Library and Seminar Centre BOKU Vienna

About this place

The Ilse-Wallentin-Haus occupies the northwest corner of BOKU's Vienna campus, adjacent to the Schwackhöfer-Haus. Completed in July 2020 and opened formally in October of that year, the building adds 3,100 m² of usable space to the university, housing a library with 100 reading places, ten seminar rooms accommodating up to 500 students simultaneously, and forty departmental offices. The structure is notable for its material clarity: a concrete podium and stairwell core anchor four upper floors of cross-laminated timber and glulam columns, with wood making up 78 percent of the above-ground structure by volume. The prefabricated CLT elements were fitted with digital sensors monitoring temperature and humidity during transport — an example of the digitally-integrated construction process that BIM coordination enabled across the project. Inside, the facade's rhythmic timber grid extends into the ceiling of the entrance level and library, so the structural logic is legible from the moment of entry. Full-height glazing along the northeast face opens the reading room to the adjacent park, while the entrance level connects to a public terrace. The two large ground-floor seminar rooms can be joined and opened into the foyer, creating an event space for up to 200 people. Upper floors follow a ring layout that minimises circulation distances, with department offices wrapping around central meeting rooms lit by a two-storey glazed atrium. Corner offices accommodate up to eight people; informal lounge zones and furnished terraces serve as breakout spaces. Throughout, exposed wood surfaces create an atmosphere intended to support sustained concentration. The project won an invited competition in 2017 and was constructed in under 14 months — a timeline made possible by prefabrication. It achieved klimaaktiv Gold certification with 965 of 1,000 points, Austria's highest sustainability rating. The building is named in honour of Ilse Wallentin, the first woman to earn a doctorate from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, in 1924.