Terra Mater Factual Studios is a film production company that has made an
international name for itself with nature films. The Austrian-Finnish architects
BERGER+PARKKINEN were commissioned to plan the reorganization and
expansion of the company's location in Vienna-Hietzing. The new building was
recently completed.
Terra Mater operates in Vienna in a historic Art Nouveau villa with outbuildings. The
villa was expanded in the late 1980s, and in 2003 received a glass bridge-like
entrance structure and a meeting cube facing the garden.
The goal of the new adaptation was to accommodate the further growth of the
staff and at the same time to incorporate the large technical infrastructure of the
film production into the building. In the spirit of closeness to nature, the main goal
was to meet the organization's demand for sustainability and innovation.
Thus, a new pavilion with offices and meeting rooms, a reorganization of the
entrance with an employee lounge as well as a cooling center for the servers
required in the film technology, which is undetectable from the outside, were
created. Since the new building was developed from solid wood, the integration of
the extensive technical installations posed a particular challenge. The position on
the site also ensures that the imposing "house tree" in the garden retains its effect.
In the spirit of sustainability, the entire building ensemble was continued in a new
interpretation on the tree-covered and landscaped property in the middle of the
Hietzing villa landscape.
In the interplay of the building task, the client and the innovative planning
approach, the architectural office BERGER+PARKKINEN has succeeded in holistically implementing the theme of sustainable building at the state of our time
in the Terra Mater project.
The new two-story wooden building connects to the existing extension and thus
develops a comprehensive presence in the garden. This is achieved through two
clear structures: the constructive timber building as a space-creating element and
the surrounding shell in the form of the metal Rank construction. Although both
structures generally function autonomously, they refer to the common basic grid in
their rhythmization and dimensioning.
The demand for a permanently flexible, subdivisible spatial structure with
simultaneous sensible integration of the building services led to a clear tectonics of
the wooden structure. The interior is characterized by the visible wooden structure,
the wooden walls and wooden ceilings; the wooden surfaces were glazed white,
which further enhances the perceptibility of the green open spaces.
The Rank structure weaves around the building on all sides, with the geometricornamental
shaping of the structure giving the building its independence. The
appearance of the structure is in dialogue with the growth of tendrils and climbing
plants. In the near future, the full height of the house will be overgrown.
The choice of planting also ensures a long-term cyclical change in the appearance
of the house in harmony with the seasons.