International competition
Among best 16 out of 226

Base data:
site: 190 m²
gross area: 2.300 m²

Moving Austria and the US closer together in the cultural sense means making the distance between them comprehensible. This project uses architecture to make the distance between two places spatially understandable thus allowing them to be seen in relation to each other. In the east-west direction the perpendiculars to the surface of the earth in New York (74.0¡ longitude west) and Vienna (16.4¡ longitude east) almost form a precise right angle.

In the north-south direction New York (40.8¡ latitude north) and Vienna (48.2¡ latitude north) differ only by 7.4¡, a nice slope for a ramp. Does this mean that a floor in Vienna is a wall in NYC? Not exactly. This project takes up these similarities and differences and expresses in visual terms discoveries, measurements and charts of the relationships on the surface of the earth made a long time ago.  It is an object that makes a spatial global relationship tangible and consequently offers room to recognize other relationships. By making the global spatial relationship tangible, the building makes it possible to recognize other relationships.

Published in: "Austrian Cultural Institute", Ed.: E. Bliem, Haymon Verlag. 

Client:
Bundesministerium fuer auswaertige Angelegenheiten
Ballhausplatz 2
A-1010 Vienna/Austria

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