This year marks the 150th anniversary of the legendary world exhibition in Vienna. Times. Under the motto “Vision and Awakening”, numerous Viennese institutions are dedicating themselves to this event, which inspired the development of the city into a world metropolis in the 19th century. And we are also at the forefront of this, because with PANORAMA VIENNA we are opening a spectacular new exhibition venue of a special kind in 2023: it is not only a reminiscence of the legendary domed building erected in 1873, which became the landmark of the World Exhibition, but also revitalizes the tradition of the rotunda in the Vienna Prater as a monumental spectacle for the 21st century – with the construction of a modern reinforced concrete rotunda.

 

Built using the sliding construction method, we will use it to present an unprecedented form of exhibition in Vienna: In our approx. 33 meter high structure – with an outer diameter of approx. 36 meters – we will present gigantic art formats in the form of giant analog 360-degree circular images, the size and dimension of which can only be experienced by viewers exclusively on site on the inside of our panorama rotunda.

 

In keeping with our motto “All Perspective”, the dimension of the fully visitor-oriented viewpoint (polyperspective) goes beyond the boundaries of the existing space inside the rotunda, creating a unique illusionistic pictorial space that visitors can explore in detail and at their leisure from a steel platform with levels three, six, twelve and fifteen meters high.

 

 

Our rotunda is currently in construction phase 1, with the massive floor slab – consisting of 220^m3 of concrete – being poured at the end of February. And the next challenging milestone is already imminent: the construction of the spectacular and immensely complex roof structure. Due to the special requirements that have to be taken into account and fulfilled, as well as its considerable dimensions – the outer circumference is over 100 meters, which corresponds to the length of a soccer pitch – it is supported by a huge substructure consisting of steel scaffolding over 30 meters high inside the circular building. After completion, the roof will take a total of twelve weeks to fully settle.

 

And this supporting structure will also provide another small spectacle: while people are already used to seeing at least one Coca-Cola truck live at Christmas time, between 22 and 24 articulated lorries will drive up the access road to transport the Staxo support frames – a sight that visitors to the Vienna Prater only get to see in exceptional cases. In terms of sustainability, we are also planning to green the façade of the rotunda over the course of the coming construction phases and to cover the majority of PANORAMA VIENNA’s energy requirements with the help of photovoltaic panels – which, in the best-case scenario, will even allow additional energy to be fed into the grid.

 

With our highly immersive exhibitions at PANORAMA VIENNA, staged with great attention to detail, a completely new concept for the Vienna Prater is being created to mark the 150th anniversary of the Prater. The exhibition will guarantee an incomparable visual spectacle on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the World Expo and at the same time herald a renaissance of the monumental in the 21st century.