TransModernity. Austrian Architects

Opening: Wednesday, August 28, 2002, 7:00 P.M.

TransModernity, the exhibition originally conceived by the Architekturzentrum Wien for the inauguration of Raimund Abraham’s Austrian Cultural Forum New York, will be shown in Austria for the first time starting on August 29, 2002. The exhibition focuses on an understanding of modernism that helped to shape the twentieth-century dialogue in this field that took place between Austria and the USA, illustrating this theme with current examples of its continued influence.

The works of henke und schreieck, Jabornegg & Pálffy, and Riegler Riewe perpetuate the human vision of classical modernism, but not as the refinement of technological prowess or avant-garde form. Rather, they offer a kind of open structured “musical score,” spatial orientation plans for a multitude of uses, which are quite in agreement with Josef Frank’s motto – Modern is not a style. Modern is only that which gives us complete freedom.

Selected buildings designed by the three teams shall be presented in a video documentary produced by the group gangart. In addition, the spatial concept conceived by gangart for the inauguration exhibition at the ACF New York will be readapted for the exhibition at the Az W.

Inauguration speakers:
Dietmar M. Steiner, Director Architekturzentrum Wien
Otto Kapfinger, Curator

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in English (Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg – München, published by Architekturzentrum Wien).

Supported by:
Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr, Stadt Wien
Wien Kultur
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur

Sponsors:
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH

Press Release

Opening: Wednesday, August 28, 2002, 7:00 P.M.

The Exhibition
TransModernity, the exhibition originally conceived by the Architekturzentrum Wien for the inauguration of Raimund Abraham’s Austrian Cultural Forum New York, will be shown in Austria for the first time starting on August 29, 2002. The exhibition focuses on an understanding of modernism that helped to shape the twentieth-century dialogue in this field that took place between Austria and the USA, illustrating this theme with current examples of its continued influence.

With henke und schreieck, Jabornegg & Pálffy, and Riegler Riewe the Architekturzentrum Wien presents architects from today’s “generation under 50,” whose work represents the diverse and highly sophisticated activity in the current Austrian architecture scene. The reality of these architectures is no longer the relative photogenic materiality; modernity is not an issue of style or a notion of performance reduced to schematic action. The projects shown here transform and renew the human-oriented claim of modernism. The buildings offer ingenious, open spatial structures as a liberal starting point for giving form to our contemporary world, quite in agreement with Josef Frank’s motto: “Modern is not a style; modern is only that which gives us total freedom.”

Selected buildings designed by the three teams shall be presented in a video documentary produced by the group gangart. In addition, the spatial concept conceived by gangart for the inauguration exhibition at the ACF New York will be readapted for the exhibition at the Az W.

The Three Teams

henke und schreieck Architekten
Dieter Henke and Marta Schreieck were first featured at the 1996 Venice Architecture Biennale with a residential dwelling on Vienna’s Frauenfelderstrasse. Their university building for the Innsbruck School of Social and Economic Sciences now ranks among the most influential turn-of-the-century constructions in Austria. Their palette of programs elegantly translated into large-scale, functional spatial figures is supplemented through the school building in Vienna/Leberberg, the “bauMax” showroom store in Schwechat, and the vocational school in Kufstein/Tirol that opened in 2001. henke und schreieck transform the modern ideal of transparent architecture into a powerful presence: abstraction is brought into relaxed, yet profound balance with precise spatial and human sensitivity.

Jabornegg & Pálffy
With the exhibition galleries for the Generali Foundation in Vienna and their architecture for documenta X in Kassel Christian Jabornegg and András Pálffy have made themselves well known, especially in and around the art scene. Their conversion of the Schoellerbank and their construction of the Judenplatz Museum in Vienna exhibit their perfection of surgical interventions into historical contexts and their mastery of difficult site conditions and programmatic requirements. Their work forms a remarkably unperturbed alliance between conceptual radicalism and the subtle handling of new materials and constructions. The structured void as the new paradigm of modernity lies at the heart of their architectural perspective.

Riegler Riewe
Together with residential buildings and the Graz airport, their institute and college complexes in Baden and Graz have enjoyed international recognition and debate. Florian Riegler and Roger Riewe hold a privileged position in the global spectrum of a new minimalism. Their designs are a process of shaping polyvalent and sustainable spatial structures into concrete and robust materiality that span the range from the domestic to the urban scale. The simplicity of form, geometry and detail transcends any debate of style. Beyond categories of functionalist or autonomous space, their structures are at once open and precise: low tech formed into high fit.

The Catalogue
The exhibition will be accompanied and supplemented by a catalogue in English with essays by Otto Kapfinger, Bart Lootsma, Dietmar M. Steiner, and Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, published by Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg – Munich (96 pages with numerous color illustrations and the German text included as an insert; edited by the Architekturzentrum Wien, ISBN 3-7025-0445-1, Euro 24).

The inaugural exhibition of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York can still be seen at that venue until the end of October 2002; further shows abroad are being planned.

Overall Concept: Architekturzentrum Wien / Otto Kapfinger, Dietmar M. Steiner
Video, Exhibition Design New York: gangart
Adaption For Vienna: Architekturzentrum Wien
Initiated By: Austrian Cultural Forum New York / Christoph Thun-Hohenstein

Press:
Ulrike Kahr-Haele
Phone: +43-1-522 31 15-23
Fax: +43-1-522 31 17
E-mail:press@azw.at

Sponsored by:
Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr, Stadt Wien
Wien Kultur
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH

Biographies

(The following links lead to german language websites !)

henke und schreieck Architekten
Wien Neubaugasse 2/5a
A-1070 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43 (1) 526 21 18 – 0
Fax +43 (1) 526 72 43
henke.schreieck@aon.at

Dieter Henke and Marta Schreieck were first featured at the 1996 Venice Architecture Biennale with a residential dwelling on Vienna’s Frauenfelderstrasse. Their university building for the Innsbruck School of Social and Economic Sciences now ranks among the most influential turn-of-the-century constructions in Austria. Their palette of programs elegantly translated into large-scale, functional spatial figures is supplemented through the school building in Vienna/Leberberg, the “bauMax” showroom store in Schwechat, and the vocational school in Kufstein/Tirol that opened in 2001. henke und schreieck transform the modern ideal of transparent architecture into a powerful presence: abstraction is brought into relaxed, yet profound balance with precise spatial and human sensitivity.

Dieter Henke, born in 1952 (A)
Marta Schreieck, born in 1954 (A)

1983 founding of the joint architectural practice.
Various lectureships, including at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

Built projects (selection):
1990-93 apartment building ÖBV, Frauenfeldstrasse, Vienna
1992-94 redesign of the Hackinger Steg footbridge (with Prof. W. D. Ziesel), Vienna
1993-95 terraced apartment building Seefeld, Tyrol
1993-96 Dr. Bruno Kreisky-Schule, primary and secondary school of the City of Vienna
1989-99 Sociology and Economics Faculty building of the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck, Tyrol
1996-98 bauMax (builders suppliers) Schwechat
1999-01 specialist third level educational institute Kufstein, Tyrol

Projects at the construction/planning stage:
comprehensive secondary school, Vienna
Zürich-Kosmos office and commercial building, Vienna
Parkhotel Hall, Tyrol

Awards (selection):
1998 Award of the State of Tyrol for “Neues Bauen”
1993, 1999 Client Prize
1995, 1997 Adolf Loos-Architecture Prize
2000 Prize of the City of Vienna

Jabornegg & Palffy
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 17 / 5
A-1040 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone ++43 (1) 505 54 48
Fax ++43 (1) 505 54 48 – 16
jabornegg.palffy@vienna.at

With the exhibition galleries for the Generali Foundation in Vienna and their architecture for documenta X in Kassel Christian Jabornegg and András Pálffy have made themselves well known, especially in and around the art scene. Their conversion of the Schoellerbank and their construction of the Judenplatz Museum in Vienna exhibit their perfection of surgical interventions into historical contexts and their mastery of difficult site conditions and programmatic requirements. Their work forms a remarkably unperturbed alliance between conceptual radicalism and the subtle handling of new materials and constructions. The structured void as the new paradigm of modernity lies at the heart of their architectural perspective.

Christian Jabornegg, born 1956 in Wels (A)
András Pálffy, born 1954 in Budapest (H)

1988 founding of the joint architectural practice.

Built projects (selection):
1991-95 Generali Foundation, exhibition spaces for contemporary art: extension and conversion, Vienna
1996-1997 documenta X, exhibition spaces for contemporary art: temporary conversion, Museum Fridericianum Cassel, Germany
1996-97 DB-AG, exhibition spaces for contemporary art: south wing of the Central Railway Station, Cassel, Germany
1997-2000 SKWB Schoellerbank, offices, Vienna
1996-2000 Museum Judenplatz, exhibition spaces for mediaeval archaeological finds, Vienna

Projects at the construction/planning stage:
Since 1999 Künstlerhaus, exhibition spaces for contemporary art, Vienna

Riegler Riewe
Griesgasse 10
A-8020 Graz
AUSTRIA
Phone ++43 (316) 72 32 53 – 0
Fax ++43 (316) 72 32 53 – 4
office@rieglerriewe.co.at
http://www.rieglerriewe.co.at/

Together with residential buildings and the Graz airport, their institute and college complexes in Baden and Graz have enjoyed international recognition and debate. Florian Riegler and Roger Riewe hold a privileged position in the global spectrum of a new minimalism. Their designs are a process of shaping polyvalent and sustainable spatial structures into concrete and robust materiality that span the range from the domestic to the urban scale. The simplicity of form, geometry and detail transcends any debate of style. Beyond categories of functionalist or autonomous space, their structures are at once open and precise: low tech formed into high fit.

Florian Riegler, born 1954 in Münichwald (A)
Roger Riewe, born 1959 in Bielefeld (D)

1987 founding of “Architekurbüro Riegler Riewe” in Graz, Austria
1996 founding of “Riegler Riewe Architekten ZT-GesmbH” in Graz, Austria
1997 founding of “Architekturbüro Riegler Riewe” – branch office in Cologne, Germany

Various lectureships, including at the Berlage Institute Amsterdam, Netherlands; the RWTH Aachen, Germany; ESARQ (UIC) Barcelona, Spain; TU Prague, Czech Republic, Lindauschool, Lindau, Germany; TU Graz, Austria; ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Built projects (selection):
1991-92 Cosa Nostra housing development, Graz, Austria
1992-94 Graz-Strassgang housing development, Styria, Austria
1994-98 Graz Airport, Austria
1997-98 Federal Institute for Social Paedagogy, Baden, Lower Austria
1997-2000 Computer Science and Electro-Technology Institute of the Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgründe Graz

Projects at the construction/planning stage:
Innsbruck Central Railway Station, new building
Franz-Nabl-Institut, Literature House Graz
Neue Galerie, Graz
Feldkirch, Kalsdorf and Werndorf railway stations
Bruck a.d. Mur railway station

Awards (selection):
1987 Austrian Housing Prize
1990 and 1994 Architecture Prize of the State of Styria
1993 Austrian Client Prize

Links

(The following links lead to german language websites !)

henke und schreieck on “nextroom – architektur im netz”

Jabornegg & Pálffy on “nextroom – architektur im netz”

Riegler Riewe
Riegler Riewe auf “nextroom – architektur im netz”
The Search for a Conditioned Openness
The simple is not simply simple. Article from Marc Boutin, MAIBC
Austrian Cultural Forum New York