The Madrid-based architectural firm arenas basabe palacios developed a hands-on concept for the redevelopment of an abandoned site in Vienna – one which represents a new form of garden city.

The architects divided the site of The Commons into a grid of gardens which would serve as a framework for urban and social development. 33 percent of the land area will be covered with nearly 1,000 residential units, 10 percent is reserved for private gardens, and 57 percent will remain as common green space. The architects defined an urban code for all the gardens. Private owners and investors can buy garden plots and construct buildings around them, ranging in size XS to XL, in accordance with the urban code. The unbuilt areas, or “the commons,” remain open to everyone. Thus, the actions of the owners will determine the appearance of the public space and of the whole neighborhood.

Project author Enrique Arenas from arenas basabe palacios notes: “The structure should be defined not by buildings but by the green spaces. The gardens are the playing board – or the hardware for the project. Once the playing field is defined, we need rules for interaction, or the software. Our garden city also has rules and playing cards. They define how things can develop and which relationships can arise among citizens.

Read feature interview in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

As one of the three main Holcim Awards winners for Europe in 2014, “The Commons” automatically qualified as a finalist in the Global Holcim Awards 2015. All 15 finalist project teams were asked to submit an updated and more comprehensive entry that was evaluated by a global jury in March 2015. 

View project entry posters - Global Holcim Awards

The results of the global phase of the 4th Holcim Awards competition were announced on April 20, 2015.

Read full media release - Sustainable design improving communities

The winners of the global phase of the 4th International Holcim Awards competition will be revealed on April 20, 2015. The results will be announced via the Holcim Awards website.

The winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 for Europe illustrate how sustainable construction continues to evolve – developing more sophisticated and multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing the building and construction industry. An ecological reserve and remediation project in Southern Italy, a low-cost flexible university building in Paris, and a participatory urban neighborhood in Vienna won gold, silver and bronze.

Luis Basabe Montalvo of Arenas Basabe Palacios arquitectos and his co-authors consider the concept of “porosity” central to their design: a neighborhood of social and ecological porosity, creating a system of co-existence with the natural environment. “The Commons: Participatory urban neighborhood, Vienna, Austria” focuses on questions of procedures, including stakeholder participation and its effects on physical form.

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The jury especially commends the focus on questions of procedures, including stakeholder participation and its effects on physical form. Particularly interesting is the changing relationship between built and un-built areas that is constantly negotiated and re-negotiated in a process that engages a range of relevant parties. The proposal offers a method for a step-by-step urban densification, combining both bottom-up/top-down and formal/informal practices – to create an urban commons.