“PORR itself has already patented numerous innovations throughout Europe. We pleased to create a spacious and, above all, sustainable home here in Vienna for the European Patent Office”, said PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss. “We also have a special connection to this building, as it was one of our own PORR sites for many years.”
The European Patent Office (EPO) examines European patent applications, thereby offering inventors, scientists and companies from all over the world the opportunity to obtain patent protection in up to 44 countries with just one application in a centralised and uniform procedure. The Vienna branch is the EPO’s centre of excellence for the production and dissemination of patent information products. From 2024, this will now take place in a brand new, environmentally friendly building. PORR is gutting the existing 50-year-old, four-storey building down to its shell. In its place, it will erect an attractive and climate-positive building based on the plans of ATP architekten ingenieure.
ATP partner and managing director in Vienna Horst Reiner adds: “As ATP Vienna, we are particularly pleased about winning the architectural competition and getting to implement this challenging project. The idea of a CO2-neutral, high-quality refurbishment was developed by our experts in a BIM-assisted working environment. The European Patent Office will serve as a best-practice example of a sustainable approach to existing buildings”.
Geothermal and photovoltaic energy
One of the ways the Vienna branch of the European Patent Office is becoming sustainable is through the use of renewable energy and energy recycling. The climate-positive building will use a geothermal system with 19 geothermal probes and a heat pump. Additional energy demand will be met by a large-scale PV system and an internal storage tank. The building will even serve as a carbon sink: The solar collectors will generate more energy than the building consumes. The surplus energy will then be fed into the electricity grid.
One main feature of the refurbishment is the new prefabricated facade with wooden elements. BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ certification is planned. The refurbishment will be completed end of summer 2024.
Facts and figures at a glance:
| Project type: | General refurbishment |
| Scope of services: | The building is being gutted and stripped down to its support skeleton. Structurally, the main aspects are a new prefabricated facade with wooden elements, a new group of elevators, and emergency stairwells. |
| Client: | European Patent Organisation |
| Contractor: | PORR Bau GmbH |
| Time frame: | 10/2022 to 08/2024 |
