Living in the Sargfabrik — what is it like?
Short and honest: you live in Austria’s largest self-managed housing project, on the site of a nineteenth-century coffin factory, in 112 units with a bathhouse, a roof garden and an event hall, the tram at the door and Schönbrunn a few streets away. The trade-off: you join through the association, not through a listing — and whoever lives here lives with about 200 others.
Living Snapshot — the area in numbers
The Sargfabrik is not a Grätzl of its own in Vienna Living Map’s data — what is rated are the residential areas around it: Breitensee just under a kilometre to the west and the Grätzl around Schönbrunn about a kilometre to the south, across the Wien valley.
What shapes daily life
The name is meant literally. From the end of the nineteenth century the coffin factory Maschner & Söhne stood on Goldschlagstraße, once the largest coffin joinery in Austria-Hungary; from 1970 the site lay empty. In autumn 1986 about 30 people founded the Verein für Integrative Lebensgestaltung — until April 1988 it was called the “Utopisches Zentrum” — and in May 1989 the association bought the plot for 13 million schillings. Building began in 1994 to plans by BKK-2, and residents moved in in autumn 1996: 73 units on 0.47 hectares, plus 2,000 square metres of shared space. The same year it won the Adolf Loos Prize and the Austrian Building Client Prize.
What is different is in the land register: legally the Sargfabrik is a residential home, not an apartment building. That allowed room heights of 2.26 instead of 2.50 metres, subsidies for the shared spaces, and one parking space per ten units instead of one per flat. 15 percent of the units are reserved for people with disabilities, older people and people at risk, seven for temporary living, two for young refugees, plus one shared flat of 400 square metres. In September 2000 the Miss Sargfabrik followed at Missindorfstraße 10, 39 flats by BKK-3, awarded the Concrete Prize 2001 and the Berlin Art Prize 2002. The children’s house ran from 1996 to 2024; the 350-square-metre bathhouse, the hall for 120 to 300 people and the Kant_ine restaurant (since July 2015) remain.
What works surprisingly well
Quiet and cool by Viennese standards: in the nearest Grätzl, Breitensee, quiet stands at 8.0 (Vienna median 6.8) and the modelled summer-heat index at 53 out of 100 (median 56). Trams 10 and 49 stop at Linzer Straße outside the door, and the U3 at Johnstraße is about eleven minutes away on foot.
Green and water are close: the Auer-Welsbach-Park at the Technical Museum about four minutes away on foot, beyond it the Wien river and Schönbrunn. And inside the house: a roof garden with trees, beds and seating, and the bathhouse with a warm-water pool, sauna and tepidarium.
What you consciously accept
You do not move in here, you join: the association allocates the flats. Whoever comes pays a capital contribution (index-linked, returned on leaving), ongoing loan instalments, running costs and a solidarity contribution for members in hardship — and lives with about 110 adults and 45 children, with working groups and volunteer work. Anyone who wants to live anonymously is in the wrong place.
The rooms are lower than in the old buildings around: 2.26 metres, possible only because the house is a residential home. And the flats are called “boxes” for a reason — what is big is the shared space, not your own flat.
20 minutes of everyday life
Five stops, one evening after work — every observation is true exactly here, not everywhere.
- Linzer Straße 17:30
The stop of trams 10 and 49, a few steps from the gate. From here the 49 runs to the Ring, the 10 to Hietzing and Dornbach. - Goldschlagstraße 169 17:32
The Sargfabrik: orange façades of 1996, inside the courtyard, the bathhouse, the hall, the Kant_ine. 73 units, 2,000 square metres for everyone. - Missindorfstraße 10 17:37
The Miss Sargfabrik of 2000: 39 flats, a library and a shared kitchen, the same association’s second building, two prizes. - Auer-Welsbach-Park 17:43
The park at the Technical Museum, about four minutes on foot from the Sargfabrik: wide lawns, old trees, the view of the museum. - Schönbrunner Schloßbrücke 17:50
Across the Wien river, and on the other side Schönbrunn begins. From the Sargfabrik this is the evening stroll.
Who is it for?
For anyone who sees community as part of the flat — bathhouse, roof garden and hall as rooms of your own that you share — and takes the tram at the door every day. If you are looking for a flat you buy or rent and then keep to yourself, look elsewhere; here the association decides, and the ceilings are low.
Check the light per floor
The Sargfabrik stands in a block of Gründerzeit houses and courtyard buildings: how much sun reaches a window depends on the courtyard, the side and the floor. The light check calculates, for the address and the floor, when direct sun reaches the windows — on 21 June and 21 December, from the officially measured heights of the neighbouring buildings. The preview for one room is free. To the light check →
Open this place in Vienna Living Map →The Breitensee Grätzl portrait · Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa · Architecture in Vienna · Penzing district · Karl-Marx-Hof · Arsenal
Method & sources
History, numbers, legal form and prizes: Wikipedia, article “Sargfabrik (Wien)”. Facilities and the association model: sargfabrik.at. Name of the factory: museum-digital, “Sargfabrik Julius Maschner & Söhne (Wien)”. All read on 12 October 2026. Quiet and summer heat: Vienna Living Map’s own data for the Breitensee Grätzl; walking minutes from the straight-line distance times 1.3 at 80 metres per minute.
Frequently asked
What is the Sargfabrik?
Austria’s largest self-managed housing project, in the 14th district at Goldschlagstraße 169: moved into in 1996 by the Verein für Integrative Lebensgestaltung on the site of the former coffin factory Maschner & Söhne, 73 units with a bathhouse, roof garden, event hall and restaurant. In 2000 the Miss Sargfabrik on Missindorfstraße added 39 flats.
Which district is the Sargfabrik in?
In the 14th district, Penzing, postcode 1140, between Linzer Straße and Goldschlagstraße. Trams 10 and 49 stop at Linzer Straße, and the U3 at Johnstraße is about eleven minutes away on foot.
Can you live in the Sargfabrik?
Yes, but not through a listing: the association allocates the flats, and whoever moves in becomes a member — with a capital contribution, ongoing loan instalments, running costs and a solidarity contribution. There are 112 units in the two houses together, for about 200 people.
Why is the Sargfabrik a residential home?
Because that legal form made three things possible: room heights of 2.26 instead of 2.50 metres, subsidies for the shared spaces and only one parking space per ten units. In return the flats are called “boxes”, and what is big is the shared.
What was the Sargfabrik before?
The coffin factory Maschner & Söhne, founded at the end of the nineteenth century, once the largest coffin joinery in Austria-Hungary. From 1970 the site stood empty, and in 1989 the association bought it for 13 million schillings.
What is it like to live in the Sargfabrik?
Quieter and cooler than the Viennese average, in the data of the Breitensee Grätzl, with the tram at the door, a park and Schönbrunn within walking distance and a bathhouse in the house. In exchange, low ceilings, small flats and a life shared with about 200 people. The Sargfabrik has no score of its own; the Breitensee Grätzl reaches 85 out of 100.