Ikea in Downtown Vienna?

Do we even want Ikea in our city centres? The Swedish home furnishings retailer has now realized that, in addition to its massive shopping warehouses on the outskirts of cities around the globe, even more sales can made inside the city. Of course, urban dwellers nowadays are spoiled: everything should be nearby and easily accessible without a car. So the new inner-city Ikea store in Vienna is based on the idea of the 15-minute city. The seven-storey building at Westbahnhof train station opens like an oversized set of shelves onto bustling urban space along Gürtel road. It is connected to public transport system, but here is no parking lot. Together with Viennese architectural firm querkraft, Ikea is doing all it can to rule out any possible criticism against their model project from the outset. Will it succeed?

We feature this project in Detail 11.2021.