We envision the museum as a place for encounter, as a continuous public space that brings together exhibition spaces, lecture rooms, reading areas and coffee shops. Inspired on the Viennese coffees, the museum will not only contain the history and art of the city, but will also revive the atmosphere of the Viennese coffee houses. The museum has been designed as a place to think, observe, meditate and interact in spontaneous setting. We have devised the interior of the museum and its surroundings as spaces where the everyday social practices that took place in the Viennese cafes will be reenacted.

We have aimed at respecting as much as possible the original building as well as the massing dialogue with the Karlskirche. For this purpose we have allocated the required programmatic spaces in two main areas. The existing building which has been enlarged with a vertical extension, and an underground space that opens up to the Karlsplatz.

Given the features that a modern exhibition space requires, the spatial conditions the existing building provides have been considered inadequate. Another aspect to take into account in the existing building, is the façade. The window layout that at the moment is blocked given the current interior programmatic needs, can now be reopened by adjusting the interior programmatic usages. With our proposal we have thought to open these windows to the city and re-allocate the exhibition rooms in more suitable spaces to host modern exhibitions.

The underground extension in a single level is not sufficient to contain the full program required, so we had to locate all the Temporary Exhibition spaces above the volume of the existing building, which will  grow up to reach the level of the cornice lines around the Karlsplatz. This additional volume will substantially change the proportion of the existing volume, raising the cornice line in 7,5m, and giving much more presence to the volume of the Museum in the Karlsplatz. Our proposal is to use custom-made translucent glass tiles to give an exciting texture to this additional volume. The custom-made tiles will be designed to sparkle like a piece of traditional Viennese crystal.