New Campus WU reaps awards
In October 2013, WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) inaugurated its new campus close to Vienna’s Prater Park. Every day, thousands of students and WU employees come to the new campus, which also attracts large numbers of visitors who are not affiliated with the university – largely due to its captivating architecture. The architecture of Campus WU is not only popular with visitors, however. It has also won numerous awards and prizes over the past few months.
In October 2013, WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) inaugurated its new campus close to Vienna’s Prater Park. Every day, thousands of students and WU employees come to the new campus, which also attracts large numbers of visitors who are not affiliated with the university – largely due to its captivating architecture. The architecture of Campus WU is not only popular with visitors, however. It has also won numerous awards and prizes over the past few months.
The first recognition of Campus WU’s architectural quality was in the spring, when the six building complexes that make up the campus received a Schorsch Award (page in German), presented by Vienna’s Municipal Department for Architecture and Urban Design (Municipal Department 19). Every year, the City of Vienna presents the Schorsch Awards to honor outstanding architectural projects. The next important recognition followed in the summer: The renowned Architectural Digest magazine ranked Campus WU among the nine best new university buildings around the world. The Yale School of Management (Foster & Partners) took first place on this list of exceptional new university architecture.
Bold use of color rewarded
Campus WU also received praise for its bold use of colors: In October, the orange-yellow D3/AD department and administration building, designed by Sir Peter Cook and CRABstudio, won the Innovative Use of Colour on Exteriors Prize at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore. The D3/AD complex also received the prestigious RIBA European Award, presented by the Royal Institute of British Architects. A further RIBA European Award went to the WU Library & Learning Center, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The Teaching Center, which houses most of WU’s auditoriums, is also one of the main eye-catchers on campus with its pre-rusted Corten steel façade. In recognition of the quality of this building, the Campus WU master plan, and the design of the open areas on campus, Vienna-based architects BUSarchitektur received the E. A. Plischke Preis award (page in German) in November. The Campus WU project also got an honorable mention at the 2014 Clients’ Awards presented by the Austrian Architects Association (Zentralvereinigung der Architekten Österreichs).
Recognitions for excellent relocation management
The successful relocation of a university as big as WU, with all its documents and archives, and the furnishing of the new buildings were impressive achievements in themselves, worthy of due recognition. The Campus WU relocation and furnishing project, headed by Julia Reisenbichler, won the 2014 Project Excellence Award at the 2014 PMA (Project Management Austria) Gala event. The WU campus guidance and orientation system, designed by buero bauer, received the Red Dot Award in September. The campus orientation system (page in German) combines analog, digital, tactile, and acoustic media to allow people with a broad range of different needs to find their way around campus with ease and confidence.
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