Heritage rejected
Austria and Nazi Architecture
Organised by: Architekturzentrum Wien, BundesdenkmalamtNazi architecture in Austria is not just comprised of the Vienna Flak Towers, the Führerstadt Linz…
Exhibition
The Atlantic Wall
Cast Concrete Insanity - 12,000 German bunkers along the coast
Thu 14.09.2006 – Mon 09.10.2006
The Atlantic Wall
© Guido Guidi
Opening:
Dietmar Steiner, Director Az W
Lorenzo Bini, studiometrico, Milano
Klaus Steiner, Urban Planner
In the years from 1942–1944 the German military erected a gigantic defensive wall along the Atlantic coast, running from France to Norway. The project swallowed up enormous quantities of resources, and vast numbers of labourers were forced to work on the construction. The coastline was divided into sectors with the varying requirements for fortification calculated according to the level of the perceived threat. The length planned with the highest density was the north coast of France, where eleven complexes per kilometre were envisaged.
The exhibition runs at the Az W from 13.09–9.10.2006. It was compiled by the DPA-Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with institutions in France and Belgium, and documents the various types of building for the first time on the basis of old plans and photographs. A walk-in plan of the coastline with all of the bunker complexes shows the full scale of the project. The completed buildings still dominate long stretches of the Atlantic coast and show a broad diversity of architectural approaches ranging from the astonishingly well thought-through in form and function to the simple and rather clumsy.
They are, though, all the conspicuous legacy of Nazi Germany’s attempt to force its authority over a space and the society within it. A position must be taken regarding the buildings, and they provide fuel for discussion.
The show is supplemented by a series of photographs of the complexes by Guido Guidi – traces of a Nazi variation of the Fortress Europe.
An Exhibition of DPA-Sezione di Museografia, Politecnico di Milano in cooperation with GRAI, Ecole d’Architecture de Versailles and Raymond Lemarie ICC, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven
Curator: Gennaro Postiglione, DPA-Politecnico di Milano
Exhibition design: studiometrico/Lorenzo Bini, Gennaro Postiglione, Giulio Padovani
With the kind support of the EU programme „Culture 2000“, Directorate General, Education and Culture
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
Symposium:
Heritage rejected. Austria and Nazi Architecture
Fri, 15.09.06 – Sat, 16.09.06 / Az W Podium
Admission free!
Excursion
sundays 177. vienna nazi walls
Sun, 17.09.06 / Venue 1:45 pm at the Az W-Shop
Sold Out!
subject to alterations
