DnD Landschaftsplanung: In designing this sixteen-kilometer-long stretch of the highway, the project team of Anna Detzlhofer / Max Rieder, winner of the peer review, took on the goal of “enriching” the unstructured street “with prospective landscape.” The central idea for the landscape design and accompanying ecological planning was to counteract the divisive effect of the route and integrate the street into the topography. This meant replacing most of the noise barriers with mounded berms. The various perspectives of people walking or driving on the street — that is, views of the street from the inside and outside — influenced the planning.
When a street runs straight for a long time, monotony can set in very quickly. In order to counteract this, Detzlhofer and Rieder treated it as a complex flow of motion, landscape, and space, where speed and sequences of movement determine perception. Anyone driving down the street, which links the southern and eastern edges of Vienna, will pass a landmark every thirty seconds, and this combats monotony and poor concentration: on one hand, there are newly created formations of earth, and on the other, conceptual plantings, whose theme is the synthetic character of the rough, artificial landscape. Archaic-looking “earth cities” of large proportions appear and disappear in the dense, multi-functional area. Physical formations, such as basins, ridges, slopes, and rows of hills, mark the interior and exterior perceptions of the street or environment, providing them with some rhythm. Regardless of their effect on the space, they are also important ecological retreats for a succession of wildlife habitats. Functional transportation elements, such as bridges, low elevation ramps, and junctions, are blended with ecological elements, such as wildlife crossings and compensatory habitats.
Name of project: Erdstädte S1 Wiener Südrandstrasse
Adress: Obere Grenzgasse
District: Rothneusiedel (W), Johannesberg (W), Schwechat (NÖ), Vösendorf (NÖ)
Landscape Architects: DnD Landschaftsplanung, Arge DI Anna Detzlhofer / Mag Arch Max Rieder
Construction:2003 – 2005
Budget: 7.000.000,- Euro
Area: together (4 sites) ca. 100.000 m2, Erdstadt Rothneusiedel ca. 30.000 m3, Erdstadt Johannesberg ca. 22.000 m2, Erdstadt Vösendorf ca. 34.000 m2, Erdstadt Schwechat ca. 18.000 m2
Photos: DnD Landschaftsplanung, ASFINAG, PEZ HEJDUK, Gernot Dessovic