GRAZ THE USUAL CITY

alex axinte

Introduction

Graz the Usual City or GUC is an archive of more than 20 examples of everyday units left over, camouflaged, orphaned or just hidden away. These objects and structures are detected in the city of Graz, the place where the marriage between the moral preservation of the built up history and the forward stainless steel architectural insertions, generate an atmospheric Luna Park scenery, highlighted by constant outdoor events. Here is also a neglected mass of honest buildings, which can be found outside this self-promoted image of the city: threatened by modernization and urban renewal, surviving of bilbao effects and beautification strategies, face lifts and make ups, these are some ordinary built objects. Either reluctant to change, or completely careless to constant daily transformations, having direct answers to basic needs and taking unexpected turns and shapes, these structures are sheltering the unexpected, otherwise excluded from the increasingly overwhelming designed urban environments of today. Chosen during a process of mapping the city, this archive documents examples of some un-sexy categories: car related, utilitarian, infrastructural, geometry-adding or only accidental. Arranged in an architectural journal format, the GUC collection can be handled as a guide book, dedicated to tourists, locals and urban planners. It draws attention to neutrality and nothingness that still exists in our cities, not just like another manifesto for the ugly and the ordinary, but also as a tool to explore the presence of the honest others all those quiet presences of the everyday that builds up our sense of belonging to a place.

index

addresses and nicknames

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01. Andreas Hofer Platz - CHECK POINT 02. Volksgartenstrasse 2a - VOLKS BRIDGE 03. Suedtiroler-Platz 14 - UNIVERSAL STORE 04. Pestalozzistrasse 33 - DREAM-IN 05. Murbank, Radetzkybruecke - THE UNDER BOULEVARD 06. Grazbachgasse - PUBLIC RECORDER 07. Papiermuehlgasse - THE ISLAND 08. Stadtpark - THE GUARDS 09. Luthergasse 03 & Schloegelgasse - CHAMELEONIC WALL 10. Burgring - THE PERISCOPE 11. Koerblergasse, next to 111-113- KIDS PAVILLION 12. Grabenguertel Weg - SHOE BOX 13. Koeroesistrasse, next to 57 - THE RUIN 14. Austeingasse 30-32 - THE GREAT WHITE 15. Kalvarienguertel 51-54, - THE TWINS 16. Eggenberger Allee 6 - L FARM 17. Elisabethinergasse, across 28 - THE YELLOW BUS 18. Theyergasse, next to 20 - THE BASE 19. Karlauer Strasse 71 - KISS PALACE 20. Hermann Bahr Gasse & Lagergasse - THE MERCENARIES 21. Grieskai 74-76 & Lagergasse 55-57 - GROUP 5, 6, or 7 22. Dreihackengasse 42 - CERAMIC OASIS 23. Griesplatz - THE CARAVAN 24. ............... - .....................
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01

CHECK POINT

address: Andreas Hofer-Platz

Acting as a pivot at the junction between several typologies of urban fabric and the river Mur, this unit organizes around it the auto dominated square: two crowded boulevards intersect here, forming an outside car parking space and the terminus point for several city bus lines. Its shape is drawn out by the two helicoidally underground car parking entrances, and a ground level auto passage cutting trough the middle. Above, a large, white canopy, is lifted from the ground by 15 grey painted columns, all linked together by beams. Between those spidery legs, two partially glazed kiosks are squeezed: a car rental office and a caf. The overall composition is fixed by a tall spire which ends with an octagonal UFO: a high voltage street lamp. A parasite layer grew over the construction body: advertising signs, neon signs, blue sunshades, joined from the ground by multiple metal fences and street furniture. The eye of the square spreads around the transitory feeling and a border crossing attitude, hosting the remains of a dismantled gas station - the Stix II Caf - a timeless indoor environment, suited best for loads of coffee and cigarettes.

light source

advertising signs

rent a car and cafe

08/03/2006 16:43

02

VOLKS BRIDGE

address: Volksgartenstrasse 2a

This small wooden bridge spans just several meters over the fast Muehlgang river, being the core of an inner court yard, partially opened towards a nearby street. Two metal beams cross above the water, between the stone made side walls of the canal, thus supporting the floor and side panels of the crossing, all made out of dark brown wood. Cut in two by the water, the enclosure has two distinct zones: on the left side of the canal, where the street opening is made, the asphalt floor serves best for car parking and some cater functions for the lower buildings, and on the right side, the vegetal floor crossed by connecting pedestrian paths, hosts the typical back yard elements for several tall housing units: here is the place for benches, garbage containers, back door exits, air co units and clothing hanged to dry. Surrounded by kitchen sounds, Sunday laughter, and watching the small and fast river flowing under a building, crossing the Volks Bridge becomes a Southern experience.

going under

sewage

wooden floor

09/03/2006 15:35

03

UNIVERSAL STORE
address: Suedtiroler-Platz 14

This corner building, inserted by camouflaging methods into the old city fabric, in a commercial district, has a focus point position from several convergent directions, due to the curved geometry of the road. The main body stands as a cube, lifted from the ground by 6 massive concrete columns, and closed on top by a discrete dark grey sloped roof. The finishing of the cube is made from aluminium cladding that frames tall glass windows, all provided with metal window shads. Under the lifted cube, several glass boxes floats between the columns, now hooked together by yellow wood panels, acting as a makeshift enclosure. The sloped aluminium cube used to host a commercial center, now the building is sealed down, just expecting the next tenant and its new functions, along with its advertising make-up layer. Until then, watching over the street life from inside this silent structure, which has no use, no goal, and hosts nothing, is like using a temporary bird watching point in a forest.

roof openings

aluminium window shades

yellow wood panels

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09/03/2006 15:35

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04

DREAM-IN

address: Pestalozzistrasse 33

Located on the edge of Augarten Park, this elongated shaped unit sits low in a street front, between two much higher pitched roof housing blocks. The unit is composed of a low glass box and a thick metallic hat. Made out of a steel structure, aluminium and glass cladding finishing and a glossy floor - it houses an auto show room. Five discrete and symmetric advertising signs decorate the grey painted main faade towards the park. Though its pronounced transparent side facades, the inside, and even further on, the inner courtyard, are revealed: a lot of cars, in different shapes, colors and positions are shown to their yet undecided buyers. From the inside, the wide floor to ceiling glass faade, allows a special view angle over the park: framed, static, protected. Having your potential seat in your potential new car, watching the park through your potential windscreen, sunken in a soundless environment, you might start making plans for the future.

back yard

5 advertising signs

wooden floor

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11/03/2006 14:21

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05

THE UNDER BOULEVARD

address: Murbank, near Radetzkybruecke

After an underground meandered journey, that spans several hundreds meters from one side to the other side of the city, the Leonhardbach tiny river joins the main Mur river. Cut in the floor of the massive concrete tube, a channelled canal made out of corbel stone, is the bed of the water flow. The result is a sidewalk like area, on each side of the water. The lateral walls of the tunnel are perforated with square or circular holes, trough which rain water is collected from above. In the exit area, the section of the tunnel follows the slope of the rivers bank. Sometimes, they dive into the windy curve, through exploring walks or running marathons with caring headlights, joined by the constant sounds of fast flowing water and the echoes of their voices.

prefab concrete fence

green slope

water flow

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13/03/2006 15:15

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06

PUBLIC RECORDER
address: Grazbachgasse

This composed structure sats at the edge of a grass patch, shaped as an oval traffic island, surrounded from one side by the one way heavy traffic street and on the other side by a car parking area. The ensemble consists of several elements: the main ingredient being the electric transformation point, hosted in a basic plan-squared shaped house, covered in a slopped roof made from red tiles, followed by the high three headed street lamp, that grows through the slopped roof, and added on the outside, a rather tight camouflage coating made out of grey metal mesh panels. On the side of the mesh, facing the direction of the incoming cars stopped for the red light, advertisings signs and neon lights serve a family of shops located on a convergent street, increasing their commercial visibility over this busy street. By recording attitudes and decisions, this composition can play as an involuntary monument for the camouflage of intentions and survival of basics.

metal mesh

advertising panels

electric house
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15/03/2006 13:04

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07

THE ISLAND

address: Papiermuehlgasse

After being filtered by a sluice and passing trough the wheels of an electricity generator house, the small but fast Muehlgang river breaks out, just to be split up in two short canals by a boat like shaped island. Made out of earth, stone, bricks and exposed concrete, this piece of land supports at one end a long and low box made of 13 garage units, which have double wooden doors. The garages are serving a nearby housing unit, and are reached over the water by a succession of two stone bridges, cutting the island in two areas, the garage section, and a triangular housing plot. Where the river separates in two, a small semicircular garden is formed, protected by the high water by a curved brick and plaster curved parapet, having a vegetal ground and several trees grown by the fringe of the garden. Dominated by the rhythmic releases of roaring water from the sluice, this useless promontory offers the perfect location for a Sunday family picnic by the side of a cascade.

connecting bridges

garages

semicircular garden

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15/03/2006 15:51

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08

THE GUARDS
address: Stadtpark

Arranged all together in circles, or set in long rows, standing alone by the crossing of the alleys, or just popping up in the middle of green lawns and paved roundabouts, an army of grey sheaths occupies the Stadpark. Cast as winter coats for the parks presumed statues, they are shaped to suit best their protges: simple tall or fat boxes, slim trunks of pyramids or trapeze like high extrusions. The grey painted units are composed of a wooden body, made out of nailed stripes that are held together by metallic joints, completed by a small hat on top, as a sloped plane or a low metal pyramid. Also pyramidal bases made out of grey board are seldom used, thus wrapping the stone soles of the statues. Having a seasonal life, being generic outdoor monuments in the winter and indoor stored containers in the summer, these clean geometric replicas of their inside monuments, are acting as someone elses alter egos.

pyramidal hat

main body

metallic base

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18/03/2006 14:25

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09

CHAMELEONIC WALL

address: Luthergasse 03 & Schloegelgasse

The L shaped section of the inner courtyards back wall, hosts in its generous wideness a building housing several functions facing towards the outside onto an intersection. This unit consists of a basic corner shape of one level high, completed on top with a wide canopy, cast out of painted concrete, which extends over the side walk. The inside is divided in two areas, defined by the different coloured painted facades: on the short side a medical area in light grey, and on the corner, occupied by an orthopedic shoe shop and a medical cabinet, and a mixed area in pale yellow, consisting in the long, straight side is occupied by a Persian rug store and a small engineers office. Signs, billboards, panels and lights join the ensemble on the faade. By letting its outer blind walls to be impregnated with a commercial thickness, and then mixing unexpected neighbors inside, the adaptive habits of this enclosure are similar to the methods of together-survival in the wild.

wide canopy

yellow side

grey side
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19/03/2006 13:53

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THE PERISCOPE
address: Burgring

This unit is found in the middle of a large lawn, with few pedestrian alleys and facing a massive street front composed by representational tall housing. As a tip of a buried large size building, it stands as the node of the green plot. Being one of the two identical pedestrians entrances for an underground parking, the shape is following its inside functions: a small entrance lobby and a descending stair. Cast out of exposed concrete, painted grey on the outside, the unit is roofed by two elements, made of light grey concrete and protected on the outside by metal plates. A narrow paved alley runs from the sidewalk to the entrance door and a signal box sits on the higher part. The secret side of this appearance can be explored by going underground for a while.

board plates

exposed concrete

grey base
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19/03/2006 14:14

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11

KIDS PAVILLION

address: Koerblergasse, next to 111-113

Planted in an oasis of green grass, tall trees and sloping relief, this large size kiosk is almost invisible from the outside. Surrounded by bigger scale situations, either sided by the tall silvery office buildings, and by distant zigzagging housing slabs, or facing a large asphalt parking plateau and the wooded sloped hill behind it, this unit is a place for small things, like toys and children: its a kindergarten. The irregular metal structure, covered in white panels and perforated by large windows, is roofed by a straight corrugated iron flat hat. The adjacent garden is transformed into an informal playground, decorated with wood or metallic hide-out shelters, multicolored ribbons, makeshift enclosures, hanging tyres as cradles, scarecrows, and two pitched roof small wooden toilets. A trip around the fenced borders of the enclosure, suggests the impression of a lack in adult control upon this deserted-over-the-weekend childrens republic, now waiting for another Monday and its little rulers.

play house

back slope back terrace

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21/03/2006 15:49

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12

SHOE BOX

address: Grabenguertel Weg

Standing by the side of the road, between a bridge and a tunnel, above a row of garages, this concrete box grows orphan on a higher flat ground made of medium size gravel, dark dust and small portions of burnet brown grass. Several curb pieces and concrete blocks are scattered around the plateau. The inside of the box can host an electrical generator point, or some highway maintenance depots and offices, or the top exit of a military secret base its not yet clear. Facing the ongoing road, the building opens out three doors, two on the long side, and one on the short side. The same busy road is responsible for the camouflaging layer of green corrugated iron, cast under one side of the long concrete beam. By covering the entire long side and turning the corner, the green layer is the support for several advertising panels, provided with neon white lights at the upper side. Based on the blurred messages of its content and on the industrial packaging similarities of its shell, this isolated structure is the lost luggage building.

advertising panels

exit white doors green corrugated iron

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21/03/2006 16:21

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13

THE RUIN

address: Koeroesistrasse, next to 57

A Cylinder and an elongated Box are joined together in a low, compact mass city block. Fixed in a relaxed urban environment, consisting of modern tall housing units, private gardens, playgrounds, and scattered pitch roof houses, filled with low traffic, the intersected volumes host a car park. By extruding its functions two levels above ground, the helicoidaly car ramp as the cylinder, and the parking place area as the box, the shape is a built diagram. The outside skin is made of dirty brown concrete, scratched along horizontally in several rows, thus marking the floors and the levels. Between these guidelines, a series of metallic windows, ventilation exists, entrances, markings and indicators, make their way to the outside. Still having the modernistic design habits of an ashtray, or a desk lamp, kitchen tool, thermometer, the sleeping monster can also act as the preserved foundations from a demolished defense city wall, outgrown now by the urban expansion.

main entrance

ventilation exits

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26/03/2006 14:27

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14

THE GREAT WHITE

address: Austeingasse 30-32

Surrounded by three parts by tall housing blocks, and one part by a freshly demolished piece of land, this unit dominates a large private yard from its middle. Massive and bold, the white block is perforated, as a grid, just on one side by a set of identical windows, and left completely blind on all the other three sides. At the top, the house ends in a simple sloped roof and holds two high communication antennas. A curved concrete tube fuels the building with cars from a nearby street. Due to the nature of the function hosted inside the mother structure, a Parkhaus at the upper five levels and repair ateliers and materials depots at the double height ground floor, many smaller structures had grown around its base: pitch roofed or not, made out of wood, or corrugated iron, or bricks, or concrete, and hosting related functions and services, separated by makeshift fences and vegetation. As in the natural world, a helping family of smaller, clever and noisy guests makes their living around the bigger and slower host, the result being a happy go together ensemble.

antenna

car entrance

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26/03/2006 15:13

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15

THE TWINS

address: Kalvarienguertel 51-54

This structure consists of an underground crossing, for pedestrian and bikes, two wide stairs, and a bike circuit, which is reaching the street level trough two large helicoidally ramps, thus drawing on each side two eyes of green. Those two chamfered voids are extruded and cast out of grey exposed concrete, hosting each other a vegetal ground, high trees, scattered bushes and several wooden benches arranged as for debates. Concrete is the dominant material of the structure, randomly decorated with several metal fences, handrails and light sources. Stretched all over the walls of the tunnel and on its outside extensions, a layer of colorful mural painting spreads, casting people, boats, castles, suns, and words, being partially the work of a nearby kindergarten little attendants. Linking two different urban instances, a housing area with a mixed public area, the underground circuit is the lobby for the two guest rooms sitting on each side of the road.

lobby 01

lobby 01

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26/03/2006 15:13

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16

L FARM

address: Eggenberger Allee 6

This L shaped building is founded on a flat plane made by alternating stripes of grey and red concrete paving biscuits, which draws the auto routes and parking places, separated by several rows of shy vegetation. The whole scene forms an open inlet at the side of a large street. The longer leg of the L hosts a supermarket, leaving the shorter one to be the entrance porch for the customers, and also the parking place for the shopping trolleys. The structure grows up in classical fashion of columns and beams that are covering the space in a slopped red tiled roof. Towards the main entrance of the parking, a small technical function is shown on the outside, sharing with the mother building booth the roof typology, and the white plaster for the exterior finishing. Those keep-it-simple characteristics of needs and means, used in framing the function, draws a farm like image for the building located in the serenity of the open planes of its adjoining parking area.

supermarket

main entrance

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27/03/2006 15:45

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17

THE YELLOW BUS

address: Elisabethinergasse, across 28

After crossing a wide concrete bridge, a Tweety-like yellow bus has been parked into a fence. On one of its lateral sides, an open area is formed out of a street, and on the other side another fence is holding it firm. Lifted from the ground, but not by wheels that are now missing; all the windows are filled with advertising, with its two automatic doors locked, decorated on top with a red and white signal box facing the main street, and holding the lateral public service area: the yellow bus had become a Wurst pavilion. A wooden floor, several wooden benches, and one eco plastic toilet completes the needs of such a public function. The open or closed status of the food facility is served by the position of a large metallic shell, folded up, as a roof for customers, or folded down, sealing the big window cut from the side of the bus. The immobile, for now, yellow kitchen, acts as a piece of street furniture, holding a promise of a move, a transplant, and a departure: a promise to drive again.

eco toilet advertising

metallic shell

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27/03/2006 15:45

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18

THE BASE

address: Theyergasse, next to 20

This unit sits under two high voltage electricity legs, in the middle of a more green pasture, rather than a well organized park, down by the river, and surrounded in the distance by both medium high and tall housing blocks. Its composed by three merchandise containers, arranged in an L shape and partially covered by a pergola, which is supported by six slim columns, all made in exposed wood. Also, an asphalt carpet is set under this structure, providing the possibility to organize basketball games. By hosting some sort of youth headquarters, the outside of the containers got its layer of graffiti, a total painting in bright colors, cool curves and fancy fonts covers the outer skin entirely. Bikes, plastic chairs and waste bins are lying around. As the place of a permanent scouts camp main building, this unit is the relaxed version of one of the citys office buildings.

containers timber

basketball net

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28/03/2006 17:03

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19

KISS PALACE

address: Karlauer Strasse 71

Set at an angle to a nearby street, this unit has an oversized kiosk like appearance. Served by a large flat asphalt plateau, which neighbours a church building on one side and a small river on the other side, the unit hosts nothing inside: its a former auto show room, now deserted. The one level high transparent box is made out from floor to ceiling glass panels and metallic joints and covered by a wide corrugated iron slab. On one side, a much smaller and opaque replica of the big building grew, being the former entrance cabin check point for the parking back courtyard. As a part of the former function, or as a promise for the future one, the word Kuss (Kiss) is still cast on the main faade over the entrance, in a white font on a blue stripe. Empty, clean and quiet, the ensemble waits for the comeback of the merchandise, either cars, or furniture, or food, or hosting some late night community balls, or rather for its final dismantle.

kiss sign

parking area

back yard entrance pavillion

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30/03/2006 17:18

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THE MERCENARIES

address: Hermann Bahr Gasse & Lagergasse

Serving on a construction site for the rise of an office building, this unit forms one of the corners of two perpendicular streets. Composed by 13 brightly coloured containers, red, yellow, blue and white, arranged in three levels, six units for the ground floor, six units for the first level, and one unit on the second level, the ensemble is tightened together by a wooden platform, on the level one. Corrugated iron plates, lifted by wooden beams, are covering the containers in three roofed areas. Two stairs run on the outside from level zero, to the first and then to the second, made by steel steps and wooden handrails. Windows, doors, air co units, signs and lights, translate the functions of the inside: bedrooms, offices, meeting rooms, toilets, and construction material depots. The construction site barracks are like nannies for the growing buildings always happy to serve, help and soon move, after completing their job, inhabiting different urban instances and taking each time a new expression.

corrugated iron plates

level 2 stair

level 1 stair
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04/04/2006 17:23

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21

GROUP 5, 6, or 7

address: Grieskai 74-76 & Lagergasse 55-57

This urban blend grows between two parallel streets, having two opposite main facades, one towards the river and the other one versus a housing neighbourhood. The third side is a blind faade against a big parking place, and the fourth is made of few entrances and small courtyards, facing a tall housing block. As any conglomerate, its made out of a colorful range of pieces, from the Caf Restaurant Delfin, the offices of Group 4 Securitas, or different sorts of car related functions Auto Krainer, KFZ, car wash, car service, car depots, to Light Maker and a plastic chair shop. Each of these elements come also with its own advertising panels and building materials: an orgy of exposed concrete, white-grey-yellow-blue plaster, brown bricks, light and dark metal plates, glass and window shades, grey-green-whitish corrugated steel, high metallic antennas, yellow and blue fat half columns. As the heart of this mutant, a box is suspended, that booth hovers over, and supports two car parking areas, linked together by a climbing L shaped ramp.

the heart

metallic antennas

parking place
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09/04/2006 13:44

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22

CERAMIC OASIS

address: Dreihackengasse 42

This unit grows under the wing of a massive classical pitched roofed building, which serves now partially as parking and a supermarket, by completing one of its missing corners in the main entrance area: through a one level high kiosk construction. Having extended also into the body of the big building, it faces a sidewalk-less street on the main entrance, and a public park on the other side. A thin green slab acting as the roof extends over the entrance, having attached under it a retracting textile tarpaulin. Materialized towards the outside in white ceramic tiles, and large, glazed, entrance doors and side windows, with metallic neon green joints, the unit hosts an amalgamation of functions: the Nil caf, internet and pizza. As a result, a layer of adverts, posters, announcements, and blue dominated mural paintings, spread over the two exposed sides. Through its functions, this cool air white pavillion serves the park as the missing retreat kiosk in the hot summer days.

classical building

park

glazed, entrance doors

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27/04/2006 14:49

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23

THE CARAVAN
address: Griesplatz

Born out in a busy, elongated type of square, this unit sits on a small asphalt island surrounded by a heavy traffic boulevard, bus stops and a parking area. The ensemble is composed by 2 public phone cabins, a one level wooden hut partially sloped roof, and two also pitched roofed houses, one light green and tall, and the other lower and more yellow. Made from brown painted timber striped, having few windows with wooden joints and displaying few advertising boxes and posters, the first house is a caf. The second one, made from brick structure with light green and white stripes plaster finishing, is a public toilet, divided in two gender areas. The last one, having a similar structure and materials as the previous one, hosts an electrical transformation point, and has two facades covered with big advertising panels. The daily survival in the sea of cars might be a tough job, but by sticking together, these five neighbors by mistake can have their chance as a convoy of needs.

public toilet

advertising panel

public phone cabins

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05/05/2006 14:53

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...............

address: ............

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special thanks to

loft, markus bogensberger, pepinieres, sabine reisner, dagmar schattleitner, rhona byrne, roxana

acknowledgements

this publication is the result of Pepinieres map XXL grant awarded residency program with Haus der architektur, Graz, Austria, march-may 2006. www.art4eu.net alex axinte is born in 1979 in Romania. he is an architect, based in Bucharest, Romania. contact at: alexaxinte@yahoo.com

impressum

Herausgeber/Publisher: Verein Ppinires sterreich, Engelgasse 3-5, 8010 Graz, pepiniere@adm.at www.pepinieres.at; drawings, photos, texts, layout design: alex axinte

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