Long Lives Sport

Across from the Generali Arena stadium beside a major traffic junction in Vienna’s Favoriten district, and near the training centre we designed for the Austria Wien Junior Football Academy, is Viola Park: a new urban development area with apartments, a senior citizens residence, kindergartens – and a sports high school. Here, directly behind the eastern grandstand, some 900 students will study and dedicate themselves to their athletic careers. For a ball sports high school is a place for academic education and competitive sports training in one.

A different kind of school

On the forecourt of the stadium, where cars are still lined up in a parking lot, the new building of the Vienna Ball Sports High School will be constructed in the coming years. Here future players for the Vienna Vikings, Vienna Capitals, or the Vienna D.C. Timberwolves, to name but a few renowned ball sports clubs, will have gone to school. As a “violet” cooperation school, Austria Wien’s junior and academy talents will also benefit from the direct proximity to Generali Arena. What these students need is not a standard school, rather one that caters to their ambitions as athletes. For example, there are no homeroom classes, and students alternate between morning and afternoon shifts in the classrooms – similar to North American high schools.

»Our design for the sports high school offers an extraordinary training facility for young talents – a place for celebrating sports. The centrepiece is the gymnasium that accommodates three sports courts, including a rooftop garden where students can relax after training.«

Friedrich Körner, Franz&Sue project manager

The gymnasium as a stage

The gymnasium as a stage In a ball sports high school the gymnasium assumes a special role: It forms the heart of the school because the young people will spend at least as much time here as in the classrooms. The two-storey subterranean hall, which spans the entire length of the building, comprises three ball sport courts. It proudly presents itself to the neighbourhood above from a glazed ground floor zone. Inside, the young people can watch the training sessions of their fellow students from the adjoining gallery in the aula. We deliberately refrained from building upon the hall – a green oasis should grow on the roof, which improves the microclimate and offers students and teachers alike a place to relax.

Multifunctional

The aula with its seating steps forms the communicative heart of the school. It can be combined with the multipurpose room and cafeteria for sports events or graduation celebrations, but the spaces can also be used individually for teaching, for example music lessons. The central seating stairway is situated at the core, connecting the gymnasium entrances and changing rooms on the lower level with the classrooms on the upper floors. 

»The project captivates with its logical allocation and organization of functions on all floors.«

Excerpt from the jury protocol

A game with corners

The layout of the classroom floors is clear and simple: The teaching rooms are positioned on the outside, while the circulation areas and home bases with their wardrobes, learning islands and communication zones are on the inside. A special feature: Each of the six home bases has a weatherproof loggia for lessons or outdoor breaks. These are created by designing the building with kinks as opposed to simply a long bar. The edges of the building nestle against the borders of the site, the length of the façade is interrupted, and we gain more space through this geometric game. This articulation in the floor plan is also reflected in the façade: the parapets protrude slightly outwards and are extended by filigree profiles. At these points, users can extend or retract the textile sunshades as desired.