Where sheep graze on an urban ‘hillside’

A transparent timber construction inclines towards the city rather than towering up above like its predecessor. From outside, you see people sitting in small lounge areas or working at their computers. The brise soleil on the glass façade not only provides protection from the midday sun but also generates green electricity through solar cells. Spacious terraces are cut into the green, sloping roof, which resembles an Alpine meadow. “We want to have sheep on the roof,” says Jakob Dunkl, “and no one has taken issue with the idea so far.” As one of the founders of Vienna architectural firm querkraft, he talks to ubm magazine. about the winning design for the new Raiffeisen Landesbank Kärnten building in Klagenfurt, Carinthia.

Having sheep grazing on the roof is a radical departure for any bank. Nonetheless, it is a good fit for one that has its roots firmly in agriculture. Indeed, Dunkl says that the bankers are very open to new ideas. And the multiple prize-winning IKEA building in downtown Vienna is compelling proof that the creative minds at querkraft are well able to bring radical ideas to life.

From outside, banks have always come across as being monolithic, often with mirrored façades, stately lobbies and other striking elements. The design for the new Raiffeisen Landesbank Kärnten is quite the opposite. How would you describe it in just a few words?

Jakob Dunkl: For a start, it’s an urban development project. The tall existing building is being replaced and we are responding with a low structure inclined towards the city. The building is the opposite of a fortress – it’s meant to be open and friendly. We don’t think a high-rise building is the right choice for the centre of Klagenfurt. The decision to have a new building was largely driven by the desire to create communicative working environments and to have a very inviting building at ground-floor level, which is not the case with the current structure. 

Why have fortresses become so unpopular?

Firstly, buildings are the furniture of a city and clients have a certain responsibility for the way the city looks. This change was very important for Raiffeisen’s self-image as a bank and the way it deals with customers. And also for its modern approach to working, transitioning from a workplace with corridors and cubicles to varied office landscapes. A hermetic high-rise tower is giving way to an open building teeming with life. As well as this, the event rooms in the back will be available for external use. This will really help to forge a bond between the bank and the city.

Planning spaces with maximum flexibility is state of the art today. But is it also a guarantee of a building’s durability?

We have a very clear position as regards durability or sustainability in general. First of all, everything needs to make ecological sense – from materials and technology to the type of energy used in the building in question. The second point is flexibility, i.e. will I still be able to use it effectively in 20, 30 or 100 years’ time? The third point is the most important: we feel the best way to be sustainable is through architecture that is cherished by the community.

What does that mean for you?

It’s about creating buildings that people love for their beauty, their poetry or their emotional power. And even though users may experience disadvantages over time, people are loath to tear down buildings like this. Our historical buildings are the best example here – in some cases they are far from ideal. Is Vienna City Hall the ideal administration building? Is the Vienna State Opera the most flexible performance venue in the world? I doubt it, but we’re talking about architecture that people love like an old piece of furniture that forever holds happy memories for them.

Where does sustainable thinking reach its limits?

In the 1960s, well-meaning architects made a point of designing buildings to face east to west but ended up leaving urban development out of the equation entirely. In the same way, we can’t lapse into one-dimensional eco-functionalism but need to create integrated buildings that will also stand the test of time. The existing Raiffeisen Landesbank building did not meet all these requirements. It was a rather unfriendly-looking lamellar structure with an extremely inflexible floor plan. And there was nothing appealing about the entrance at all.

So transforming the existing building was not an option?

In the competition, we made every effort to retain the high-rise because we wanted to drive forward the resource-friendly “re-use” thinking. So at the time we spent two thirds of the time trying to create communicative space concepts by modifying the old building. But this just wasn’t possible because it was so poorly designed. In addition, technical and structural problems meant that the old building could not be preserved. So we reluctantly decided to tear it down to make way for a new one. These days, such a decision needs to be considered very carefully.

Your office recommended a structural timber design. What were the advantages of this?

When you tear down a high-rise made of substandard materials, you need to think very carefully about what you intend to replace it with. If you consider a life cycle of a hundred years – as we did with our new building – then the overall balance of demolition and new construction is justifiable. Wood binds CO₂ over the long term, so if we use it in buildings today, we are helping to reduce CO₂ levels in the next twenty years.

Instead of “higher, larger and wider”, the key attributes today are “CO₂ neutral, recyclable and renewable”. Is sustainability becoming the watchword in architecture?

Maybe not globally, because traditional watchwords in construction still hold sway, for example in the Arab world or parts of the USA. But things are clearly moving in this direction. We recently took part in a competition for a building for which the client defined very clearly that there was €18 million available for construction and a further €2.5 million just for sustainability measures. Which shows that sustainability is now a prestige factor as well.

So when can a building be designated as sustainable?

That isn’t always as straightforward as you might think. Take our design for Museum Liaunig in Carinthia, for instance. Most of the 8,000 m² floor space is underground, with only a small part actually visible from outside. This building’s energy balance is sensational – it hardly needs any cooling or heating at all. So is that sustainable or not? It’s made of concrete and there are no public transport connections. But it was declared a listed building four years after opening and is loved by visitors and artists alike. So it may well be there forever.

In our digital working world, architecture is increasingly tasked with bringing people face to face. Are new architectural correlations needed for this?

Yes, they are. Our office is a case in point. There is not a single dividing wall here, not even for us owners. Naturally, it’s a little noisy at times but that’s the point. We need physical places of communication with everyday noises like the rattle of coffee cups and where people can be seen chatting to each other. It’s the human factor that brings variety and vibrancy into the office. Just having a perfect atmosphere in soundproof rooms doesn’t make any sense.

Today, we are well aware of the positive effect that natural daylight, biogenic materials and plants can have on people’s health. Can an office building be healing?

In my view, the key to happiness is much simpler – people need outdoor space. A hundred years ago, balconies were the reserve of stately villas, then they gradually appeared in residential areas and today virtually all new housing has them. Right now, it’s the turn of office buildings. People have been shaped by outdoor life for thousands of years. Historically speaking, it’s only in the very, very recent past that we have been living in weather-proofed buildings that are heated and cooled. But even during working hours, we still have the urge to go out and smell the fresh rain on the soil. This means that office buildings can certainly have a healing effect if they include large open-air spaces.

Given the current “war for talent”, it is increasingly important for employees to be able to identify with a company’s values. Architects can channel these values into buildings. What values does the new RLB building aim to embody?

Transparency, openness, clarity, sustainability, inclusion and an absence of hierarchy. For example, we want gender-neutral toilets, which are common all over Scandinavia, but the work inspectorate won’t allow this. We need our buildings here to be even more modern. With the spacious planned bicycle parking area, employees will have an even greater motivation to cycle to work rather than drive. And we specify very clearly that there has to be a directly accessible open-air space no more than 30 or 40 metres from any workspace.

Interview: Gertraud Gerst
Translation: Rosemary Bridger-Lippe
Photos and illustrations: querkraft, Guillermo Alvarez
Visualizations: querkraft – Patricia Bagienski-Grandits