The new vocational school building in Aspern is breaking records: It is the largest public-private partnership building construction project in Austria and is unique in terms of both its size and complexity. The educational facility will provide space for 7,500 pupils and 350 employees. It consists of a 26-metre-high main building with five floors above ground and a two-storey workshop building; these are connected above ground by a glass bridge and below ground by a collector-duct corridor. There is total usable floor space of 29,000m².
Jobs for up to 400 people
Consortium partners PORR and Apleona will complete the construction work within around 32 months so that the school can start operating in September 2028. PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss on the construction challenges posed by the building’s dimensions: “This project will create jobs for up to 400 people during the construction phase. A building of this size also requires enormous quantities of material, including 38,000m3 of in-situ concrete and 5,800 tonnes of reinforcing steel. The processes required to manage such a project efficiently are extremely complex and call for our entire range of expertise”.
The timber-hybrid building features frame walls and facade elements, while the construction of the workshop roofs is also in timber. Kronaus Mitterer Architekten and their team of consultants were responsible for the original design right up to the submission planning stage. PORR subsidiary pde Integrale Planung contributed its extensive expertise to the implementation planning. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been used to help produce an as-built model.
Cement with lower CO2
The central vocational school building also stands out when it comes to sustainability. It is being built in a way that is both energy efficient and climate friendly: State-of-the-art building technology, a geothermal system with around 140 probes, and photovoltaics on the roofs guarantee the supply of renewable energy, while green roofing absorbs CO2 emissions. The building will be constructed using CO2-reduced cement and the construction process itself will be optimised with the help of LEAN Construction, thereby eliminating any waste of resources. TQB certification in accordance with the criteria of the Austrian Sustainable Building Council (ÖGNB) is planned.
AI and digital twin
Once construction of the project has been completed, Apleona Austria – a leading full-service facility management provider – will take over its operation for the next 25 years. Thomas Winter, CEO of Apleona Austria GmbH: “We’re delighted to be able to contribute our life-cycle expertise and, in particular, our experience from the six PPP projects from the City of Vienna BIENE programme that have already been built and are currently in operation. In addition to the energy-efficient operation of the high-quality building technology to ensure the energy consumption guaranteed by Apleona, other challenges include the use of future technology, such as data exchange with the digital building twin during operation, and the use of AI-based building technology controls. As we’re authorised to ensure operation after the construction phase until 2053, efficient processes and working methods as well as future technologies are an essential prerequisite for ensuring the high quality standards of the City of Vienna”.
Innovative financing model
The public-private partnership (PPP) model used also happens to be an innovation. PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss: “We’ve succeeded in establishing a life-cycle model in which the principal retains full control over the property, while it is financed by third parties, built with reliable pricing, and operated for 25 years”.
PORR Beteiligungen und Management GmbH and Quaero Capital are the equity investors in the venture. The debt financing was structured by Eight Advisory as financial advisor. The debt capital was provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank - Frankfurt am Main and – for the first time for an education project in Austria – also by five insurance companies led by Ampega Asset Management. The financing insurance companies include HDI and neue leben from the Talanx Group as well as Wiener Städtische Versicherung from the Vienna Insurance Group. As the user, the City of Vienna will pay an availability fee during the 25-year operating phase to cover the investment and ongoing operations. The total investment amounts to around EUR 200m.
Facts and figures at a glance
| Project type: | Building construction |
| Scope of services: | Construction of the education facility central vocational school building Seestadt Aspern |
| Principal: | City of Vienna – Schools (MA 56) |
| Awarding authority: | City of Vienna – Construction & Building Management (MA 34) |
| Contractor: | Consortium for building CVS Seestadt Aspern – PORR and Apleona |
| Project duration: | 32 months (construction phase) |
