Liste des projets

Silja Tillner

  • Site : www.tw-arch.at
  • Adresse : Margaretenplatz 7 / 2 / 1 1050 Vienna
Silja Tillner is an architect and urban designer who enjoys working in both fields simultaneously, e.g. on large planning projects and careful interventions in the historic city fabric. She has been personally responsible for the revitalization of historic districts and the renovation of numerous listed buildings, where she developed use concepts, design and technical solutions. She has a professional and a personal interest in the protection of historic monuments and has renovated a world-famous building from 1931, the Rietveld House in the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung for herself. On the URBION project she was responsible for all urban design and architecture projects on the Vienna Gürtel Boulevard, especially the careful renovation of the historic viaduct by Otto Wagner and the sensitive design of new glass facades and interior adaptations to new uses. The project was co-funded by the European Union in the URBAN I program. On the Vienna Ringstrasse, in the core of the first district, a UNESCO world heritage site, the office was responsible for the renovation of a protected building on the Ringstrasse, Schottenring 14. Together with her partner, Alfred Willinger, she designed an addition in the court-yard of the listed Luther Museum in Wittenberg. Currently, Tillner & Willinger is working on the renovation and reuse concept of an ensemble of protected monuments from the 1930s, the stands and stables at the Vienna horse-racing court. The office has also conceived numerous renovation strategies and studies for listed buildings in Vienna, Salzburg, Zürich and Wittenberg. Silja Tillner has served on several prestigious advisory boards where she evaluated and advised also on the appropriate approach to historic buildings: 2002 - 2010 she was a member of the board of trustees of IBA Stadtumbau (Urban Redevelopment), in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. 2008 - 2011 she was a member of the advisory board of the City of Vienna for urban development and architecture. From 2013 until 2017 she served on the advisory board for urban planning and urban development in the new town-development “Seestadt Aspern” in Vienna. Since 2014 she serves on the Vienna Housing board. Since 2018 she is a professor for Urban Design Planning at the Politecnico di Milano.

Opfikon Masterplan and Square Design

Masterplan

On the outskirts of Zürich and five minutes from the Kloten Airport, the town of Opfikon has positioned itself as a favorable service-industry centre for many top firms. Yet despite its advantageous location, it lacks an appealing urban core, social amenities, and remains a neglected residential area subject to considerable environmental pollution and air traffic.

The master plan for Opfikon‘s downtown proposes the creation of a linear center stretched between the railway stations, the local municipal building and the River Glatt, creating a new 800-meter long promenade along Schaffhauserstrasse. The urban planning approach identified key areas with high potential for change and analyzed decisive development parameters. The new plan creates urban transitions from the large-scale structures in Glattbrugg West to the existing lower residential areas. Mitigating this shift in topography, buildings of intermediate scale were proportionally stepped down to meet the original building stock. The design envisages the phased increase in density along Schaffhauserstrasse: a flexible urban design concept with various development interventions, the design of public outdoor spaces and urban squares, a traffic and circulation concept, a lighting concept, and a phased implementation plan. The neighborhood separated by the street with high traffic volume shall be reconnected by the new street design with improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists. The first element completed in 2004 was the new Marktplatz (Market Place), which lies roughly at the center of the promenade.

Square Design

To combat the bland suburban sprawl of metropolitan Zürich, Swiss authorities desire the creation of new small urban centers to root the expansion. The creation of the Opfikon Master Plan is part of this initiative and the Market Place is its first intervention.
The Master Plan defined four urban centers along the main traffic axis, Schaffhauserstrasse. One of the new centers, the Market Place transformed the square into a multifunctional plaza that provides a place with a sense of identity to anchor the disparately developed area. The ground surface, made of red prefab concrete panels, and the red-housed access ramp of the underground garage are the strikingly new defining elements of the square.
Reacting to the inconsistency of the surroundings, the square is organized into three different areas of activity. Parallel to Schaffhauserstrasse, there is a footpath separated from the busy road by a strip of green and clearly delineated from the center of the square by a layer of black asphalt. On the opposite side, the southern edge serves as a buffer zone to the adjacent residential area. An elevated wooden area with benches, sheltered by a greening pergola, invites passers-by to stop and rest. The various materials used for the surfaces accentuate the different qualities of the three zones. The inclusion of a quaint café with an outdoor area breathes new life into the square.

Illustration