Vienna south side road Erdstädte S1 Vösendorf - Schwechat Wiener Außenring

The objective of the landscape design concept for the Vienna Outer Ring Road is the creation of landscape formations from the surplus mass created during road construction. The integration of the road into the landscape is to be sustainably secured by large-scale, sculptural earthworks.

In the course of the planning process for the Vienna Outer Ring Road, the various low-lying areas and the general deepening of large stretches of road resulted in a high mass surplus, the dumping and transport of which would have meant a considerable environmental impact. With the creation of earth-cubes, it was possible to create an archaic, large-scale landscape topographical earth formation, which was accepted by the population, clients and experts, and which located the expressway both remotely and spatially. From the requirements of noise protection and excavated material, corporeal formations were created that achieve geometric significance with a minimum of ground area and surface tectonics. The earthy dimensions and extents become landmarks. The earth cities in different dimensions (200-400m extension with heights of 15-30 m) develop either a special internal environment or plateau-like character. They also contain additional ecological and social potential. Their vegetation and planting follows its own themes. These singularities, which lie colossally in the cleared agricultural landscape of the present periphery, will in the long term become the places of identification of the population.