IKEA plans new city store in vienna, complete with green façades and no car parking

IKEA has begun construction on its innovative, seven-story city store in vienna‘s westbahnhof station, designed by querkraft architekten with green façades, a green roof terrace, and no car parking. geared towards pedestrians, cyclists, and people who use public transport, the store has no space for cars as it is developed to serve the ever-increasing number of people who live in urban centers without them. friendly, open, unconventional and informal, the building’s design is reminiscent of a bookcase, which, besides the shopping areas, packs a lot of experience spaces, gastronomy, areas to stroll around, and more green than a park in this area could offer, with 160 trees sustainably influencing the micro-climate.all images by zommvp + querkraft, courtesy of IKEA

‘the concept focuses on the current megatrends and takes into account the dramatically changed shopping behavior as well as a new form of mobility without a car,’ explains IKEA in a recent statement. ‘customers have little time and appreciate convenience and comfort. this is clearly noticeable in the furnishing area: more and more customers no longer even think about carrying their purchases home themselves. you can have them delivered.’ the new city store at westbahnhof, which is designed to serve mainly pedestrians, cyclists, and people who come by tram or subway, promises to deliver all larger items to the customers’ homes within a maximum of 24 hours.

construction of the new store has already began since 7 january 2020 and is scheduled for completion in 2021, while IKEA hopes that it should become the meeting point for the whole district, with plenty of public spaces inside and outside the building. responsible for the design, querkraft architekten has developed the building as a freely configurable structure with maximum flexibility, where glazed boxes (add-ons) in each floor can expand the space and can be provided and used in many different ways.

‘a large-volume of trees in the façade and on the roof sustainably influence the micro-climate,’ explains the austrian architecture office. ‘vegetation is the most important measure in the city of vienna’s urban heat island strategy. trailing plants and moss façade elements are further factors which have a cooling and humidifying effect like the trees.’

project info:

name: IKEA am westbahnhof

architect: querkraft architekten

location: westbahnhof, vienna, austria

size: 21600 m2

client: IKEA / rodolphe de campos

querkraft partners: jakob dunkl, gerd erhartt, peter sapp

project manager IKEA construction: robert charuza

retail and real estate: sandra sindler-larsson

project manager querkraft: carmen hottinger, ursula konzett

team: sonja mitsch, margarita shileva, johanna sieberer, maximilian quick, michael voit, veronika felber

team (competition): gil cloos, claudia cikanek, fabian kahr, magdalena süss, peter hanna, meryl leyhe, carsten sibal, theresa steinlein, theresa amesberger

visualization: zommvp, querkraft

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