OMA’s KaDeWe combines retail, a hotel, and a rooftop park in one building

OMA recently won a competition to design the new KaDeWe Vienna department store in Vienna’s Meseumsquartier. The project will be created from an existing building that consists of three parts built in different years and provide a total of about 624,300 sf of space.

The project’s main program is split into two volumes that comprise retail space up front, a 150- to 165-room hotel in the rear, and a green passage between the two that leads up to a series of public roof gardens and restaurants. The building’s central axis organizes the main flows and plugs into a circular void that forms the epicenter of the retail program. 

The rooftop gardens will occupy approximately 10,760 sf and range from tree groves to sun decks and offer views of the city from all sides of the building. The gardens will be accessible outside of the stores’ and restaurants’ operating hours.

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The permeable, open building will be connected to the pedestrian network of the area and provide new types of public spaces in the historical center. The outdoor public passage creates an extension of the Karl-Schweighofer-Gasse and a footpath links a new central entrance on Mariahilfer Strasse to the passage. Both open public spaces and more intimate areas will be offered.

Inspired by the geometries of the architecture of the Vienna Secession, the facade is based on a regular system of different sizes of cylindrical glass modules – convex bay windows for the hotel and concave panels for the retail space. The facade is meant to appear as a 3D white veil that unfolds along the entire building.

Once completed, KaDeWe Vienna will be OMA’s first project in Vienna. Vasko + partner is the MEP and structural engineer. Signa is the developer. Construction is planned to begin in the first half of 2021 with completion slated for autumn 2023.