The TU Vienna Palette House Travels to Venice

The used Euro-palettes module: A flexible construction that may be easily built up and also disassembled, which is not only cost-efficient, but also eco-friendly to a great extent.

This is the "Palette House" of the Austrian TU student team of Gregor Pils and Claus Schnetzer. These features have propelled the project to win the first prize at the EU Architecture competition GAU:DI. A remarkable accomplishment, considering that there were several hundred participants from renowned European universities.

The winning project contains 800 used Euro-palettes (made of wood), which have been assembled in modules. The multifaceted and eco-friendly design was even patented in the meantime based on its innovative content. Moreover, the "Palette House" may also be adapted to a variety of situations by different embodiments. The version presented here is an energy-saving building design (a passive house design). Other applications are slums in developing countries, where the "do-it-yourself" qualities of this construction design are of great importance, or temporary constructions (such as Red Cross stations) in catastrophe areas. The TU Vienna participation was related to a project pursued by DI Dr. Karin Stieldorf at the Institute of Architecture and Design.

Biennale Venice 2008

On September 1, Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Research Johannes Hahn, DI Theodor Zillner, deputy head of the department for energy- and environmental technologies from bm:vit and Vice Rector for Research of the TU Vienna, Sabine Seidler, bade farewell to the TU team as they left for Venice. The construction of the adapted 1:1 model will take place in the following days, namely directly on the lively quay, visible from as far as the main entrance of the Biennale. The Palette House will shine at night as a colorful, back-lit cube. The Architecture Biennale will be open to approximately 130,000 international visitors between September 11th and 21st.

If you cannot make it to the Biennale, the exhibition is also lined up to travel through Europe and will be also displayed at the Architekturzentrum Wien, Austrian Museum of Architecture (AzW). This exhibition is opened on the occasion of the AzW's 15th anniversary.

The event has been made possible by sponsors such as the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), the Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF), the Culture Department of the City of Vienna, the Chamber of Architecture and the Professional Association of the Wood Processing Industry. The following companies stepped in as material sponsors: Winter (Euro-palettes), Eckelt (glass), Zumtobel (lighting), Isover (insulation and isolation), Würth (tools), Egger und Blumenfeld (OSB plates) and Prodomo (furniture).

Fotodownload: www.tuwien.ac.at/index.php?id=7785

For further inquiries, you may contact:

Assist.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Karin Stieldorf
Institute for Architecture and Design
Working Group on Sustainable Construction
Vienna University of Technology
Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna
Ph.: +43-1-58801-27041
Fax: +43-699-14118932
E-mail: karin.stieldorf@tuwien.ac.at

Spokesperson:
Herbert Kreuzeder
Academic Information and Marketing
Vienna University of Technology, PR and Communication
Karlsplatz 13/011, 1040 Vienna
Ph.: +43-1-58801-41023
Fax: +43-1-58801-41093
E-mail: herbert.kreuzeder@tuwien.ac.at