Funkhaus Wien, Broadcasting headquarters in Wieden, Austria
Funkhaus Wien is a broadcasting facility on Argentinierstraße designed with irregularly shaped studio spaces and multi-story sections. The spatial arrangement and construction were specifically engineered to achieve superior sound quality throughout the building.
Built between 1935 and 1939 for the RAVAG broadcaster to plans by Heinrich Schmid and Hermann Aichinger with Clemens Holzmeister, the Funkhaus Wien is Austria's oldest broadcasting house. Bombing in January and February 1945 damaged the rear section, and the last Reichssender Wien broadcast went out on 6 April 1945. With the Bisamberg transmitter blown up, a provisional 30-watt rooftop mast began service and was raised to 10 kW by early 1946. Gustav Peichl added an extension in 1979–1983, and the building has been listed since 1999.
The ORF RadioKulturhaus, founded in 1997, uses the protected historic studios for talks and concerts, and it is the home venue of the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. In the Great Broadcasting Hall, concerts of the Jeunesse organ cycle are still broadcast live on Ö1, mostly on Sunday evenings, giving young organists a stage. The hall's leather seats do not fold up, so that no extra noise disturbs recordings.
The historic studios and both broadcast halls are protected monuments, and the ORF RadioKulturhaus opened in 1997 uses them for talks and concerts. The RadioCafe next to the building is leased to a private operator. The building stands at Argentinierstraße 30a in Wieden, beside the park of the Theresianum.
The building has no rectangular floor plans in its broadcast halls and sound studios, as the irregular shapes were engineered to optimize acoustics. This unusual design solution allowed early radio pioneers to transmit broadcasts in an entirely new way.
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