Rock Over Barock
The desire to celebrate space: Based on 7+2 examples, the exhibition will convey what it might be that comprises a characteristic, shared, Austrian architecture.
Nine architects show that for all of their diversity it is nonetheless possible to discover a distinct quality in Austrian architecture: the architecture of the spatial sequence.
We can now begin the attempt to describe—through their cultural roots—the architects who are decisive in the international architectural discussion at the moment. We can designate the Dutch and the Swiss as Calvinists; a Rietveld in Vienna is just as unthinkable as a Kiesler in Rotterdam.
In the search for the uniqueness of Austrian architecture, we constantly stumble upon the missing theoretical foundation that allows the architects’ qualities—which undoubtedly exist—to be interpreted and stylized in such a way that a sharply defined image emerges, one that is capable of distinguishing Austrian architects throughout the world: namely, their desire to redefine built space.
In other countries, young architects learn to ride the slipstream of their lands’ greatest names, in Austria, however, we practice patricide. Yet this patricide is not an act of liberation, but simply an unruly defiance of tradition one which recycles Austria’s anti-intellectual attitude. This prevents a discursive confrontation with those innovative architectural qualities that risk being novel.
What madness to build immensely heavy domes and have them vanish under heavenly visions! By starting with this desire for spatial design evident in Baroque structures, a particular skill of Austrian architects becomes clear: designing complex space rather than the simplified box.
Wolf Prix
The exhibition presents following projects:
ARTEC Architekten
Raum Zita Kern
Raasdorf, N.Ö., Austria, 1996-98
Urs Bette
Uralla Courth
Adelaide, Australia, 1993
DELUGAN MEISSL ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS
House Ray1
Vienna, Austria, 2003
the next ENTERprise architects
Lakeside bath Caldaro/Kaltern
Caldaro/Kaltern, Italy, 2002-
Klaus Stattmann
Fluc_2
Vienna, Austria, 2003-2006
stiefel kramer
Kunsthaus Graz – „Promenade médiale“
Graz, Austria, 2000
Wolfgang Tschapeller
BVA123
Vienna, Austria, 1998-2004
Sophie Grell
Raum oder Vorfeld
Vienna, Austria, 2004/05
Tercer Piso arquitectos
Techo en Mexico
Oaxaca, Mexico, 2002-04
Speakers at the opening:
Kristin Feireiss Berlin and
Wolf Prix Vienna
An Aedes catalogue will be published (€ 19.-).
