“Duett Pradl” housing development in Innsbruck

Pradl is one of the most populous areas of Innsbruck and is a popular place to live, thanks to its vibrant restaurant and culture scene. With high sensitivity to the surrounding Wilhelminian buildings, Work Space Architekten designed “Duett Pradl”: an open residential ensemble with 116 apartments that all feature high-quality pergolas, some of which are equipped with balcony glazing. 

“Duett Pradl” consists of two residential buildings that sit above a shared underground parking garage. An eight-storey building in the courtyard adjoins the neighbouring buildings, while its four-storey counterpart closes the empty site at the crossroads, where it merges with a ten-storey high-rise apartment block to form a trademark urban development. The sensitively designed buildings allow a wide variety of apartment floor plans and optimal alignment with the available sunlight and panoramic views. The 116 apartments in a desirable mix of 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-room apartments are accessed via central stairwells. 

High quality of living with pergolas

Each apartment has a pergola in the form of a loggia or balcony. “Usable outdoor space in the right size is an important quality feature for apartments,” points out architect Karin Triendl. 

For increased comfort, all 42 street-facing loggias are equipped with the Proline T slide-and-turn system from Solarlux. The architects particularly favoured the system’s unobtrusive design and flexible handling. 

The up to one-metre-wide slide-and-turn elements can be used to close the balconies or can be fully opened by parking the glass elements to one side. As a result, the loggias can be comfortably used all year round. The closed glazing blocks out wind and rain, dampens the soundscape and street noise, and serves as a second non-insulated shell, creating a buffer zone that reduces heat loss. 

Optimised sound insulation 

Especially on the upper floors of “Duett Pradl”, the buffer zone makes a considerable difference in terms of wind load and sound insulation when the balcony glazing is closed. The sound insulation provided by Proline T reduces noise by up to 22 dB; with full equipment, it achieves a demonstrably improved Rw value of up to 30 dB. “Our sound measurements did indicate that glazing would be recommended. But our clients opted for the balcony glazing purely based on the higher quality of living that it would provide for the loggias,” recalls Katrin Triendl – a good choice for maximum comfort.