SHORTLISTED

KLAGENFURT:INTERCHANGE

Project Description by Team: Klagenfurt:Interchange proposes a city quarter that entwines new shortcut connections for active mobility within a continuous urban green network. The project takes inspiration from the intersection of two international networks in Klagenfurt – the Baltic-Adriatic Rail Axis and the European Green Belt – and transforms it into an urban concept. The public structure of the flourishing green Raumpark – a new „Grüner Platz“ in Klagenfurt, adding to the „Alter- and Neuer Platz“– forms the center of the project and represents an all-inclusive approach to living, where human, floral and faunal actors learn from each other. Positioned in direct proximity to the new high speed rail network, Klagenfurt:Interchange has the potential to showcase all-inclusive living to the European public.

Team Statement: "The radical change that the climate crisis constitutes requires equally strong measures.
Today’s responsibility of architects is to present a desirable urban future as well as the way to get there: Solutions usable and effective right now, with long-term virtue: Intermediary interventions - simple yet radical and sometimes still unaccustomed - that respond to the here and now, adaptively guiding towards a car-free and inclusive city. Inclusive in the sense of a city that thrives thanks to the juxtaposition of difference: living spaces for all species, generous green spaces while maintaining high building density, and spaces of learning and working for different social groups.
Our project presents itself as a concrete utopia in which Architecture pursues a radically realistic sustainability."