The project takes place in Am Hof Square, one of the most emblematic historical squares in the city of Vienna.  It is located in the old town and connects to two important public spaces of the city: the Judenplatz (the Jewish Square) and the Austriabrunnen (the fountain of Austria). 

RISS, the new Contemporary Art School arises not only from the result of a functional analysis of the distribution of spaces requested by the programme, but also from the analysis of the current situation of the context in which the project was located, which, despite the importance of the square, reflects the opposite, a site with an degraded image mainly by the presence of a large number of cars that border the square and represent a barrier between the connection of the citizens and the public space.

The name of the proposal RISS -which in German means fissure- is the visual representation of the main gesture of the building, a fissure that allows people to pass through it.

One of the most important element for us was to incorporated the Mariensäule (or Maria’s column) to the new building and use it as the central axis of the project. With this, we make a visual connection between the Wohnhaus and the Bank Uni-Credit through the square and the new building.