‘City on the Tracks’ is a project on the skyline of Graz. It is founded in the greater ambition to reinstate the physicality and hierarchy of urban signifier within the city. As the busiest primary gateway into Graz, the central station is a fundamental element in the reading and experience of the city. In this light, the proposed site becomes an unmissable opportunity to emphasise this moment where the city ends and begins.

The proposed scheme aims to do so by projecting the site upwards above the existing roofscape with 5 towers square in plan and of equal height. While the towers individually orient themselves to address their immediate context, they work together in forming an unassuming, yet singular and unified presence in the skyline of Graz. This ambition is also communicated on ground level, where the combination of mass, density and programmatic diversity generates a new local, urban focal point.

The design of City on the Tracks attempts to create a strong and unmistakable identity without resorting to attention seeking sculptural forms. The volumes are spare, simple and pragmatically architectural. The subtle nuances between the tower and podia elements, the dimensions, orientations, proximity to one another and overall composition, are the mechanisms employed in defining the design’s character and identity. Like a still life of discernible urban objects the proposal leaves an impression on the skyline that is as defined as a logotype of itself.