Exploited to the fullest: New PREFA façade for THE ROCK Radisson RED

If you stroll past the Schottenring underground station on the right bank of Vienna’s Danube Canal, it inevitably pushes itself into your field of vision. A mountain face, covered with thousands of radiant white aluminium rhomboid tiles … with three little peaks on top? Or rather “THE ROCK Radisson RED Vienna”, an extravagant hotel with a rooftop bar realised by Oliver Kupfner from the office INNOCAD architecture based in Graz. For the last article of the PREFARENZEN book 2023, we covered many topics with the internationally successful architect, including how he was able to realise the volume the investor desired on the attractive corner lot inspite of the complex requirements of the Viennese building regulations. One of the many realisations during our conversation was that if you exploit a building site to the fullest, it does not necessarily mean that the architectural qualities of the design have to suffer. A flexible material like the PREFA rhomboid tile can even be essential in this context.