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Architects: Bevk Perović arhitekti
- Area: 2900 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:David Schreyer
Text description provided by the architects. The project is a result of a competition held in 2016 that set the task of making the casemates, an ammunition storage structure of the medieval fortress accessible to the general public in the form of a new cultural centre/exhibition venue for the small city of Wiener Neustadt.
The project deals with the issue of reconstruction and integration of historical layers into the life of the city - the historical complex, hidden for a long time, can be experienced and understood in its entirety while accepting a new programmatic definition.
The area in front of the casemates is conceived as a gently sloping public square that connects the level of the city to the semi-submerged level of the old structure, receiving visitors with a horizontally glazed ground floor. The visitor is then led through the maze-like - almost ‘piranesian’ structure of the old casemates, that has been transformed into an exhibition venue for the city.
New multipurpose hall - a kind of Kunsthalle space, lit from above, happens at the end of the subterranean promenade, it provides a natural, contemporary conclusion of the complex.
A gentle slope connects the space of the casemates back to the level of the Stadtpark, thus finishing the topographical outline of the complex - from the city, through subterranean historical layers of the fortress - back to the surface of the city and the green park.
The discipline of intervention is stressed through the material definition of additions - the brick world of the historical structure is complemented and revealed through the cast concrete materiality of new additions - making the new and old visibly differ, yet appear united.
