GASOMETERS OF VIENNA - TANKS FOR COKE GAS, CONVERTED INTO AN AREA OF BUILDINGS WITH RESIDENTIAL AND BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

1. Historical check-up

The Gasometers were built from 1896 to 1899 in the Simmering district of Vienna. The containers were used to help supply Vienna with town gas, facilities which had previously been provided by the English firm Inter Continental Gas Association (ICGA). These are four cylindrical gas tanks, the volume of each of which is 90,000 m ³. Each one of the gasometers is 70 meters high and 60 meters in diameter.
Coke gas stored in tanks, was designed for the city gas network. The gas was first used only in street lighting, but in 1910 was also introduced for use in cooking and heating in private homes.

The Gasometers were retired in 1984 due to new technologies in gasometer construction, as well as the city's conversion from town gas and coal gas to natural gas. Gas can be stored underground or in modern high-pressure gas storage spheres under much higher pressures and in smaller volumes than the relatively large gasometers.

During the years after their decommission, they were used for various purposes, including being used as a setting in the movie James Bond: The Living Daylights and as a venue to host the Gazometer-Raves. In 1978, they were designated as protected historic landmarks. Vienna City Hall undertook a remodelling and revitalization of the protected monuments and in 1995 called for ideas for the new use of the structures. One of the rejected ideas is the plan of Manfred Vedorn to use the gasmeters for hotels planned for the World Exhibition in Vienna and Budapest.

3. Scope and basic activities Gasometers have developed a unique character of a village and are as a town in the town. A real sense of community has developed and they have split apart as a large physical community of residents and virtual internet community. Many theses and dissertations on psychology, urban planning, architecture and journalism have been written about this phenomenon.
Facilities include a concert hall with a capacity of 2000-3000 people, movies, campus, municipal archives and others. There are 800 apartments (two-thirds of which are within the historic brick walls) with 1600 permanent residents and 70 student apartments, housing 250 students.