In the beating heart of Vienna, Austria, IKEA is set to establish the most innovative city centre IKEA store concept in the world. Built with the aim of completely transforming the way customers shop and travel to the store, the brand powerhouse has come up with an architectural concept that plans to be both sustainable and certified.
Developed in collaboration with Vienna based architectural company querkraft architekten, IKEA Westbahnhof plans to be only accessible via public transport as well as striving for BREEAM Excellent certification. Pushing to create and support a more sustainable way of living – and doing business – the build will sit three kilometres away from Vienna’s historical city centre at the end of main shopping street, Mariahilferstraße. Easily connected to the Westbahnhof train station & BahnhofCity Wien West shopping centre, the store will also work on another level as an easily accessible meeting place for customers to visit, shop, socialise over food and share experiences.
Designed to be green, the new store will feature attractive landscaping solutions across the structure’s façades and rooftop garden. Calculations of the pending build confirm that there will be approximately 160 trees situated on the building, which will lower the overall temperature of the store by at least two degrees.
Alongside playing host to the IKEA main store across the first four levels, four shops will be created along Mariahilferstraße to enable an active shopping street, while a hostel and publicly accessible roof garden with hospitality features will take presence on the upper two floors. Structurally, the design of the building is uniquely based on a grid symbolising a bookshelf. Championing an “outside-in” approach, the open architecture of the new store will embrace natural light, planting, flexibility and simplicity.
Discover more about IKEA Westbahnhof here.
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