visualise projects, so as to respond to your wishes. We are not just designers but project managers, too. As our client you can rest assured that we will deliver a solution that is both creative and professionally executed.

Partners

We keep projects on track

Our network of external partners allows us to assemble interdisciplinary teams that are precisely tailored to your needs and the expertise that is required. Our office in one of Vienna's most vibrant areas inspires us and helps us to collaborate with other creative people. This, and our second office in Tyrol enables us to provide you with personal service throughout Austria. We cooperate with local partners on our international projects, meaning that we can always offer you professional support, wherever you are.

+ Project facts

Albertina Passage
A place for fun, a place for pleasure

Designer: Söhne & Partner Architekten
Photographer: Severin Wurnig

Planer:
Lichtdesign: Christian Ploderer
Haustechnik: Thermoprojekt
Elektrotechnik: TB Vanheelen
Küchenplanung: Metos
Akustische Gutachten: Rosinak & Partner
Soundsystem: Amenti
Ausführende Firmen:
Abbrucharbeiten: Prajo
Baufirma: Voitl
HKLS: Wieselthaler
Elektro: Hornung
Tischler: M&G und Maylan
Fliesen: Ortner
Maler: Schmied
Schlosser: Krobath
Küche: Metos
Terrazzo: Petz
Stoffe: Backhausen
Soundsystem: Amenti
Aufzug: Kone
Polsterer: Roland Hurnaus

+ All images and drawings courtesy Söhne & Partner Architekten | Photo by Severin Wurnig

In the Île-de-France region, the new gymnasium at Chelles is an exceptional example of a public building with a strong architectural identity. The town council's aim was that this local amenity should play a key role in the harmonious redefinition of the urban landscape. Located in the town centre, the project enhances the surrounding architectural heritage, composed of the Collège Weczerka, the Centre d'Art Contemporain "Les Églises" and the Town Hall. Respecting each edifice's identity and acting as a link between them, it helps re-establish an aesthetic equilibrium. The reorganised esplanade was conceived as its natural extension and redefines its use as a pedestrian circulation area.

The gymnasium is an innovative example of the increasingly adoption of HEQ norms in the construction or refurbishment of public buildings.

The project is the culmination of the town council's carefully thought-out plan to transform the site into an open public space. The double-skin façade, with glass on the outside and copper-covered wood panels on the inside, creates a strong architectural identity.

The paving of the esplanade, a combination of bush-hammered concrete and large plaques of Core-ten finish concrete, echoes the walls of the gymnasium. This so-called "contextual" architecture takes into account the dense and varied environment and dynamises the setting.

A 790 m2 FACADE

The glass facade amplifies perception of the surrounding space by reflecting the buildings around the square, not merely by mirroring them but by diffracting their image and creating a specific optical effect.

60% of the gymnasium's total surface is covered with glass and copper. The interplay of light and shade conceals the building's framework and gives it its mineral appearance, elegance and lightness.

The technical system used for the envelope is simple: a steel structure, glass façades with the lower walls in insulated concrete with copper cladding inside. This double skin ensures optimum acoustic insulation. The copper-covered wood panelling absorbs noise and reduces resonance in the large gymnasium space within.

A 2857 m2 ESPLANADE

The new esplanade was conceived as both a meeting place and a transit space, and develops the idea already sketched in by the architect Marc Barani for the Contemporary Art Centre. The subtle chequerboard arrangement of large bush-hammered and Cor-ten finish concrete slabs gives the square another dimension and highlights the entrances to the Town Hall and college. As a natural extension of the gymnasium, the esplanade reinforces the overall impression of harmony.

AN ENERGY-SAVING AND PRUCING BUILDING

One of this project's keynotes is its energy-efficient conception.

THERMAL INSULATION

Built to Very High energy Performance (VHEP) standards, the building provides a high level of user comfort. Its insulated concrete walls help cooling in summer and limit heat loss in winter. Each room also has a nocturnal double-flux ventilation system that recovers energy from the air extracted. The façades are glazed with 2.28 m2, 44.2 "securit" panes on the outside and 8mm tempered glass on the inside, with a 14 mm anti-heat Argon gas infill.

HEATING

The building is connected to the town's geothermal heating system, with a programme that heats spaces before use. The heat circulation generates the hot water and heating of the gymnasium, its annexe, changing rooms and circulation spaces.

ELECTRICITY

The gymnasium is equipped with 32 photovoltaic panels with a total power of 7360 Watts, generating 6600 VA to be sold back to the national grid.

WATER MANAGEMENT

The rainwater recovery system, functioning with the green roof, supplies the gymnasium's toilets and washing facilities and provides water for its surrounding planted areas.

LIGHTING

The infrastructure is lit naturally by large windows in the curtain wall and roof. At night, the building's exterior is lit by LED projectors set into the ground.

The entrances are indicated by candelabra. Inside, presence detectors optimise electricity management everywhere except the gymnasium space itself.

+ Project facts

Project: Gymnasium and redesign of the Town Hall square
Location: Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, Chelles (77), France
Timetable: 2007-2011
Competition: January 2008
Delivery: January 2012
Project manager: Chelles Town Council
Budget: 3.85M € excl. VAT
PROJECT AREA: 2200 m²

TEAM:
LAN Architecture (architects)
BETEM (contractor)
Isabelle Hurpy (HEQ engineering consultant)

+ All images and drawings courtesy LAN Architecture

The major highlight of the Saint-Malo Courthouse project is certainly the opportunity to actively participate to an urban renewal condition in which the downtown is moved from the port to the new pole, following a grid in which Avenue Aristide Briand performs as the main axis.

The organization of the new Courthouse demonstrates an example of a simplified path system for the public and for users, tending towards a clear and display legibility for spaces.

The central volume is conceived negatively, as a spatial void that we enter and that services other spaces by providing benefits in terms of light, comfort, sensation and functionality. The architecture is experienced sequentially, successively, as one travels from exterior spaces to an urban interior, and through spaces that progressively lose contact with the exterior.

The simplicity of the plan is contrasted by a rich and detailed work aimed at the definition of each element, of each façade, of each space. Reaffirming the difference between interiority and exteriority has conducted our search for materiality towards two directions: the definition of the atrium, and that of the exterior façade.

The building's walls are made of alabaster or onyx marble. Worked in fine layers, alabaster becomes opalescent, allowing sight to penetrate through the stone. While the alabaster protects from direct sunlight during the day, its function is reversed in nocturnal conditions, by letting artificial light seep through. Once inside the interior volume, three materials characterize and define the space: wood, stone and glass.

The choice to produce a compact architecture has led us to the creation of an immaterial object; with that finality we have been able to combine thermal requirements with a strong urban image and parti.

+ Project facts

Courthouse
Saint-Malo, France

PROGRAMME : Construction of a courthouse
CLIENT : APIJ
LOCATION: Saint-Malo (35)
COST: €9.1 M HT
NET PLAN AREA: 4 571m²
COMPETITION: 2011

TEAM:

LAN Architecture (lead architect)
Agence Franck Boutté (HEQ consultant)
Batiserf Ingénierie (structure)
Michel Forgue (surveyor)

Alumni Green, the most signifi cant outdoor space on the UTS City Campus, will be transformed into a vibrant, tree-lined city space in the latest design to be unveiled under its City Campus Master Plan.

The proposal by ASPECT Studios won the design competition recently held by the university. Inspired by some of the world's great public spaces, the design creates a central meeting place for the university community, fi lled with vibrant student-focused spaces.

The spaces will range from a grass area lined by sculptural seating to intimate garden 'pods' where students can gather in the shade.

Alumni Green will become the green heart we have always wanted… I love this design because it captures the bustling, cosmopolitan atmosphere unique to UTS. It embodies exactly what we mean when we say 'sticky campus': a place where students want to stay and hang out.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Ross Milbourne

The new-look Alumni Green will have three distinct zones, each with its own character and opportunities.

'The Green' is a large, raised turf platform located opposite Building 2 that can be used for special events like O-Fest, day-to-day student activities or simply a picnic lunch. The landscaped edges of the green will become informal seating areas.

'The Heart', a large paved, open space located at the rear of Building 1, has been modelled after town squares like Federation Square in Melbourne or the Pompidou Centre's forecourt in Paris.

It is intended as a ceremonial gathering space for students and visitors alike.

Easternmost is 'The Garden', a mini oasis of trees and plants shading a series of connected student 'pods'. Each pod caters to a different activity and contains facilities ranging from power outlets for laptops, BBQ facilities and even ping pong tables.

ASPECT Studios has also proposed a set of Grand Steps leading up to the future Learning Commons (UTS City Campus Library) in Building 2 to enhance the centrality of the Green.

We designed these steps as an opportunity to create a meeting point like Sydney Town Hall steps… That says a lot about our design: it's about creating opportunities for people to gather and socialize on campus. We are looking forward to working with the UTS community to develop these ideas.

Sacha Coles, ASPECT Studio

The design competition received 14 entries in total, with 3 runnersup identified. The competition jury praised ASPECT Studio's entry for the 'rich range of experiences', 'flexibility' and 'innovation' it offered.

The revitalised Alumni Green will re-open in 2014. Consultation with students and other UTS stakeholders will be one of the project's first tasks alongside feasibility studies of the proposed Grand Steps to the Learning Commons.

The western section of Alumni Green is currently closed to allow construction of the Thomas Street Building and Library Retrieval System.

+ All images courtesy ASPECT Studios