Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Austrian architecture is marked by a high degree of variety, which calls out again and again for the taking of an inventory. Using ten thematic and chronological episodes, this book invites the reader on an expedition through the Austrian architecture of the last 150 years: Prologue, Red Vienna, Landscape, Power, Reconstruction, International, System, Utopia, Collage, and The Present Day. The focus is not only on presenting individual structures' architecture is depicted with all of its many connections to the larger worlds of culture, technology, and society. The subject of residential buildings is singled out for special attention. This comprehensive overview achieves a systematic documentary fusion of diverse materials. On the one hand, the chronological sequence of well-defined phases of architectural development remains present and palpable throughout as an overarching narrative. At the same time, the volume seeks to inspire the reader to go more deeply into individual moments, beyond the constraints of any historical canon. Thus, the question of the continuities and discontinuities of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Austrian architecture is the leitmotif of all of the chronological segments and opens the way to divergent interpretations.