Stadthöfe

TEAM DATA

Team Representative: Nina Cosmea Mayerhofer (AT) – spatial planner; Associates: Magdalena Maierhofer (AT), Madlyn Miessgang (AT), Kerstin Pluch (AT) – architects

studio eva
Ferdinandstraße 13/2/34, 1020 Vienna (AT)
+43 699 101 88 456 – office@studio-eva.at – studio-eva.at

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VIDEO (by the team)

INTERVIEW

1. How did you form the team for the competition?

Since ten years we are sharing ideas about architecture and the urban. Building upon we formed studio eva, and took Europan as a starting point to work on urban project together.
 

2. How do you define the main issue of your project, and how did you answer on this session main topic: the place of productive activities within the city?

Supporting small production cycles and bringing manufacturing back into the inner city urban context, is one of the necessary steps for cities to deal with ecological challenges. By the inwards growth and redensification of Villach’s old town, resources are used efficiently and a city of short distances is supported. Our proposal Stadthöfe is offering a functional mix of production, community labs, services, education, health care, recreation, sports and a variety of (temporary) living offers complemented by an intermodal mobility hub serving future standards.
 

3. How did this issue and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?

Referencing the permeable structures of Villach’s inner-city courtyards and reinterpreting them in the context of current and future needs, the neighbourhood Stadthöfe forms inner yards. These yards are on the one hand community spaces for the residents and craftspersons of the blocks and also act as hidden gems in the urban pattern. The goal is to offer a maximum of space to the people and honouring the human scale, therefore all the motorized vehicles will be collected at the inter-modal mobility hub. This system is suitable to spread over to the inner city, allowing more and more courtyards to become a network of lived spaces for the citizens and contributing to a positive ecological balance of Villach. Our principles are summarized within the following three statements: (1) The streets, that move the city; (2) The fields, that sustain the city; (3) The yards, that mean the city.
 

4. Have you treated this issue previously? What were the reference projects that inspired yours?

For Stadthöfe the time we spent in Villach was essential. We rented an apartment, lived there for a while, walked around town, discussed our impressions and drew the first ideas. So Villach itself was perhaps the most important inspiration for us. We thought about old medieval towns and cities which unite all urban life behind their walls. In a dense urban fabric of streets, squares, houses and yards, people produced, lived, worked, celebrated, transported, healed and traded. The small units with its (intimate) qualities invite residents as well as visitors to participate in the urban life.
In Prilep, tobacco is dried in public places in the city. Many production steps take place decentrally in the quarters, the apartments and in public spaces. However, these are closely linked to the large factories on the outskirts of the city. Production is part of everyday life and public space. There is no separation between the housing areas and the small-scale decentralised production in the neighbourhoods. Exciting interaction between large industrial companies in the suburbia and the flexible informal actors in the city and region. Production takes place in the city, where people work, live, play and love.
Vienna’s Würstelstände have a tradition in providing food, beverages and conversations to everybody in the city on a low-threshold. These places throughout the city function as meeting points during day- and night-time. These small “production units” are open for visitors and Vienna’s local crowd in the inner city as well as on the outskirts in industrial areas and act as social meeting points by serving everyday needs.
 

5. Urban-architectural projects like the ones in Europan can only be implemented together with the actors through a negotiated process and in time. How did you consider this issue in your project?

The transformation of a central site of such a size can only take place incrementally - our suggested stages within the implementation of Stadthöfe serve the transformation step by step.
We are looking forward to start the process with the local stakeholders, international jury members and the second runner-up team within the Europan workshops and to design an implementation process together. Our goal is to balance out the (current) local needs with the introduction of structures that provide the basis for a sustainable urban quarter.
 

6. Is it the first time you have been awarded a prize at Europan? How could this help you in your professional career?

It has been our first time participating at Europan as a team – and we are very content to see, that our project has been evaluated well and been awarded with a prize! Kerstin Pluch has contributed to two Europan projects before: Urban Software (E12 Vienna; runner up), Twinphenomena (E12 Höganäs; winner).
On the one hand, we are very much looking forward to discuss and develop our ideas for Villach and the region further with the local stakeholders and on the other hand we are happy to be given the opportunity to contribute to a wider discourse within the Europan network. We believe that the international discussion on urban transformations and knowledge exchange is crucial for the positive development of our cities and societies.

TEAM IDENTITY

Office: studio eva
Functions: Architecture, Spatial planning
Average age of the associates: 32 years old

Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? If yes, which ones?

We have been curating an exhibition about the interplay of mobility and spatial structures in Upper Austria. For Klagenfurt we developed a thematic concept on potential areas for vertical development. Together with locals we formulated ideas for a participatory neighbourhood development and in cooperation with colleagues from Macedonia, Czech Republic and Italy we are researching on the concept of productive cities in Prilep. We are editing a publication on the topic of New Social Housing and the “Hedy Lamarr” boathouse is under construction close to the Danube.
Project information:
- Exhibition at afo architekturforum oberösterreich, together with Stefan Groh and René Ziegler; Spring 2020
- Thematic concept: Building heights in Klagenfurt together with Bosshard & Luchsinger Architekten AG; April 2018 - Publication: New Social Housing. Positions on the IBA_Vienna 2022; IBA_Vienna 2022 and future.lab (ed.); April 2020 at jovis, Berlin
- Research project: ENABLE; Prilep, Nordmazedonien, TU Wien. Funded by ERASMUS+, 2019-2022
- Participatory development: Universität der Nachbarschaften. A project by Urban Design, HafenCity University Hamburg und IBA Hamburg, 2013
- Architecture: "Hedy Lamarr" Boathouse for Wiener Ruderverein Austria, Danube/Kuchelau; opening: spring 2020