Excursion
1970s Megastructures in Transformation
Alte WU and Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof
Alte WU, interim use by WEST Space since 2022 WEST
© photograph: Daniela Trost
The touring exhibition 'Sorge um Bestand' at the Alte WU is an opportunity to visit one of the most striking major structures in Vienna while it is in the midst of transformation.
The Althanstrasse university centre was built in the 1970s as a superstructure over the Franz-Josefs-Bahn freight station — “an urban planning undertaking… the like of which has been seen in Vienna since the construction of the Ring Road”. It was designed in collaboration by Hlaweniczka-Schwacher-Krampf. Hlaweniczka had also been responsible for the previous new construction of Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof. The excursion combines a visit to the large university structure temporarily used by cultural workers as WEST Space and a guided tour through the exhibition with a site visit to the Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof, adaptation as a mixed-use quarter and planned by DMAA & Josef Weichenberger Architects.
With: Robert Temel, urban researcher, speaker for the Plattform Baukulturpolitik; Jakub Dvorak, architect, joyjoy studio; Gunnar Grandel and Hannah Niemand, Kollektiv Raumstation; Dietmar Feistel, Delugan Meissl Associated Architects; Friedrich Hähle, Josef Weichenberger Architects
Moderated by: Maria Welzig, Az W
*An exhibition by BDA (Bund deutscher Architekt*innen), shown in Vienna in cooperation with Plattform Baukultur.