Presentation
“Du, meine konkrete Utopie” is the photo documentation of a long-term expedition to the architectural landscape of Alterlaa and a portrait of its inhabitants and community by Zara Pfeifer. The series of analog colour-photographs opens a new perspective into the culture of living and leisure inside the buildings. It focuses on the 32 clubs housed in the communal spaces situated in the centre of the building, and cut off from daylight. For example the theatre club, bridge club, model making club, gun club. Also the indoor pools and indoor playgrounds are situated there. Becoming a member of the photo- and video club marked the beginning of her journey through the Wohnpark Alterlaa. Gradually she became more and more integrated into its everyday life and met inhabitants who proudly identified themselves with the architecture they live in.
Alterlaa
The planning process for the housing complex, led by the architect Harry Glück, started in 1968 and was implemented from 1973 to 1985. These colossal apartment towers in Vienna are baffling on two levels. They were built at a time when criticism against large-scale modernist housing estates reached its peak in Western Europe. Thus, it is a near miracle that these buildings were ever realised according to their initial designs. In recent social studies about mass housing, Alterlaa regularly comes out on top in terms of the ratio of contented inhabitants. Nearly 90% of its 10.000 inhabitants there declare satisfaction with their living condition and facilities — a number that seems to good to be true. For the architect himself it seems all very simple. Following the utilitarian „Maximum-Happiness-Principle,” he assumed that it would suffice to provide for nearly all the biological needs of the inhabitants through proximity to nature and water, social activities and sport, as well as a good view from each apartment. Since, according to the architect, the project covers all of these needs, happiness is thereby ensured. Indeed every apartment has a terrace or loggia; the towers are situated in a landscape park, while cars are hidden in underground parking. The swimming pools on the roof and the lower floors are the chief attraction. But also the many clubs, sport facilities, shopping areas, schools and kindergartens are obviously treasured by the inhabitants and render trips either to the city center or the periphery practically obsolete. (…) The criticism that late Modern architecture in general is subjected to is particularly robust when applied to large-scale housing. While large-scale developments for infrastructural, commercial and administrative facilities are still being realized, in housing, there seems to be a general consensus that the individual needs are to be prioritized over models that emphasize collective forms of cohabitation. In the contemporary socio-political context of a bourgeois society, the collective happiness of Harry Glück’s „palace for the people“ seems like a provocation.
Angelika Schnell
“Du, meine konkrete Utopie” is part of the main exhibition of ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK – “Living spaces”.
Free entrance.