Type
culture

Source
competition

Client
Extension of the existing building on the Danube embankment, Arts Electronic Center (AEC)

Address/Site
Linz, Austria

Site area
30.000 m2

Total floor area
3.450 m2

Storeys
1 basement floor + plaza floor + ground floor + 5

Structure
old building: concrete structure, new building: steel structure

Cladding
old building: existing facade, new building: nano-gel membrane

Architect
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Katharina Schendl, Susana Gaivoto, Vita Kobal, Ricardo Pires, Carlos Sequeira)

Our suggestion expands the spatial capacity of the existing building, so the new centre premises lift above the size of the existing building.

The compact new construction project enables a big space that grows between the river and the “Austrian scenography” and sweeps towards Danube.

Mood façade has the function of “hardware” as the two-layered intermediate plane that react with changes to the different mood conditions inside the centre and in its environs.

In contrast to the spatial organisation in traditional art museums that display static and not interactive art exhibits, the organisation in the AEC is a “generic” organisation of a container with multiple floors that enables a relative neutrality of premises for exhibitions and events on the basis of dynamic and successive experience of the digital art.

From the monolithic extent Mood façade of the new AEC it continues freestanding on spots, where there are interesting views of the environment from. These are sorts of living rooms, an “analogous space” that is meant for resting and relaxation of visitors and employees of the AEC. The interior of the “window room” has a programme connection to the nearby happening. For example, the digital art space of the exhibition premises continues into the Belvedere Lounge displays, where the over-dimensional windows enable views of the Plaza, river, castle, and the northern part of the city.

The window rooms originate between both layers of the Mood façade – internal and external. They act as the agent of different rooms for relaxation in the AEC and urban space.