innovative public housingDelugan_Meissl “The Beam’ Residential Block Vienna, Austria Photographs: Margherita Spiluttini With the Donau Gy urban development project, Vienna fellows a twofold objective: to push the ety autwards toward the Danube, which until naw has been mare part of fllc lone than ofthe city self At the same tie, the aim eto give the historical center a med- fem counterpart with condtions that favor growth, Inthe nineties, a damper vas put on ‘these planning ambitions when Vienna decided by referendum to pull cut of the EXPO. 95 and the master plans for the presumed Wodd Expostion grounds were tossed out. Ten years later the area has bacome a built exhibition of the most dverse ling concent, ‘erected along the €entours of earier urban planning concepts, but without stict cohesion. ‘Along its entire 180-meter length, the prostrate apartment building folows the shoreline cf the New Danu The « se and seers almost lke tanker that has been anchored on the bank, ture is supported by pllatis that raise the bui lke a stage above the plateau-lice slab base, The final section is a tower-lke structure, the so-called "Beam,* that looks out towards the old center of town hts dimensions and the prominent postion in front af the ether rows of aparemért by ings place the Beam in the limelight, while ofering its inhabitants in their riverside apart ments, uly spectacular views, stretching From the bars directly below its loggias to the silhouette ofthe first district in the distance From the outer edge to the center of the building the plots vary in height between fen, seven and four meters, creating spaces of varying size beneath the "long this open space @ perron unfolds. undulating as iF set in motion by an opposite jpper pact ofthe building withthe netherworld of the underground garages and subway stations ‘The tadtional slab form is revolutionzed via ingenious sectional strategies that run current, Like an elongated sculpture it connects the pr from the center to the edge as well as fram bottom to top: the 250 apartments s ork of walkwayslaccess extend from front to back, some of them ane mlsennettes, and have both 2 loggia and a end of glessed-in vestbule as part of the neta ways for entering the apartments along the glazed back of the building In keeping withthe given urban planning situation but also with contemporary ling habits this design is not a ‘machine’, but rather a plenty of room for very diverse life styles. ‘open container for urban ving that offs