Baumeister Academy winner Natalie introduces us to a building in Vienna every month. This time: the Alt Erlaa residential park.
Baumeister Academy winner Natalie has chosen a building every month. She has chosen buildings that stand out from the usual classics. After the BEAM by Delugan Meissl and the Wiener Stadthalle by Roland Rainer, Natalie continues her series with the Alt Erlaa residential park.
Vienna prides itself on its ongoing social housing policy. A study conducted by the city on satisfaction in subsidized housing has produced a winner that at first glance looks more like a concrete castle: the satellite town of Alt Erlaa in the 23rd district, which was completed in 1985. In many respects, it outshines its contemporaries of the same kind. And this despite the fact that the housing machines of late modernism were already considered inhumane in the 1970s.
The parabolic shape of the six residential towers, which are staggered in height, is based on the architect’s concept. Harry Glück combines the garden of a single-family home with the density of a high-rise building with the terraces staggered floor by floor. Tenants from the fourteenth floor upwards enjoy the view of Vienna from sunny loggias. Around 10,000 people live in the 3,200 one- to five-room apartments. Glück’s credo of “living like the rich” literally culminates on the rooftops: There, swimming pools at a height of 70 meters offer residents a vacation substitute, according to them. Nobody has to leave the site to visit the doctor, supermarket or school either. The spacious car-free green areas with pavilion-like buildings explain why Alt Erlaa is called a residential park.
All pictures by Natalie Burkhart
The developer is Gesiba, the “Gemeinnützige Siedlungs- und Bauaktiengesellschaft”, which is owned by the City of Vienna. Long before participation in housing construction became a topic of discussion, the company was thinking about structures for co-determination. Each unit is linked to a share in the owner company. This increases the willingness of tenants to get involved in local associations and advisory boards. The TV program “Wohnpark-TV” by, about and for residents shows how they identify with Alt Erlaa.
Not without controversy – and yet a role model
The long waiting times for vacant apartments speak for the popularity of the complex. Nevertheless, the satellite town remains controversial – even if criticism of Harry Glück’s supposed “luxury amenities” may have died down over the years. The construction method was too economical, the architectural language too sober, the apartment entrances too dark. Nevertheless, even after 40 years, Alt Erlaa remains an exemplary project. Its success is not only based on architectural approaches. Rather, it came about through the symbiosis of planners, clients, the City of Vienna and finally the residents themselves.
The Baumeister Academy is an internship project of the architecture magazine Baumeister and is supported by GRAPHISOFT and BAU 2019.












