Volks- und Berufsschule Längenfeldgasse Wien
The primary and vocational school for 750 children and young people is condensed into a six-story stepped building with a terrace landscape. This preserves an orchard, reduces sealed surfaces, and creates more openness for the city, space, and mind.
Intelligent densification is the guiding principle of this project. The 17‑class primary school is concentrated into a two‑story block measuring 60 by 50 meters, while the vocational school is stacked above it on the north side with its own entrance. This arrangement allowed the apprentice chefs’ on-site orchard to remain intact—a valuable unsealed open space within the dense urban fabric.
There is no fear of color, rough materials, or unconventional detailing here. The perforated aluminum sheet façade is simply mounted on blue windproof sheathing; steel railings, walls, and stair soffits are brightly painted; a 90‑degree rotation in the direction of the industrial parquet flooring suffices to mark the escape routes.
The entrance to the primary school is recessed into the western corner of the building; the sports hall and gymnastics room behind it can also be used externally. The hall’s roof, tilted upwards for daylighting, also serves as a seating stair in the assembly hall, from where the cloakrooms, cafeteria, and specialized classrooms are accessible. Two atria open into a courtyard on the first floor, bringing daylight into the center of the primary school. This level is where the primary school’s learning clusters BIBER) are found, each grouping four to five learning spaces and a team room for teachers around a shared multifunctional zone (MUFU). Within the learning spaces, a shelf is used to separate a so-called “nest,” or retreat niche. Glazing between the MUFU and the homerooms, combined with strategically placed mirrors, softens rigid spatial boundaries and creates the impression of an “infinite learning landscape.”
The vocational school spaces—21 classrooms and a practice company—are located on the stepped, receding upper floors. A large terrace above the primary school and smaller ones in front of the vocational school are furnished with pergolas and raised planting beds. External metal stairs not only function as escape routes but also enrich the range of spatial experiences—from the boldly cantilevered platform nearly 22 meters down to the playful slides leading into the garden.
[ Längenfeldgasse Primary School and Vocational School, Vienna ] Architecture: PPAG architects zt gmbh. Client: Stadt Wien. Structural engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure ZT GmbH. Landscape architecture: EGKK Landschaftsarchitektur. Procurement procedure: Open, single-stage design competition with implementation (above EU threshold). Planning and construction period: 2017–2020. Usable floor area: 7 722 m². Address: Längenfeldgasse 17, 1120 Vienna.