Since about 1979, a few families had been discussing the idea of a joint housing project in which healthier building materials would be used, environmental pollution would be minimised, polluting energy sources would be replaced by solar energy as far as possible, and “co-determination through self-determination” (i.e. also through principled decisions by the residents) would be substituted.
In 1980, a plot of land was found and bought in Purkersdorf near Vienna with a narrow southern side but very good public transport connections. Architect Reinberg was himself the operator of this project and, with his family, an association member in the developer group.
An old villa was preserved on the long, narrow south-facing slope and then 2 new buildings were erected on top of it. The special building form resulted – apart from the social task – from the criterion of the greatest possible sunlight with the least possible shading of the plot.
In the old building, the attic was converted and a flat was created. In the new buildings, all flats are built on the same construction grid. Within this structure, the planning was completely individual. Overall, emphasis was placed on creating as differentiated a sequence of individual semi-public and public areas as possible.
The structures are designed to create thermal zone areas for the entire building: largest opening to the south, highest temperature level around a sanitary core in the centre of the building and north walls with storage space.
The main building materials are: 25 cm high perforated bricks with external cork thermal insulation (8 cm) protected by wooden boarding for the external walls, masonry split hollow core ceilings with wooden floors (filled with cork waste) for the ceilings and roofs made of wooden beams with a charcoal covering, damp proofing, polystyrene thermal insulation and 10 cm humus with grass growth. The flat partition walls and the storage walls to the conservatories are made of large-format solid bricks.
The “soft” materials offered maximum flexibility, as they are easy to work with, and so quite a few windows were newly installed and walls moved.
