The entire headquarters of the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe (German for St. John’s Accident Assistance) is to be restructured at its traditional base in Berlin Mitte. The existing buildings are too small – despite sublets in the neighborhood. The workforce is growing. The pandemic has left its mark and closer cooperation and restructuring of all departments is intended to strengthen everyone’s self-image as part of one of Germany’s most important aid organizations. The Johanniter’s federal office in the German capital is also to function as a meeting point for the organizations in the federal states and as a point of contact for the public.

PPAG architects’ proposal features a contemporary office building. Staircases from the outside create terraces and open spaces on all levels. The building is a green terrace landscape in the city. On the ground floor there is an open conference area for events organized by the Johanniter or external users. A café & bistro on the street offers opportunities for initial contact.

Inside, the potential of the terracing is utilized. A system of internal voids creates centrally lit and ventilated areas around which open and closed workstations are arranged. Thus, the building is criss-crossed by inner centers with different focuses that informally bring together users with different interests. The appropriate spatial structure is a prerequisite for functioning interaction.

Attractive Density

This project takes up the complexity of the requirements of contemporary life with respect to content and translates them into a characteristic morphology. Building housing also means building the city. On Breitenfurter Straße, a district conceived from the very beginning as integrative and inclusive is to be created, with the aim of bringing the individual human scale into harmony with urban density in an exemplary way.
Buildings of various heights and depths stand on an artificial mountain. The car park, basement rooms, storage, technology, and rubbish vanish beneath it. Above, a sequence of public squares, passageways, and distance and proximity develops on different levels. With no cars. Additional infrastructure that supplements the housing is located here. Character and intimacy arise within the large scale. The differentiated, interconnected district, which can be traversed on foot in multiple directions, is also inviting for users who do not live in the immediate area due to its density and vibrancy. There are no front or rear sides: the surrounding neighbourhoods are each offered a corresponding counterpart and accessibility. The diversity of the housing takes into account the needs of a pluralistic society. High housing satisfaction is the basis for all sustainability.

Photos: Hertha Hurnaus

The inn and upscale restaurant Steirereck am Pogusch in the Austrian Alps brings together a down-to-earth quality, haute cuisine, high-tech work processes, sustainable agriculture, and a luxury hotel business under one roof. The supra-regionally well-known inn has been expanded on a large scale, but the changes remain largely invisible in the landscape. The project consists of existing buildings such as the stone house and the wooden house, which have been refurbished and elevated as well as expanded. These extensipns, namely the Salettl, the bar kitchen, the kitchen garden (a warm greenhouse) and a large glass house (cold greenhouse) are partly buried due to the hillside location. Through various calculated interventions, existing buildings and extensions now form a village ensemble at the scale of a rural development. PPAG also designed numerous details, such as organomorphic door handles, 3D-printed washbasins and spatially effective vertical wooden blinds, all of which bestow the project with the character of a cutting-edge, total work of art – and transport visitors to an unusual mountain world.

Architecture: PPAG architects
Client: Steirereck Stadtpark GmbH

General planner: PPAG architects
Structural design: Werkraum Ingenieure
Fire protection planning: kunz DIE INNOVATIVEN BRANDSCHUTZPLANER
Infiltration concept and soil expertise: Geologie Weixelberger
Vegetation concept glass houses: Green4Cities
Tendering: Buchegger7

Further planning:
Local construction supervision: Viereck Architekten
Building physics: rosenfelder & höfler consulting engineers
Lighting design: Ing. Johannes Jungel-Schmid
Building services planning: TBH Ingenieur
Landscape architecture: Client and Viereck Architekten

This project is part of the research program “City of the Future” of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.

Glass houses
Glass houses at this altitude of over 1,050 m above sea level represent a special challenge. A tremendous drive for research, a small amount of crop cultivation and, last but not least, innovative and unconventional guest accommodations are the main focuses of the greenhouses. Off the glass houses, one is cold, the other warm and both have different tasks to fulfill: the large one, which is the  cold greenhouse (minimum temperature close to freezing point) is used for year-round plant cultivation. There are also unconventional overnight accommodations, for unconventional guests. A matching special bathing area is located beneath it. Connected to it is the warm greenhouse (approx. 22 °c), which supplies the kitchen with fresh herbs and spices and offers an intimate backstage area where new ideas can be cooked up. Both glass houses are connected to the kitchens located below via atria and enhance them with direct daylight. This large hidden world in the background, which contributes to the well-being of the guest, hardly appears in postcard images. But under the sward there are well-lit workplaces with an elevated spatial quality.

Stone house and wooden house
The pre-existing buildings – parts of the kitchen, the stone house from the 17th century and the wooden house – have been properly renovated with respect of the beauty of the old structures. The useful remained, however widely refurbished. The topography was altered as little as possible despite major construction work. The excavation was returned into the surrounding landscape. The positioning of the new buildings in relation to the pre-existing structure and the pathways that unfold in between express the essence of vernacular construction. The transitions between the zones are harmonious and self-evident, despite the radical nature of what has been newly built. Ultimately, the overall effect is effortlessely normal. Every element was injected with renewed life energy, all the while preserved from unnecessary bluster.

Bar kitchen
The bar and fire kitchen with a large grill is the part of the kitchen that is visible for the guest. Depending on the daytime, it is light and transparent, or atmospheric and dark against the background of the grill: a strong space in the heart of the house. The wooden elements used here – lightweight but able to support heavy loads –are a kielsteg ceiling. When installed in different directions, the trim cuts that would typically be concealed when employed the conventional way, are made visible. The thin, curved plywood panels that connect the upper and lower braces are repurposed as lighting for the guest area.

Salettl
The new Salettl, or gazebo, together with the existing stone house and wooden house, form differentiated dining rooms that can serve different concept of hospitality and atmosphere. In contrast to the pre-existing buildings, the Salettl is open and transparent, with a view of the surrounding nature. Spatial comfort is provided by flexible, changeable wooden slat curtains. A large number of different spatial arrangements can be set up in a simple and quick manner.

The Steirereck restaurant in Vienna has been one of the top gastronomic leaders in Austria for many decades and has been ranked one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for over than 10 years. In addition to the gastronomic concepts contemporary orientation, special attention is always paid to the sustainability of one’s own activities. With the renovation and extension project of the Steirereck am Pogusch, Heinz and Birgit Reitbauer want to show how innovative a gastronomic business can be.

The Pogusch is located at an elevation of 1,059 m above sea level: a high alpine pass in Upper Styria that connects the municipalities of Turnau and Sankt Lorenzen in the Mürz Valley. At the top of the pass, the Steirereck am Pogusch inn can be found with its main and ancillary buildings. Facing the “Bründl-Wanderweg” there is already an old building consisting of an inn, accommodation buildings and a building used for farming purposes.

After decades and generations, the agricultural work deeply linked to the restaurant and the mindful way of life that stemmed from the institution was to be manifested, tangible and visible for the operators themselves and for the guests. The challenge was to reconcile a situation characterized by the experience of nature with a highly demanding, contemporary catering business and to orchestrate a harmonious holistic solution for the future. The new gets to be visible, demonstrating the perspective of life in the 21st century away from the city, nonetheless linked to the know-how of the 21st century.

The pre-existing components – the kitchen, the accommodations, the stone house, the wooden house and the agriculture – were complemented by new relevant ones by PPAG – the kitchen extension, the salettl, the warm and the cold glass houses, the special employee and guest accommodations, including the expansion of visible and invisible infrastructure.

Photos: (c) Hertha Hurnaus

Affordable living in a prime location
78 residential units and 2 commercial units

Apartments starting at € 6.50/m² net cold rent have been built in a central location near Potsdamer Platz. The building is divided into two components with an “L-shape”, both have their own development core. A corner formation on the street side serves as an urban forecourt and allows encounters to the public space, while the planted inner courtyard offers a place of retreat.
The forward and backward leaping of the façade creates a strong verticality, while the staggered sequence of large balconies, on the other hand, seems to break through the horizontal of the regular floors.

Photographs: Jan Bitter

A World of Children – Parents don’t come inside, queridos!

What does a school in the 21st century look like at the transition to the knowledge society? In a rural area in Ecuador. At 2600m altitude. On a slope with 56m gradient. Climate-friendly … The school of the 21st century is open and unique at the same time. We do not know today how we will learn tomorrow, everything imaginable should be possible. We want to build regionally reasonable, but with international standards. High tech and low tech, new and old at the same time.

We take the topography and work with it.

The space is kept as good as possible in its sensation, the slope of the property is understood as an opportunity for the formulation of an exciting sequence of rooms, terraces and views. Each room has the best view of the valley, to Cuenca, while enjoying direct access to the open space.

The entire system is nonhierarchical, a democratic space that represents equal opportunities for every child.

The relational space refers to the life in the spaces, to the use, to the effects that result from overlapping usage. The shortcuts are used by everybody – as well children as educators. What arises is real life communication! The identity of the school, the strength of the appearance, comes from the charisma of this commonality.

The property is the resource: water, energy, earth are used. Like the building itself it is as well teaching material as teaching tool.

There is as few movement of the terrain as possible, excavation is re-introduced at the property. Only the classes, subject rooms and offices get thermal covers. Everything else, even the learning landscapes are covered and protected outdoor spaces. The low sweeping roofs above the classrooms and the higher connecting areas keep out rain and sun, they let light into the depths of the rooms and allow air circulation. Unwanted sun is held by light measures such as curtains. Rainwater is held by the ‘communicating’ roofs.

The potential of the climate is maximized which makes it possible to design an all-season outdoor school. Only the areas in need of rest such as the core group classrooms in closed rooms (with doors, windows …) are accommodated. The surfaces of the “learning landscapes” are open air covered terraces. This also saves a bit of construction volume. The cluster spaces often extend over several levels. On the one hand, the classes belonging to a cluster area, on the other hand, the learning environment is often distributed over several communicating levels.

From the top to the very bottom:

The School Path

From the top to the very bottom: The School Street

The School Street leads in serpentines from the top to the very bottom. It structures the property and assigns its place to each use. It opens up the property barrier-free and suitable for wheelchairs with a maximum of 10% gradient. It is also used during the school holidays as a path of facility management (cleaning, refuse, distribution). The School Street is characterized by the uses attached to it: At the nursery school there is a mud and sand play area, passing by the music room you can hear a well-known song – what was that melody again? , the path widened to a table tennis court and so on … … and there are shortcut paths with greater incline which connect the turns of the way with each other. For example, along the northern boundary of the property, where such a culvert connects some pedagogical areas. … and there are secret paths, for example between two double clusters. A trouble-free way through more private spheres. The School Street is not a barrier. On the contrary it connects the uses across the street. It is a kind of social bond that is shaped at the individual sections by the different adjacent user groups and is dedicated to the contact between them.

Fragments of elements, levels, retaining walls, rain – there is a lot to think about and continue building – thinking about finishing the space: “This will be my submarine!”

The individual functions are arranged logically along the school path down the slope.

The school path that meanders down the slope is connected by numerous short cuts to a narrow network of paths. At the top, on Via Paccha there is the prestigious entrance with the Sala Dedicada and the Stiehle Museum. Right behind there is the creative area. The public part of the administration is easy to find here as well. The Puerta 2 allows the parents of the smallest ones (kindergarten and pre-kindergarten) to pass the entire kindergarten area. There are also parking lots for this purpose. Even the big ones can enter the area from here. Teacher’s, visitor’s and athlete’s parking is located along the northern boundary of the property. The road over the neighboring property past the Puerta1 opens up the area a little deeper: here you just come to the access area between kindergarten and primary school and the (now more central Plaza Central. Here, the busetas bring and pick up the children. There is room to enjoy the time of waiting. With the parking spaces located here, larger extracurricular needs can be covered. Generally: strategic location of the sport is well accessible from the street and well provided with parking lots. Many small decentralized sports areas are scattered all over the property. The parking lots are not present despite the amount from the Paccha. The school is visible! The kindergarten has a long flat space between the two double cluster spaces. Down the slope the primary school is in between the membrane as a hinge. Then there is the secondary school 1 and finally – noise protected at the end -there is thesecondary school 2. Here is the end of the school road – for now – connections to existing roads would be pleasing, but are not necessary. Again and again references are drawn up: from primary and secondary school to the outside, to the heart, from primary school and above all secondary school to the science and technology space – form team areas of the individual school levels to each other. The order can be found in many details: soil changes with different tiling show low threshold areas.

On this Berlin site of almost 38,000 m², an integrated secondary school and a grammar school have been built under one roof – they jointly share the entrance, the multi-purpose area and library, the double sports hall and other open spaces.
For this school building, the Compartment Model was applied as part of the Berlin School Construction Offensive, which has long been an integral part of PPAG’s work. In contrast to the previously common room structure, in which all classrooms lead off from a corridor, rooms are combined into functional units, the compartments. They offer space for differentiation and provide opportunities for individual or group work. The result is a sustainable school building that is not only a place for learning, but also a place for the entire school community to meet and exchange ideas.
Around 1,600 students are learning together here since fall 2024.

Five identical, five-storey compartment arms are arranged in a star shape around the large, double-height sports halls. These also take on extended functions during the school day, i.e. throughout the whole day. The entire ground floor is also open to non-school uses: the piazza under the sports halls, the schools’ multi-purpose rooms, music rooms, canteens and workshops.
The large scale of the campus and the small scale of the individual compartments, which are laid out as manageable “villages”, form a functional unit. Everything is pedagogical space – including the façade, whose individual façade modules, in combination with shelving and furniture elements inside, are an integral part of the equipment meant to be open to appropriation.
Conceived as a timber construction, the project mutated into a conventional concrete building during the planning development phase.

The central “forum” requires the best working conditions. It is neither a break area nor a corridor. It is the central working area for around 110 pupils and their teachers. And it is surrounded by four core group and partition rooms, all of which have an effective, direct connection to the forum. (1)

The library has a two-storey book storage area. A connecting door makes it possible to create a large shared library for both schools. This supports the mixing of all pupils. (2)

In the vestibule (= aula) with plenum stairs: The multifunctional staircase is located in an atrium and in the center of the staircase. (3)

The central sports halls can be used directly from the compartments during the school day and opened (not only) for sports. Extracurricular sports use is possible independently. By blocking four doors, no external athletes can enter the school area. (4)

Floor plan of the 1st floor

Section

Wettbewerb: February 2019, 1st prize
Start of planning: May 2019
Start of construction: December 2021
Completion: April 2024

Client: HOWOGE Wohnbaugesellschaft mbH
Architecture: PPAG architects

General planner: ARGE FC|P|PAG
General planner coordination, structural design, building physics, and budget: : FCP Ingenieure
Landscape architecture: EGKK Landschaftsarchitektur
Technical building equipment & acoustics: : Bauklimatik
Electrical planning: Kubik Project
Fire protection planning: Brandschutz Plus
Consultation on accessibility: Stefanie Bode
Graphic design: Bleed
Planning of sports facilities: Raumkunst
Façade & light planning: Dr. Pfeiler
Kitchen planning: Ingenieurbüro Schaller
Construction / General transferee (GÜ): ARGE Ed. Züblin / Otto Wulff
Planning services for the general transferee: ZOOMARCHITEKTEN

Plot area: 37.819 m²
Built area: 7.531 m²
Total gross floor area: 31.783 m²
GFA above ground: 30.318 m²
Usable area: 20.680 m²

Pupils: 1.564
Teaching saff: 154
Core group rooms: 60 (ISS: 36, GYM: 24)
Triple sports halls: 2
Open space: 32.423 m²
Soccer and volleyball pitch
Running track with jumping pit
Gymnastics field
Bouldering, table tennis and skate areas

Car parking spaces: 9
Bicycle parking spaces: 522

Sustainability standards:
BNB Silver
District heating and heat pumps
Roof greening
Rainwater retention
Core/shell principle

Photographs: © Jan Bitter
Collages by © PPAG with photos by © Jan Bitter (1-3) and © Adrian Schulz (4)

The standard two-room apartment usually has about 54 square meters and is shared between 1-2 persons. The concept of the “elastic apartment”, which was exhibited in the AEDES Architekturforum in Berlin, is very special: smaller rooms are arranged around a large, shared room. The small rooms are flexible and offer space for several people, depending on the living situation and needs of the residents. The “elastic apartment” thus offers space for a family with two children as well as for a shared flat or a single father whose children only live with him on weekends.

This exhibition is a plea for progress in architecture, housing and urban design. Our way of living has nothing to do with our genes, it is rather acquired behaviour that has been passed on over generations, and any further development is prevented by the durability of the houses in which we live.

“Even if decision-makers often reduce the question of urban housing to conventional standards, it is nonetheless becoming increasingly more complex and demanding. Internationally active, Vienna-based PPAG architectural practice is one of the few protagonists to accept that challenge with all its consequences. Although their approach may not necessarily be apparent to the onlooker at first, PPAG show us unconventional, yet ever coherent and trendsetting possibilities of thinking living, housing an city.

In its wealth, the exhibition gives us an insight into the architect’s complex oeuvre: realised and unrealised, their proposals range from the smallest scale to urban design concepts. Undogmatic, owing to the quantity alone. An open offer to pluralistic society. Alongside the methodical relationship between those outwardly very different projects, there is one thing, above all, they have in common: ethics, a perceptible attitude, philanthropy.

According to PPAG, this exhibition is a kind of wake-up call to leave the trodden path and discover new terrain. Inspring for architects, property developers and other responsible parties as well as everyone else involved.

Dive into PPAG’s universe – it is well worth it!”

Kristin Feireiss

Aedes Architecture Forum

Exhibition catalogue (Design by Stefanie Schwarzwimmer)

The exhibition catalogue presents the key project of that plea, the Berlin Wiesenschlag project with it’s “elastic apartment”, whose life-size model is also exhibited. In truth, the catalogue is an interim publication with which we hope to bridge the gap between our book “Speaking Architecture” (ISBN 978-3-99043-637-0) and its successor.

Hence, it also contains several projects, realised in the last years, which are not included in the exhibition. The Slim City project in Seestadt Aspern, Vienna, a quarter that operates with a kind of hedonistic, communicative density, the educational campus Sonnwendviertel in Vienna, prototype for a series of Viennese educational buildings that meet state-of-the-art educational requirements, the Steirereck restaurant in Vienna’s Stadtpark, where top-notch kitchen and service standards meet superior athmospheric commitment to architecture … and the mixed use Pah-Cej-Kah building at the railway station in Deutsch-Wagram, where eateries, offices and other commercially used spaces form a kind of stepped pyramid, with a park on the top for everyone.

Links to Press Reviews

Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 15.12.2017

Bauwelt, 26/17

Baunetz, 06.12.2017

FAZ, 09.11.2017

Photos © Wolfgang Thaler 2017

More schools than ever before are being built across Europe. In cities like Berlin or Vienna, huge school construction offensives are underway. These new school buildings will shape the city, society and education as a whole for decades. Development of those spaces is a chance for the future and should be the subject of public discussion on a broadest possible scale.

This exhibition and catalog discuss core topics of contemporary educational architecture in 19 stations based on built and unbuilt projects designed by PPAG in recent years. They demonstrate that it is possible to unite innovative pedagogy, architecture, esthetics and cost-effectiveness on a high level. To that end, the exhibition space itself will become an education on education on a 1:1 scale. The catalog documents this learning excursion.

The exhibition catalog is not only intended to accompany the exhibition, it is also an independent publication that should not only be understood in the context of the exhibition.

Exhibition views, photos: Jan Bitter

Photos of the opening on November 1st 2018: Jasmin Schuller

Exhibition catalogue, design: Stefanie Schwarzwimmer