Vienna is also experiencing the trend of greening vertical surfaces with plants. This isn’t just about visual beautification – it’s also about the improvement of the quality of life!
As early as the 1980s, the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser was creating a stir with his natural designs in Vienna. As an “architecture doctor”, Hundertwasser’s goal was to reshape austere buildings by introducing irregular structures and vegetation in a harmonious fashion. The 3rd District’s Hundertwasserhaus, the greenest apartment complex in central Vienna, the Hundertwasser Village across the street with a shop and cafe, and the KUNST HAUS WIEN, the Hundertwasser Museum, are all famous. Both the rooftops and walls of these three buildings are greened with trees, shrubbery and flowers in surprising, bright colors.
Did you know that Vienna’s green belt has tripled in size since 1905 to 19,000 hectares, and almost completely encircles the city?
When shopping at Stilwerk on the Danube Canal, there is an outstanding view of another of Vienna’s “Green Walls”: the interior courtyard of a building designed by architect Jean Nouvel, which contains a 600 m2 free-standing steel construction on which 20,000 different plants form a paradisiacal vertical urban garden. The wall explodes in colors that correspond to the seasons. This “Mur végétal” was designed by the French botanist Patrick Blanc, who unites architecture and nature in his vertical parks. His “green walls” can be admired worldwide in museums, hotels and shopping centers.
Did you know that more than half of Vienna’s municipal area is covered with greenery? This includes not only parks and gardens but countless green roofs and walls as well.
Even along the Wiener Gürtel, the main transit corridor around Vienna’s central districts, more and more parks and green spaces are being integrated to contribute to the improvement of air quality. The first step was the greening of the facade of the Agency for Waste Prevention and Separation.
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