WohnBAUMprogramm / The Magic cube, Vienna (AT)
New building,
Subsidised housing ,
Timber construction
Client: Heimbau Gemeinnützige Bau-, Wohnungs- und Siedlungsgenossenschaft
Architecture: Dietrich Untertrifaller
Competition: 2022, 2. prize
Area: Plot 1 = 425 m², Plot 2 = 1,750 m², Plot 3 = 750 m²
Programme: Prototypes for sustainable housing in wood
Visualisation: Dietrich Untertrifaller
Team
Zarina Belousova, Maria Megina, Benjamin Michels, Gregor Ribarich, Diana Terenteva
Text: Gerlinde Jüttner
Partners
Statics: gmeiner haferl + partner, Vienna
Building services: Kainer, Rattersdorf
Building physics: K2, Vienna
Landscape: idealice, Vienna; tilia staller.studer, Vienna
Affordable, sustainable, natural living
The developer's competition for the "1st Vienna WohnBAUM programme" set the task of developing innovative prototypes for small-scale residential buildings that can be flexibly adapted to different locations. The focus was on affordability, living close to nature and sustainable energy concepts.
Our solution is the Magic cube made of prefabricated wooden elements. The Magic cube offers attractive, affordable flats with lots of wood and a close connection to the surrounding nature. Spacious living and dining areas with a view of the greenery and compact, multifunctional rooms as well as a garden, balcony, loggia or terrace offer a high quality of living.
Universal, manoeuvrable, communicative and open to change, the cube is built on a square floor plan. With a floor area of just under 150 m² and with one to three storeys, it is suitable for most plots of open or coupled construction in building class 1. The recessed top floor gives the buildings a differentiated silhouette.
Prefabricated timber construction
The cubes are designed as a pure timber construction. Precisely prefabricated, they can be erected in a very short space of time with minimal noise and dust pollution for the neighbourhood. They can be supplemented and customised with loggias of various shapes and sizes placed in front of them, as well as open access shelving.
On larger plots, several Magic cubes form micro-neighbourhoods and share an external access route. They never grow together, but retain their characteristic volumetry. This enables flexible reactions to the surroundings, soil conditions or tree population as well as an enormous degree of repetition of the prefabricated elements.
Diverse flats for different living concepts
The Magic cubes can accommodate flats of different sizes, with one to six rooms, depending on the size of the household. The compact smart flats offer floor plans suitable for everyday use and affordable living space in a small area. The ground floor is also suitable for small commercial premises, a café or a neighbourhood shop. Whether a communal room with kitchen, terrace and toddler playground, garden shed, laundry room or landscaped courtyards – there are many opportunities for neighbourly encounters and communication.
Just in Time
The wall structure – consisting of the timber frame construction for the load-bearing elements of the exterior wall, the thermal insulation and the panelling – is prefabricated in the factory, together with the windows and the façade to form a ready-to-install element. The transport modules are delivered just in time and can therefore be installed immediately. The maximised use of prefabricated timber construction elements and the reduction of reinforced concrete to foundations and necessary access routes guarantee a good carbon footprint for the project.
