Querkraft Architekten have worked with IKEA Austria to design a new type of IKEA city centre store that will not only be a place to shop, but to meet, socialise, attend events, eat, drink and experience when it opens in 2021.

IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof will be located on one of the main shopping streets in the city, has been conceived to be entirely car-free and is intended to become a main meeting place for the city.

The store's location will mean it is well served by public transport but that accommodating car access for customers would have proved very challenging.

Instead, the trend towards consumers having shopping delivered to their homes has been embraced, with the store to provide a convenient place for shoppers to browse products, before arranging deliveries.

The building will house an IKEA retail store on the first four levels, four shops along the street frontage, a hostel on the uppermost two floors and a publicly accessible roof garden with hospitality offerings and activity spaces.

An open and transparent design is intended to create a welcoming and friendly presence while providing visual permeability to display the IKEA range to the surrounding area.

The architectural concept is based on a grid system – symbolising a bookshelf and reminiscent of IKEA's signature flat-pack furniture – that will offer simplicity of construction, bright interiors and flexibility.

It will be possible to open, close and adapt elements of the grid façade as required and there will be space for growing trees, greenery and landscaping.

A total of 160 trees will be planted around the building, lowering the temperature in the immediate vicinity by an expected minimum of 2 degrees Celsius while making for a more pleasant local area and contributing to IKEA's sustainability ambitions.