berger+parkkinen completes timber office pavilion in vienna

terra mater by berger+parkkinen

austrian-finnish architects berger+parkkinen have recently completed a new office space named ‘terra mater’ in vienna‘s leafy hietzing neighborhood for a film production company. the brief was to reorganize and extend the existing offices to accommodate the company’s growing team and large technical infrastructure.

the existing offices were contained within a historic art nouveau villa and outbuildings. the villa was previously expanded in the late 1980s, and in 2003, a glass bridge-like entrance structure and ‘meeting cube’ facing the garden were added.

image by hertha hurnaus│berger+parkkinen architekten

a shell for greenery

the main goal for the architects was to meet the client’s demand for sustainability and innovation. in response, berger+parkkinen designed a two-story timber pavilion sited close to an existing tree and enclosed with an intricate metal structure. the building will become overgrown with climbing plants over time, blending the new intervention into the garden and the hietzing villa landscape. specific plant species have been selected to ensure a long-term cyclical change in the appearance of the pavilion in harmony with the changing seasons.

the pavilion connects to the existing extension to give the company a cohesive presence in the garden. program-wise, the new building comprises offices and meeting rooms. the team also rearranged the entrance to make space for an employee lounge as well as a cooling center for the servers required in film production, which is undetectable from the outside.

inside, the new office space is designed to be permanently flexible and subdivisible while integrating the required building services. the interiors are characterized by the exposed wooden structure, wooden walls, and wooden ceilings. the natural timber surfaces were glazed white to further enhance the green open spaces outside.

image by hertha hurnaus│berger+parkkinen architekten