2024-01-13 23:00:00
Sustainability in the sense of revitalizing empty commercial properties is still rare. But it is possible, as project developer Marco Sillaber and smartvoll architects in Bergheim show.
It is prominent in the suburbs of Salzburg, the commercial area on the left side of the state road between the roundabout towards Elixhausen and the town center of Bergheim. It covers an area of 25 hectares, around a fifth of which is made up of the Otto-, later Universalversand, warehouse conglomerate, which has been constantly expanding since the 1970s. Six large concrete halls, some of which have no lighting as they are purely warehouses, are grouped closely together along the Plainberg.
Marco Sillaber transforms former warehouses into modern rental spaces
When Universal-Versand changed its warehousing concept, the halls were for sale and Marco Sillaber bought them in 2017. He had just finished remodeling the tank hall and had already expanded the foundry factory and was ready for a new challenge. As one of the few project developers in Salzburg who mainly builds existing buildings, the appeal of the task for him lies in revitalizing and reusing old things. The original high racks were not disposed of, but rather dismantled, rebuilt elsewhere and are now available to tenants for a small fee. For the planning, he hired the Viennese architectural firm smartvoll Architects, with whom he had already worked on the Panzerhalle, and the construction company Spiluttini as general contractor for the execution.
What is the difference between building on a greenfield site and building in existing buildings?
For architect Christian Kircher from smartvoll Architects, it is a completely different approach, as there was no finished spatial program and therefore no linear planning process. At the beginning of planning it was completely unclear who would rent the property. The interconnection of production, exhibition, office and storage areas as well as rooms for research and development was clear. The first concepts were developed, including a 100-meter swimming pool along the entire length of the commercial property, interested parties were sought, concepts were discarded and ultimately very flexible spatial structures with a horizontally and vertically open structure were pursued.
How should you imagine the construction method?
The halls, some of which are 15 meters high, do not have continuous floor ceilings with access corridors, as is the case in conventional office buildings, but rather open platforms that also enable communication between the floors. People sit at the PC in niches or areas separated by curtains while kitchens are being assembled underneath. There are intimate, quiet work cells versus lots of open space with background noise from the neighbors. These halls, which can now be experienced in their entire size, are impressive, with stairs at different angles, seating steps to linger, lifts that connect the levels for disabled people, and generous views of the beech forest. As attractive as these rooms seem now, they were bleak in the early stages; especially the largest Hall 4, located in the middle, was very dark and hardly lit. This could be remedied by specifically installing atriums and opening the façade towards the parking lot. Only two of the six halls were densified through interior construction so that around 60,000 square meters of usable space are now available instead of the original 40,000 square meters.
Visionary business and creative center in Salzburg completed
Marco Sillaber spent a year fine-tuning the concept with the planning team, then it was time to implement it. Construction has been completed since 2021, all areas have been allocated, but not all tenants have moved in yet. When fully developed, 600 people will find work there; there are currently just under 300. By the way, around a third of the 40 companies bought the space. Both options – renting or buying – were desired from the start. In addition to start-ups, there are well-known companies such as Pixelart and Icezeit, and S-Oliver also operates 16 showrooms in the trading center. They also farm shrimp, produce skis, and run a dance and jiu-jitsu studio.
A beacon for sustainable land use
According to the Federal Environment Agency, the three-year average of land use in Austria in 2021 was 41 square kilometers, or 4,100 hectares. This means that an area the size of Eisenstadt was built every year. A large proportion of this is caused by the construction of operational and traffic areas. At the same time, according to estimates by the Federal Environment Agency, more than 100,000 hectares of industrial and commercial real estate are vacant, which is twice the size of Vienna. Projects like the one here in Bergheim, which show how it can be done and what possibilities existing buildings offer, are all the more important. The mayor of Bergheim, Robert Bukovc, also sees Trade Center 16 “as a model and Marco Sillaber as a project developer who not only has visions, but also implements them.”
What does it take to get more momentum into the reuse of old commercial properties?
Marco Sillaber would like to see mixed use in the operating area to also enable housing, also because it would be very affordable in terms of price. Architect Christian Kircher, on the other hand, sees a need to catch up in raising awareness and, above all, in communication with communities. For example, many people don’t even know that there is funding for brownfield sites from the Federal Environment Agency. In general, it is a highly complex topic with many components to consider, which is why, in his opinion, it also requires the development of process flows for construction in commercial buildings and vacancy management.
In 2022, the project received the Soil Prize awarded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology in the area recycling category, because not a single square meter was resealed for the new trade center. On the contrary: because the buildings were not demolished, the removal of 25,500 cubic meters of concrete was eliminated, meaning truck journeys of around 80,000 kilometers. These trips alone would have consumed over 15 tons of CO₂.
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