Az W in WARSAW: Home Stories

In the exhibition, curated by the Architekturzentrum Wien and conceived in 2005 for the Austrian Cultural Forum in York, a cross-section was shown of the more interesting Austrian single-family houses to have been built in recent years. No other brief has such potential to illustrate the history and situation of a region in both individual and universal terms. A presentation of private homes provides a lively heterogeneous image of domestic culture and ways of living in Austria today.

An inside look at a selection of 28 homes constructed in Austria since 2000. The exhibition presents various types of home, ranging from tiny solutions in typical Austrian allotment settlements on the outskirts of towns, increases of density in the form of extensions to existing buildings, homes with intelligent floor plans or flexible spatial agendas, to generous houses with swimming pools and plenty of open space.

Unlike the usual presentation of projects, photographic portraits of the people and families who live in the 28 houses play the leading role in the exhibition. The result, achieved in collaboration with the photographers’ cooperative fotoK, is an almost symbiotic snapshot of the houses and their occupants. The distinct visual language of each of the four photographers responds to the situational conditions, and their homes throughout Austria provide a clear architectural statement.

Curator: Ulrike Haele
Photographic concept: fotoK – Verein für Fotografie und Kunst, Pascal Petignat, Martin Scholz
Photographers: Karin Grossauer, Patrizia Gapp, Udo Leitner, Hao Lo