THE HOUSE
A house built for the airwaves — that never stopped broadcasting.
BIG BANG
The Media Big Bang
Shortly after radio was invented as a new medium, a new media age began in Austria too. What we today call the "iPhone moment" was back then the "radio moment". The RAVAG — predecessor to the ORF — began broadcasting from central Vienna in 1924. Everything was live. The airwaves were immediate.
"Radio is the next big thing."
THE URGE
A Broadcast House Was Needed
Space was needed — for actors, musicians, presenters, editors and all the key figures of public life. An architectural competition was held for the site on Argentinierstraße. The result: an innovative reinforced-concrete skeleton structure by Aichinger, Schmid and Holzmeister — flexible, forward-thinking, built for a medium whose potential was only just becoming visible.
The location was perfect: the Opera, theatres, concert halls, Parliament, the Hofburg and City Hall — all within reach.
FORM FOLLOWS INNOVATION
A Chameleon Building
The Funkhaus was never finished — it kept transforming. The Ö1 studios on the first floor: a sequence of soundproofed editorial and recording rooms. Radio Wien on the second floor knocked out all the internal walls and created an open structure. When more space was needed, the building was simply extended in the same style.
Gustav Peichl built his wing between the broadcast halls. FM4 gutted the fourth floor entirely and placed UFO-like studios in the middle of the rooms.
The house was — and remains — ready for every era.
LIVING CULTURE
Vienna's Got a New Rhythm
A new era begins. The ORF has brought all content producers together at the Küniglberg media campus. The Funkhaus has been handed over to the Rhomberg Bau Group and is being further developed together with BWM Designers & Architects.
The front section remains a space of possibility — an experimental laboratory for creative work. The forecourt becomes an open meeting point along the cultural boulevard of Argentinierstraße.