Monument preservation concept for the Schafbergbad

The Schafbergbad, located in the 17th district of Vienna on the hilltop of the eponymous Schafberg, was built between 1969 and 1976 under the direction of the architect Herbert Ursprunger. As part of the “Wiener Bäderkonzept”, a summer pool was to be built in two phases with a later extension to an indoor pool, which was never realised.

The building is systematically divided into several sections: firstly, the supply building with utility and staff rooms, and the lifeguard’s flat, which is connected to the entrance area; the cabins and cubicles located in the pavilions on the upper floor, including the much larger cabin area; the swimming pools in the centre of the complex; the sunbathing area and restaurant on the hill in the northern part of the site; and the leisure and sports facilities with children’s playground in the rear, north-eastern corner of the site. The extensive sunbathing lawns with a view over the city extend between the building sections.

The architecture of the bath clearly follows the tradition of structuralism with its strict orthogonal grid of prefabricated elements and the given possibility of further construction as a planning principle. Today, many parts of the complex have been preserved in their original state, apart from the addition of a water slide from the 1990s. In recent years, the large pool area and the entire technical equipment of the bath have been modernised, some minor repair work has been undertaken and the leisure facilities and children‘s playground have been renovated – but without any consistent overall design concept.

The aim of the project was a critical examination of the complex, providing a comprehensive analysis of the existing structure regarding the monument values, taking into account the previous changes and losses, and subsequently the elaboration of an overall concept for the preservation of the bath.