First Place Winner
Plug-in Oasis
Design by
Philipp Eder
Juror’s Comment:
An outstanding and highly integrated proposal that transforms infrastructure into a climatic and social catalyst, using stack effect, water systems, and layered biotopes to create a rich, immersive cooling environment within the urban fabric.
Work on:
Feasibility and implementation strategy could be clearer.
Philipp Eder
Philipp Eder is an architecture student at TU Wien with a technical background in civil engineering, construction practice, and digital design workflows. Before studying architecture, he completed his education in civil engineering in Salzburg, gaining a foundation in construction, structural thinking, surveying, planning, CAD, and material-related work.
His understanding of architecture is strongly shaped by practical experience. Rather than coming primarily from architectural office work, his early path led him through construction sites, technical drawing in mechanical engineering, model making, prototyping, and planning-related tasks. These experiences formed an interest in how ideas are translated into real structures, how details are developed, and how different systems have to work together for a project to become buildable.
For Philipp, architecture is not only about form, but about the relationship between people, processes, materials, and spatial systems. He is interested in how complexity can be organized clearly, how analogue and digital methods can support design decisions, and how architecture can respond to changing environmental and social conditions. Alongside his studies, he works in the field of digital construction processes, which further informs his focus on collaboration, transparency, and the careful structuring of information. His work combines technical precision with a human-centered approach to space, aiming to create architecture that is understandable, adaptable, and meaningful in use.
Celebrating Creativity & Vision
Winner’s Spotlight: An Exclusive Interview
Discover the story behind the victory — from concept to creation.
1. Concept & Interpretation
What was the central idea behind your proposal, and how did you interpret the theme “Urban Oasis: Designing Cooling Landscapes for Thermal Comfort” within your architectural and landscape vision?
The central idea was to transform the necessary construction shaft of a new subway station into a public climate infrastructure. Instead of treating the shaft as a hidden technical void, the project relocates it into the district center and turns it into a vertical Biotope Core. This core combines basic thermodynamic principles with public functions, vegetation, water retention, and circulation to create a stacked urban park that cools, connects, and activates the existing building.
Responding to Urban Heat
Urban heat islands are becoming a major challenge for cities worldwide. How does your design address rising urban temperatures and improve thermal comfort for users?
The project mainly addresses rising urban temperatures through the stack effect. In summer, sunlight entering through the transparent membrane roof warms the air within the vertical void, causing it to rise and exit through the upper parts of the climate shell. This movement draws cooler air from the lower levels and from the approximately 25-meter-deep shaft, where it can be moderated by the water reservoir. The metro overpressure does not replace the passive climate system, but supports air movement at specific moments. Together, these systems improve air exchange and reduce perceived heat within the public interior.
Cooling Strategies & Landscape Integration
Can you describe the specific cooling strategies integrated into your proposal—such as vegetation, shading systems, water features, material choices, or passive design approaches—and how they shaped the overall experience of the space?
The design began with the construction shaft for the subway, which occupies a large amount of space during construction. From this starting point, it became clear that the depth of the shaft could be used as a climatic resource rather than as a purely technical leftover. Cooler air can be guided through the lower levels, furthermore, cooled by the water reservoir and powered the vertical stack effect. At the same time, the roof required a structural system capable of spanning large distances. This led to the trumpet-like columns, which are not only expressive structural elements, but also collect rainwater, guide it down into the reservoir, organize planting levels, and make the airflow concept spatially visible. Vegetation was integrated to provide shade, improve humidity, create protected microclimates, and visualizes the stack effect understandable to the public.
Nature & Urban Living
How did you explore the relationship between built form and natural systems in your project? In what ways does your design encourage ecological balance and biodiversity within the urban environment?
The project explores the relationship between built form and natural systems through a vertical climate gradient. Plants that prefer cooler conditions are placed in the lower parts of the Biotope Core, while species that tolerate warmer temperatures are located in the upper areas. This stacked park creates protected microclimates for plants with different climatic tolerances, including species that may become increasingly difficult to maintain in exposed urban outdoor conditions. In this way, biodiversity is not treated as decoration, but as an active part of the architectural and climatic system.
Community & Inclusivity
The competition emphasized creating inclusive and accessible public spaces. How does your proposal foster community interaction, well-being, and social engagement?
Before the intervention, the passage, the library, and the kindergarten were spatially fragmented. Each function had its own entrance and did not integrate smoothly into the surrounding public space. The proposal brings the passenger flow from the subway directly into the building and connects it with the existing passage and courtyard. By opening up the block and merging circulation with public space, the project creates a shared urban interior: a cooling commons where people can move through, stay, meet, learn, and experience the new district center as one connected place.
Sustainability & Architectural Expression
How did you balance environmental performance with aesthetics and spatial experience? In what ways does your project demonstrate that sustainable urban design can also be visually and experientially compelling?
A key example is the reuse of the subway construction shaft and the existing garage areas, which become less central once the building is directly connected to public transport. Normally, the construction shaft would remain a purely technical space. In this project, however, the CO2-intensive concrete structure is not treated as a dead space solely used for technical infrastructure, but transformed into a cooling and inhabitable space for people and vegetation. Sustainability therefore becomes visible and experiential. Visitors can feel the depth of the shaft, understand the scale of the infrastructure beneath the city, and experience how water, air, plants, and structure work together as one architectural system.
Feasibility & Future Adaptability
Do you envision your proposal as a practical solution for current cities, an experimental concept, or a future-forward vision? What opportunities and challenges might arise in implementing your design in real urban contexts?
I see the proposal as an optimistic, future-oriented vision, but one that contains strategies that could already be applied to current cities. It shows how new subway stations and other infrastructure projects could be integrated into the urban fabric instead of being treated as isolated technical interventions. Implementing such a project would certainly be more complex, especially in terms of structure, fire safety, ventilation, maintenance, and coordination between public and technical zones. However, if these systems are carefully separated and controlled, the result could be a much more natural, comfortable, and socially valuable public space.
Vision for Future Cities
What do you believe architects, urban designers, and planners must prioritize today in order to create healthier, cooler, and more resilient cities for the future?
Architects, civil engineers, urban designers, and other planners need to think more interdisciplinary and consider the full range of benefits a project can offer. Instead of focusing only on reducing costs and meeting minimum requirements, future urban projects should create broader value for people, the environment, and the city. Resilience means that a structure can adapt to different, uses, climates, and environmental conditions over time. Future cities need spaces that combine mobility, ecological life, social life, and climate comfort rather than separating them into isolated systems.
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