Hintergrund 28

Description

The emergence of the so-called “experience society,” in which the individual is no longer defined exclusively by work but can create his or her own personality through consumption and highly diversified offerings from the leisure industry, opens up new functions for “free time.”

Large shopping and entertainment centers, like stadiums, are being relocated to the outskirts of cities, where they form isolated fortresses for controllable sports and event worlds. Elsewhere, new urban structures are emerging that – planned on a large scale as experience and shopping centers – give the place a completely new face and, in the best case, revitalize it. Even the classic sites of “recreation” are being charged with added value: Seaside vacations serve “wellness,” hotels become theme parks or are spiritually optimized by Feng Shui consultants.

The 13th Vienna Architecture Congress showed new examples of how architecture mutates from a shell to a device in its own right, an instrument for leisure and the production of desire. Self-exhibited, and no longer just stage alone. In this issue you will now find the first four congress contributions, ranging from the history of leisure by Klaus Thien, branding and marketing strategies of global corporations, car and alpine tourism worlds by Frank Roost and Michael Zinganel to the science fiction narrative of “Scripted spaces” by Norman M. Klein and the outdoor shopping world “The Grove” by Dorit Margreiter.