We, the house builders

opening: Tuesday, June 09, 1998, 7 p.m.

With the exhibition “We home builders – Home building in Austria since 1945” the Architekturzentrum Wien focuses on the country’s largest construction assignment: the single-family house.

At a time when the fractures in this country’s building tradition are becoming obvious – more and more houses built in the post-war era are now being made over to others, rebuilt or sold – the exhibition retraces a building history that has previously gone practically unnoticed.
In portraits, biographies, and documentaries “We home builders” of all decades, take the floor to tell our house stories and pass on our experiences to future fellow house builders.

The individual and subjective aspects of building and living at the center of the presentation form the foundation for developing the different positions of discourse. Social and economic changes are featured as shaping forces just as alterations in regional forms of building or in the building materials applied. Land- and townscape protection issues are addressed, as well as sprawling, traffic, the pros and cons of regulations of form, spatial planning measures, etc.; the old and new and perpetually unvarying issues of home building, the answers and much more.

Press Release

Two parts become a whole

With the exhibition “We home builders – Home building in Austria since 1945” the Architekturzentrum Wien focuses on the country’s largest construction assignment: the single-family house.

While in the summer of last year the object “(prefabricated) house” and its serial and industrial production under the title “standard houses” figured prominently in the first exhibition part on this topic, the center of attention now rests on the subject, the “home builder” and how the individual “dream of a house” has come true since the end of the war.

At a time when fractures are appearing in this country’s 50-year-old building tradition – the first houses built in the post-war era are now being made over, rebuilt or sold – the exhibition retraces a building history that has previously gone practically unnoticed.

In line with its mission to mediate and communicate contemporary architecture, the Architekturzentrum Wien is developing one of the neglected topics of Austrian construction history for architectural debate by taking up this issue. Moreover, the opportunity to reflect on this form of housing preferred by 80 % of all Austrians is also offered to home builders past and present, as well as to all those whose house dream has not yet come true.

Subjective point of view
The Architekturzentrum Wien conveys an idea of the thematic totality and lack of comprehensive relevant studies by the unusual approach it has adopted in preparing the exhibition.

Under the title “Home Journey” for instance, a five-day “expedition” was undertaken, leading through all the provinces of Austria. Architects, architecture theorists, area planners, historians, journalists, and artists have gone on site to critically investigate existing theories regarding the single-family house in Austria and have collected an inventory of the phenomena for the catalog and exhibition in conversations with home builder families and financing experts, master builders, ethnologists, mayors, tourism experts, kitchen designers, and many more.

Views and insights
The displays focus chiefly on single-family houses built mainly by independent house builders and some settlement examples from different parts of Austria since 1945. Houses and their surroundings, their ground-plan, their inside and outside, their genesis, and the story of their inhabitants.

Case studies help illustrate the modification of house building conditions throughout past decades to the present: from orderly settlement in neighborhoods to individuals housing side-by-side in their single-family houses; social and economic changes are featured as shaping forces just as alterations in regional forms of building or in the building materials used. Land- and townscape protection issues are addressed, as well as sprawling, traffic, regulations of form, area planning; the old and new and perpetually unvarying issues of house building, the answers and much more.

The exhibition provides an opportunity for house builders of all decades to have their say, tell their house stories, and pass on their experience to future fellow home builders. The presentation spotlights the individual and subjective aspect of building and living in the portraits, biographies, and documentals of real house builders on the basis of which different positions of discourse can be developed.

The visitor can explore the exhibition on both time and thematic levels, the first covers the time period from 1945 until the end of the 90s and the latter is organized in aspects of phenomenology, stylistic history, cultural history, political ideology, and history.

This exhibition is sponsored by:
Wüstenrot
Wiener Städtische Versicherung
Stelrad
Zumtobel Staff
BKA Sektion Kunst
Stadtplanung Wien
Wien Kultur
Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung