Vienna’s expertise in providing functional, high-quality residences goes back to the “Red Vienna” of the 1920s and 1930s, when the Social Democrats began to develop social housing on a large-scale for the first time. Since then, the city has pursued a housing development policy in stages which has contributed in essential ways to enhancing quality of life.
The exhibition “Housing in Vienna - innovative. social. ecological.” provides a comprehensive overview of residential development in Vienna – from its beginnings up to the present. Featured are altogether 28 realized projects of publicly sponsored residential building and their embedding in ongoing urban development projects – with special attention to social and ecological aspects. Among these are a dormitory on Molkerei Strasse in Passive House standard by Baumschlager Eberle Architects, a group of multistory wooden residences like Dietrich/Untertrifaller, Hubert Riess and Kaufmann/Kaufmann, the conversion of the Gasometer by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelblau, Prof. Wílhelm Holzbauer and Wehdorn Architects, and the residential complex on Tokio Strasse of Artec, but also large-scale areas currently under development, such as the “Kabelwerk” by Pool Architects, the Wienerberg City by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects and the Orasteig Housing Project by Walter Stelzhammer.
In the area of residential development, Vienna plays an outstanding role internationally. Nearly 60% of all Viennese households live in subsidized housing, 220,000 of them in communal rental apartments. The city invests in the construction of 5000 to 7000 subsidized apartments annually – around 80 to 90% of the total volume of new construction. The goal is to make innovative and ecological architecture available to all social classes. This comprehensive model of a social, planned, and ecologically sustainable housing policy has been achieved step-by-step since the end of World War I, and is being extended further today. This exhibition – which was also presented at the 2008 Art Biennale in Venice, in Milan, in Belgrade, in Ankara, and in Vienna – is now updated and on view at Aedes am Pfefferberg.
Exhibition Concept: Architekturzentrum Wien, Curators: Wolfgang Förster, Gabriele Kaiser, Dietmar Steiner, Alexandra Viehhauser, Exhibition Design: SPAN-architekten, Matias del Campo and Sandra Manninger.
Sponsors
Architekturzentrum Wien, Stadt Wien - Geschäftsgruppe Wohnen, Wohnbau und Stadterneuerung, Zumtobel, ArcelorMittal, Busch-Jaeger, carpetconcept, AXOR Hansgrohe
