FLAK tower monorail public transport system – a memorial to
slave labour in the Third Reich
In respect of the historical
legacy which these structures offer to the city of Vienna, this project
proposes to build a monorail public transport system circumventing the existing ground level
transport options within the city centre and incorporating the six Flak towers
as the individual stations. Each flak tower will have a station designed
specifically to complement the shape of that particular tower. It will be built
on to the apex of the tower thus enhancing the profile of these towers on the
city skyline. Access to ground level will be via escalators and elevators
through the inside of the towers. The structure of the stations will be
composed primarily of large reinforced glass panels and steel buttresses. The system will be two track
traversing in both directions with a total of three stations on each course
thus utilising three of the six towers per route.
Therefore the purpose
of this project is multifold ie: historical, educational, functional, aesthetic.
Historical: Because it seeks to preserve these structures as
poignant edifices in themselves for this reason the added station construction
will be glass with the deliberate aim of not imposing on to the archetype
design. In doing so the intention is to combine the six towers into one installation,
a memorial to the slave labour that produced them under the Third Reich.
Educational: The interior of the flak towers will be maintained
as museums depicting life in Vienna under the Third Reich and particularly acknowledging
the use of slave labour in the construction of these buildings as well as other
labour projects across Austria during this period. For this purpose photographs,
cinema, written testimony and physical evidence will be on show within the
original tower structures. It is also in
the plan to include an art gallery and lecture theatre for workshops within the
two largest towers [G –Towers Augarten andStiftskaserne].
Functional: This monorail is designed not as a competitor to
the current Viennese transport infrastructure but rather as an alternative more
leisurely scenic scheme with the objective of self-education, reflection and
reconciliation.
On a practical level
it will be a low carbon, electric, eco-friendly enterprise providing employment
to the local community. The electrical/mechanical/maintenance of the organisation
of the system will be controlled and housed within one of the towers [L – Tower
Augarten].
Aesthetic: These glass structures built into the summit of
the towers are intended to emulate the geometry of the individual concrete
towers below them thus acknowledging the proficiency of the original design.
The plan of the glass additions will form an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles thus drawing on the
Swastika itself as the key feature of the design. The purpose of this is
to identify the true origin of these towers. The strategy of the monorail train carriage shape is uncompromisingly
reminiscent of the bombing that Vienna endured during this period when 41% of
the city’s buildings were destroyed and the intention of this design is that it
stands as a testimony to the fact that war ultimately brings destruction and
not prosperity.