Gasometer

In 1896 the City of Vienna built the gasometers in the style of industrial architecture – a gasometer is a gas storage tank. They have been out of commission since 1984. What is still on view today is only the shell of the building with the technological interior removed. The four gasometers, part of what was once the largest gas works in continental Europe, and a listed structure, was extended to form the core of a multifunctional district in the city.

Today the complex houses approx. 60,000 homes – both subsidised housing and privately owned apartments, a student hostel for 400 residents, a concert hall for up to 4,000 visitors, offices and a shopping centre. Primarily young families and students live here, in what is known as ‘G-Town’. The apartments are housed in gasometers A, B and C, in a ring directly behind the outer wall – the middle is kept open. Only gasometer D has been built-up from the inside outwards – i.e. in the centre. What looks from the outside like a glass roof is actually just the frame of the old impermeable roof.