The impossible furniture store
Directly at the Vienna Westbahnhof, where the “Blue House” once stood, it is being built, the new innovative furniture store from IKEA. The 7-storey building with a unique city store concept will offer plenty of space for people. Thus, in addition to the usual retail areas, a restaurant, a hotel and a green roof terrace are part of the building.
Hej
The architects envisioned the building as a modular piece of furniture. Designed as a skeleton construction, Peikko beams and Cofrastra ceilings are used, the shell was extended by a “steel grid”, which runs around the building like a cage and is also covered with greenery.
All this presented Thomas Lorenz and his team with major challenges. A particular headache for the structural engineers was the Vienna subway running under the building, which must neither be overloaded nor affected by vibrations or movements during construction. Impossible these Swedes.