Exhibition | The Vienna Model

©David Plakke

When: October 1 - October 17, 2013
Where:  D Center Baltimore | 16 W North Avenue | Baltimore, MD 21201
Tickets: Admission is free. To request a tour please visit www.dcenterbaltimore.com

From October 1-17, the traveling exhibition “The Vienna Model” can be seen at the D Center in Baltimore. The exhibition, which had its debut at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, is curated by Wolfgang Förster and William Menking and features 36 case studies of Viennese public housing design. A series of images of artworks, curated by Sabine Bittner and Helmut Weber, accompanies the exhibition.

In Vienna, which for the past four years has topped the Mercer “Quality of Living” survey, about 60% of the population lives in municipally built, owned or managed housing and the city plays an important part in the housing market.

This successful model can be traced back to the early 20th century, when the progressive government took an active interest in providing and designing housing for its citizens. That interest has since evolved into a housing policy that has produced works by a host of prolific architects and studios over the years, such as those of Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, Richard Neutra, and Margarete Schütte Lihotzky.

The projects featured in The Vienna Model are characteristic for contemporary Viennese public housing trends, some little-known outside the city: The Kabelwerk Estate, which involved turning the grounds of an old electrical cable & wiring factory into an entirely new urban area (completed in 2007, Hermann & Valentiny & Partners, Mascha & Seethaler, Schwalm-Theiss-Gressenbauer, Martin Wurnig, pool Architektur, Werkstatt Wien Spiegelfeld, Holnsteiner & Co.). Other examples include an Inter-ethnic housing complex (Peter Scheinfinger and Partners, 1998-2000), Bike City (königlarch architects, 2005 - 2008), and the Sargfabrik (BKK-2, Johnny Winter, 1996 - 2001), a former coffin manufacturing plant turned into a housing complex: this project was planned by a residents’ group in Vienna’s densely built-up fourteenth district, and has since received international acclaim for its outstanding architecture as well as its social concept of introducing a new communal infrastructure into a low-profile urban area.

The exhibition in Baltimore is shown as part of the project "Getting to know Europe: Transit - Creative Placemaking in Baltimore," organized by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (short EUNIC). EUNIC is a network of international cultural relations institutes of the EU member states. Formed in 2006, it is made up of 32 members from 26 countries including Austria. For more information, please visit: http://www.eunic-online.eu

BEDNAR PARK / WOHNEN AM PARK, 2009. Architect: ppag architects Photo by: Stadt Wien – MA 18 / Rupert Christanell

BIKE CITY, 2008. Architects: königlarch architects Photo by: Wohnfonds Wien / Stephan Huger