Linz

The report of the site visit is online and the presentation of WAG of the site visit is uploaded.

No, digital plans of the existing underground parking garage on project site 1 cannot be provided.
Due to constructional regulations it is recommended to propose a new underground parking garage. Therefore it is not possible to reuse the current underground parking garage below the current shopping mall.

Yes, the document will be uploaded very soon.

In site 2, there is no rule where the parking should be located. In general the parking can be located underground and above level - depending on the proposed typological concept.

The file is damaged and deleted now. The file LINZ-AT-PS-M13-dwg was uploaded on 30th of April and has the same content like the damaged dxf-file, just saved as dwg.

Europastraße: average vehicle traffic per day: 7.500 - 8.500

As written in the brief p.17: "Europastraße is the main access street to the neighbourhood and is also used by one bus-line (busstop in project site 1 in front of the shoppingmall). Existing turning lanes at the crossing Europastraße/Landwiedstraße are necessary to regulate the traffic flow at the crossing and cannot be removed. Therefore it is impossible to close or minimize Europastraße for vehicle traffic! Nevertheless concepts of an improved articulation of the street space of Europastraße to a can be tested and proposed. Especially concerning the integration of the urban center square on project site 1. It is strongly recommended to collaborate with good traffic planners."

Site visit report: "In general in Linz approx. 70% of the people want to park their car ´in front of their entry´."

- Project site1: "Due to constructional regulations it is recommended to suggest a new underground parking garage" - the current underground parking garage cannot be reused. The position of the access to the underground parking garage has to be reflected.

- Project site 2: It is up to the teams to propose an underground parking garage or not. Nevertheless it is necessary to provide the required parking lots. Vehicle access is only possible from Albert-Schöpf-Strasse.

- Project site 3: "The current parking situation of 624 numbered parking lots of WAG (1 lot per apartment) on the parking level (below the gardens) and in the underground parking garage has to be accepted. It is not possible to reorganise them and collect them somewhere in a collective parking garage as the inhabitants would not accept a change of their habit. The additional new 100 parking lots for the attic-extension of WAG in Albert Schöpf Siedlung could be collected in a collective parking area (e.g: on the dam strip on project site 4)" Nevertheless the parking structure should add value as an urban element and not operate as a monofunctional parking garage (e.g: usage of parts of the ground floor area or usage of the roof).

A diagram of currently distributed parking lots will be uploaded very soon.

There is no official policy. See site visit report: project site 3.

Underground parking for project 1 and 2 can be considered.

100 new parking lots for the attic-extension in Albert Schöpf Siedlung can be collected as an above-parking-structure on the dam strip in project site 4. Nevertheless the parking structure should add value as an urban element and not operate as a monofunctional parking garage (e.g. usage of parts of the ground floor area or usage of the roof)

The clear room height of these shops should be 3,5m clearance (see site visit report).

The different sizes of the different shops are described in the competition brief p. 18 / Urban ground floor.

There is no defined information about width and depth provided.

All shops can be seen as individually operated units.

They all are tenants of WAG and therefore they are neighbours sharing the space and being part of the urban program.

No, they can share one underground parking garage. Parking lots for housing will be numbered and should not be directly mixed with the parking lots of the Eurospar. 

It is necessary to provide the required number of underground and above car and bike parking. The current underground parking garage cannot be reused, it is recommended to propose a new underground parking garage.

To create an urban center square of high quality, the parking on groundlevel has to be reflected and positioned carefully.

brief p.17: In general it would be possible to overbuild Europastraße if it is necessary for the concept. Nevertheless the streetspace has to stay public.

site visit report: Implementing a physical bridge-building over Europastraße does not make sense as it would create high costs and influence the public space strongly.

Therefore it is recommended not to overbuild Europastraße.

Buildings facing public streets and public places: the required minimum distance to plot borders does not need to be kept. Yes, buildings can be placed along plot boundaries facing public streets and public places. An updated version of the document about building regulation will be uploaded very soon.

For buildings with the last floor level higher than 22 meters above the adjacent ground, special building restrictions apply (higher requirements of escape ways - such as compressed aeration, higher requiremetns for facades, etc).
These requirements increase the building costs.
Therefore heights above 22m floor level (25m building height) should be avoided, except for having good reasons.
In no case the building can be higher than 35m (=highest floor level: 32m above adjacent ground) = high-rise-building.
It is clearly recommended to avoid high-rise-development (on all sites). 

Required escape route = maximum 40m from each entry of apartment to the staircase.

If the route is longer than 40m, a second staircase is needed. If the building height is higher than 35m (high-rise!), an additional staircase is anyhow required (even if the 40m escape route of each apartment is provided.)

Yes, this is an additional requirement which was discussed for the first time at the site visit. It is for this reason that it is not written in the competition brief, but then written in the site visit report.

400m2 for doctors practice: According to the rules 1 parking lot is required for 30m2 net surface area of doctors practices.

A diagram showing the different levels will be uploaded soon. We cannot guarantee to provide sections.

Yes, they do, depending on the escape route and the building height: Required escape route = maximum 40m from each entry of apartment to the staircase.
If the route is longer than 40m, a second staircase is needed. If the building height is higher than 35m (high-rise!), an additional staircase is required (even if the 40m escape route of each apartment is provided).

The current 50 above-ground-parking lots of the health center need to be maintained: either to stay where they are or to be reporganised (they need to provide proximity to the health center).

They are NOT included in the brief of 100 parking lots for Eurospar. They have to be considered additional.

Explanation in the new uploaded document LINZ-AT-PS-M18.pdf

On the European website: klick on the sitepage of Linz, on the right klick on "site visit", there you can dowload the document.

Brief p.26: It is clearly recommended to avoid skyscraper.

Site minutes report: The mixed use center-building should implement certain verticality, nevertheless it is recommended that the floor level of the highest storey should not be higher than 22m! This limit of height also applies for project site 2.

According to WAG this percentage is not very high; it can be seen as an approximate standard.

Vehicle-access to project site 2 is only possible from Albert-Schöpf-Strasse.

It is impossible to implement vehicle-access from Landwiedstrasse - this would disturb the big crossing Landwiedstraße/Europastrasse.

No, the brief asks not to change deeply the inside of the architecture of the entrance situation. As written in the brief as a result of the attic-extension of the neighbourhood, more people will use the entrances (additional 2 attic apartments per housing entrance).

Acupunctural interventions - like reprogramming and concepts of reorganisation (etc) -  should improve the spatial atmosphere and the adjacent outside surroundings to make the spaces more attractive and enrich/change their daily usage.

e.g. no garbage directly in front of the entrance, improvement of the courtyard-like entrance-space with the tree at the  parking level, when or why do I decide to use the entrance at the "parking-level", why would I use the one at the "pedestrian-level"? What kind of programmatic or spatial intervention could enrich the usage of the entrances on both levels?

Photos of the entrance situations are included in the brief.

It is recommended to respect the private gardens on the garden level as private outdoor space. Inhabitans would not agree to give up their private gardens.

There are some public terraces located on the garden level: they can/should be used/transformed/improved as part of the strategy.

A diagram showing the levels and distribution of private gardens and public terraces will be uploaded soon.

The overall urban strategy/concept has to consider all four project sites as one whole development area.

The different tasks, programs and conditions of the four sites require an individual process/project for each project site - still being part of the overall strategy.

Project site 2 / Entrée building: It is recommended to respect the plot borders. If you provide a good reason to create an added urban value by not respecting the plot border between ps2 and ps4, you can do so, but you need convincing arguments.

One reason to respect the plot borders is the issue of ownership (and therefore different availability, also in time) : project site 2 belongs to WAG. project site 4 (strip of dam) is half owned by WAG and half owned by an association. (The intention of WAG is to buy the whole strip)