With its folded facade, the first Radisson RED Hotel in the German-speaking world is an architectural eye-catcher in Vienna's district between the city centre and the Prater park. This is also due to the expressive facade. It was designed by Innocad Architekten from Graz and has won numerous awards.
The facade of The Rock goes beyond the usual geometric design language. On the one hand, this building envelope meets all the requirements of the building regulations and, on the other, it harmonises visually with the building's surroundings. The consistent facade concept extends right up to the roof terrace with its neighbouring garden.
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A 24 metre high graffito in the inner courtyard forms a further visual anchor for the building. Above this, three interconnected glass houses on the publicly accessible roof terrace appear to float above the building. A light textile ceiling stretches like a tent over the Skybar and echoes the basic architectural idea inside.
Safety glass from arcon as the basis
The entire facade consists of folded diamond-shaped aluminium elements. They give the hotel its eponymous stone-like appearance. This structuring building envelope is only interrupted by gold-bronze mirrored windows, whose regularity creates exciting counterpoints to the facade contours. The windows on the inside, which are shaped like benches, protrude from the facade in relief. For the glass, the planning office opted for Triple insulating glass made of ESG-H from Isolar in Klagenfurt with a thickness of 8mm on the outside.
Colour-coordinated sun shading
As sun shading, sunbelt gold glass from arcon is used as safety glass (LSG/TVG 44.2 N10) for this window system. One reason for this choice: ‘Thanks to its special reflective colour, sunbelt gold can be precisely matched to the overall appearance of the building envelope or the facade elements used,’ explains Leo Lacroix, Project and Facade Consultant at arcon Glas. Due to its low total energy transmittance, sunbelt gold is particularly popular when the visual harmony of the building needs to be preserved and the building's energy requirements reduced.
Reduced CO2 footprint with arcon glass
Of course, in summer the glass ensures that not too much heat enters the interior of the building. In winter, however, the additional requirement for the glass is a high level of thermal insulation so that it remains cosy and warm inside the building. In other words, the air conditioning system consumes significantly less energy in summer and the hotel can save on heating costs in winter.
The sunbelt glass therefore helps to reduce the building's CO2 footprint. In addition, the increased light transmission of the spectrally selective glass on the sides facing away from the sun contributes to the increased well-being of the hotel guests.
The sunbelt gold glass is also characterised by its neutral transmission colour with low external and internal reflection. The residents of the hotel's 179 rooms can also enjoy these properties - and not just during the hours of sunshine.
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‘In total, we installed around 2,500 square metres of glass in Vienna,’ says Lacroix. The lead time for the project was commensurate with its size: ‘Innocad first contacted us back in 2019.
We then held several discussions on site to jointly determine the optimal product for the facade.’ However, the arcon team was not the only product consultant on the project. The company also provided the photometric calculations and supplied the architect's project team with sample glass.
