CITY SOAK

Our project City Soak aims to address various issues of circulation and disconnection of the Westbahnhof train station from the surrounding city fabric by creating hydrological, ecological, and social interventions. By daylighting the nearby Ameissbach River and using the unique topography and elevation differences of the site, we propose to flood the site with water and create a flexible reservoir that would lessen the influx of water to the Vienna River and enhance the site’s urban cooling potential. Presently an important wind corridor that helps the city mitigate the urban heat island effect, flooding the site would contribute to this purpose and further reduce energy costs by altering local latent and sensible heat flux. Referencing the city’s long aquatic history of controlling Vienna’s waterways and the cultural importance of water, Spongy creates a new aquatic landscape built for both human and non-human habitation by establishing different programmatic and environmental zones for different inhabitants: a low-density space with an ecological corridor to the west of the site and a high-density commercial zone to the east of the site.