Avant Vienna

   Financial Times, April 30, 1996, Vienna insert, p. VIII.


   Vienna: Architecture and housing. by Eric Frey

   The modernist's innovative homes

      Higher demand for accommodation is reviving the drive
      for contemporary architecture


   Twentieth-century architecture has had a bumpy ride in
   Vienna. With architects such as Adolf Loos and Josef
   Hoffmann, the city was the cradle of the modernist style.
   But after World War II, it became better known for projects
   that were killed by a lack of finance or by opposition from
   a conservative public rather than for examples of avant
   garde architecture.

   A visitor walking through the historic downtown area will
   still find few attractive modern buildings, with the Haas
   Haus of the Prisker [sic] Prize winner Mr Hans Hollein
   across from St. Stephen's Cathedral one outstanding
   exception. Efforts to convert the sprawling baroque complex
   of the former Imperial Stables into a leading centre for
   modern arts have been held up for a decade by public
   squabbles.

   However, things are gradually changing. On the outskirts,
   a whole range of innovative public housing projects is
   changing the face of a city that still prefers to define
   itself by its old imperial glory.

   This new architecture has a heritage of its own. In the
   1920s, the Social Democratic municipal government embarked
   on an ambitious initiative to provide decent public housing
   to working-class families. The fortress-like massive Karl
   Marx Hof and other projects became symbols of modern social
   change and city planning and were copied all over Europe.

   During post-war reconstruction, public housing had to be
   simple and cheap. In the 1970s, the city's population was
   shrinking and construction came to a standstill. But when
   the collapse of communism swelled the number of immigrants
   in the 1980s, the shortage of flats and a lack of private
   real estate development forced the city to resume
   subsidised public housing on a large scale. With the
   growing number of single households, the space needed per
   person also rose. Ten thousand units are now being
   completed every year. This time, the municipal government
   has aimed to do better than the grey concrete blocks of
   earlier decades. For that, it has turned not only to
   Austria's leading architects such as Mr Hollein, Mr Gustav
   Peichl, Mr Wilhelm Holzbauer and the avant garde team of
   Coop Himmelblau, who had previously done their best work
   abroad but also to a new breed of young designers: one
   remarkable neighbourhood is designed exclusively by female
   architects.

   "We are not building prestigious projects in the city
   centre, so the average tourist will never see them." says
   Mr Hannes Swoboda, city councillor for external affairs and
   urban planning. "Unlike Berlin, we don't want a few big
   names to dominate the city. We want to give a chance to
   young Austrian architects. It's their only real
   opportunity."

   The best examples of this work can be found south of the
   downtown area and in the thinly populated districts across
   the Danube. These projects consist of high-density housing
   units that still give the residents plenty of light and
   space. No two projects look the same, and buildings with
   very different architectural styles often stand next to
   each other. "It is like a city centre. Every house is a
   little different," says Mr Sowboda, who is seen as the
   driving force behind Vienna's urban renewal.

   Closer to downtown, the municipality and public housing
   co-operatives are building residential units on the lots of
   shut-down factories and the tracks of a former cargo train
   station. The main focus is still on the revival of older
   buildings and run-down neighbourhoods, says Mr Swoboda.
   Three quarters of all housing development in Vienna
   consists of renovation, not new construction.

   The city also commissioned nearly 30 school buildings from
   renowned architects, including a primary school by Mr
   Hollein.

   The greatest challenge in all these projects was the
   limited budget under Vienna's public building regulations.
   The outcome is less spectacular than the monuments left
   behind by the former French president, Francois Mitterrand
   in Paris. Still, a growing number of architects is coming
   to Vienna to study its examples of urban planning and
   public housing.

   Some of the most interesting projects are still in the
   planning stage or are just being completed. The French
   architect Mr Jean Nouvel is among the few international
   names working in Vienna. He designed a 75-unit housing
   project in the north-east and is co-operating with Coop
   Himmelblau to convert 19th century gasometers into
   residential units. Another international star architect who
   has been lured to Vienna is Ms Zaha Hadid. The Iraqi-
   British designer will convert a shut-down train viaduct
   into a mixed residential and commercial waterside
   development.

   The most ambitious architectural project is the so-called
   Donau City near the United Nations centre on the eastern
   bank of the Danube. Situated above a busy highway, the plot
   was originally earmarked as the site of the 1995 joint
   world fair with Budapest, but this project was cancelled
   after a referendum in 1991. Subsequent plans to create
   Vienna's version of Canary Wharf collapsed amid financing
   problems and a glut in office space.

   The current project, involving many of Austria's leading
   architects, consists of several towers for a mixed housing
   and office development that should eventually grow into a
   new downtown area. There are also plans to add university
   facilities and perhaps a museum. The Andromeda office tower
   by Mr Holzbauer is already under construction; the
   residential towers are near the end of the planning stage.

   Unlike other European cities, Vienna continues to rely on
   the public sector for development. "Our experience has been
   that political leadership is needed for good urban
   planning," says Mr Dietmar Steiner, chairman of the Vienna
   Centre for Architecture.

   Recent tax changes are expected to make private development
   capital even scarcer. Under the austerity budget passed by
   the government, tax shelters for housing projects were
   abolished. Experts say this move will make housing
   construction even more dependent on the public purse. In
   the foreseeable future, Vienna is more than willing to meet
   the demand.

   [3 photos:]

   Hunderwasser Haus: an unusual municipal block of flats
   created in 1985 as a blow against soulless modern
   architecture.

   Haas Haus with the gleaming facade in Stephensplatz is seen
   by some as an exceptional example of a fine modern building
   in historic Vienna.

   Art Deco: a throw-back to the designs of the 1920s and
   1930s.

   [End]

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   Michael Sorkin Studio is designing WG housing and urban
   strategies for Vienna (and the globe); Sorkin heads a
   design and planning institute there, training WGuerillas.