High Tech With An Echo

architect Boris Podrecca
written by Christoph Warnke
project VBC 1: IMBA - GMI (IMBA - Institute For Molecular Biotehnology, GMI - Institute For Molecular Plants Biology Gregor Mendel); VBC 2: Campus Vienna Biocenter 2, Vienna, Austria

 

Campus Vienna Biocenter, which has been growing for years in Vienna’s St. Mark suburb, represents one of the largest bio-technology centres in Europe. In the area surrounding a former slaughterhouse, intended as an expanding space, a series of abandoned houses were retreating before the ambitious idea of an internationally significant research cluster. In the profession of biology the basic precondition today is that the paths between education, research and profit-making are short, to enable participation in markets characterized by fierce competition. On account of the spatial closeness of lecturers and students, scientists and finally of the related industry that has moved in, Vienna City Council expects this corporate location to gain a convincing advantage in respect to Munich and Cambridge, its European competitors. It has thus been easy recently to convince more and more investors to concentrate in the central city location.