BÜRO KUGLER
Vienna, 18th District
1989 - 1991
TEXTPHOTOSPLANS
GMMK , Foto: Elisabeth Mayr-Keber , Gert M. MAYR-KEBER ZT-GmbH. Büro Kugler 1989-1991

Situated next door to the Moller house designed by Loos in 1928, this domed villa was built by the architects Deininger and Rukra in 1914 and displays elements of Jugendstil. The client's instructions were to create an entirely new arrangement of rooms in the two- storeyed villa. The ground floor was to be developed into an independent unit and the first floor extended into the roof space. The existing roof being unsuitable for conversion, one of the important requirements was the creation of a new roof with optimum volume.

The roof-shell, a barrel roof with 'outspread wings', defines the interior space. The load-bearing steel components complete the structure and make reference to the activity of the people who work in this room, which is a structural engineering office. The details and the specific design of the railings, wall-facings, steel stairs, platform, load-bearing structures or canopies, are a reflection of their work, which was ultimately a co-determinant factor in the development of this project, and not merely in a strictly mathematical or constructional sense.

The creation of the rooms on the upper storey necessitated the construction of separate stairs to the first floor. These stairs, connecting the first floor of the 'superimposed casing' with the ground floor, is contained within a massively-constructed wall and thus concealed spatially within the interior. Towards the exterior this forms a constructional element of the new plastically formulated entrance façade which picks up the theme of 'entry' together with the projecting roofs, the garage wall, the outdoor steps or the entrance recess. The flights of the stairs leading to the top floor do not lie one above the other, but are incorporated into the structure of the space under the roof, rather like a narrow mountain path.

A continuous sheet of studio glazing, oriented towards the northern entrance, connects all storeys, providing not only a source of natural daylight but also constituting a symbol of transparency and lightweight construction.