 Beginning with this entry, I am posting a series of retroactive entries to retrace my travel around Europe in June and July of 2009. I posted one image from the trip so far: the Austrian countryside as seen from the train on my way from Zurich to Vienna. Seen in today's entry is where I was staying (Gasometer) while in Vienna. The four structures, known as the Gasometers, are housing complexes in the 11th district of Vienna known as Simmering. Before being converted to housing structures, the Gasometers were used from 1899 to 1984 as gas storage tanks; the four gas tanks each had a storage capacity of 90,000 m³ and were built as part of the Vienna municipal gas works Gaswerk Simmering in 1896–1899. Each of the four structures are 70 meters tall and 60 meters in diameter. When they were built, the Gasometers were the largest in Europe. As the city of Vienna changed from town (coal) gas to natural gas between 1969 and 1978, the Gasometers were no longer needed. The Gasometers were fully shut down by the end of 1984. The interior of the four structures was excavated, while the brick exterior was preserved. Vienna undertook a remodelling and revitalization of the Gasometers, and so in 1995 called for ideas for the new use of the structures. The chosen designs by the architects Jean Nouvel (Gasometer A), Coop Himmelblau (Gasometer B), Manfred Wehdorn (Gasometer C), and Wilhelm Holzbauer (Gasometer D) were completed between 1999 and 2001. Each gasometer was divided into several zones for living (apartments in the top), working (offices in the middle floors), and entertainment and shopping (shopping malls in the ground floors). The entire complex is really neat: the architecture, the history, and the convenience of location (next to the Gasometer metro station). You can see the Gasometer complex on Google Maps here. |
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