Intergenerational dialogue of Vorarlberg architects - exhibition at AzW

The western tip of Austria is relatively isolated from the rest of the country and especially from the capital Vienna due to the alpine massif. Vorarlberg is geographically and mentally much closer to the Swiss Graubünden and the German Bavaria, with which it shares the shores of Lake Constance. The quality of craftsmanship and architecture there is legendary. However, local builders prefer to use the term “Vorarlberger Baukünstler“, which is more aligned with common building practices than with artistic aspirations. The fertile valley and mountain pastures guarantee local self-sufficiency and a full-fledged life. While in the rest of the world you often have to travel tens of kilometers for quality architecture, in Vorarlberg, you just need to sit in any village square and look around carefully.
The Czech scene only registered this phenomenon after the fall of the Iron Curtain through the most visible duo of creators, Carlo Baumschlager and Dietmar Eberle, who are still active around the Austrian town of Bregenz today. Austrian audiences were first introduced to this scene in detail by Friedrich Achleitner in the mid-60s, when he visited Vorarlberg for the first time while preparing an architectural guide to Austrian architecture and discovered a post-war generation of young architects who returned to their hometowns after studying in Vienna and began creating houses with local craftsmen that were simple, modest, yet modern. The primary material was mainly wood, which was always plentiful in the surrounding forests. The first post-war modernists like Hans Purin or Jakob Albrecht served as role models for the entire emerging generation of the 80s, as well as for the current one.
At the turn of the year, the Vienna-based gallery AzW (Architekturzentrum Wien) prepared an exhibition focused on Vorarlberg architecture, where the stories of individual buildings are presented through the dialogue of the oldest generation born in the 1930s with the up-and-coming architects born in the 1970s. Curator Sonja Pisarik from Vienna's AzW may have intentionally skipped the strong generation of the 50s, selecting only one representative from the Artec studio. Grandchildren ask their grandfathers. Light blue wooden panels divide the exhibition hall into smaller units so that visitors feel an intimate, almost homey atmosphere. The tables where the intergenerational dialogues take place are designed by Vienna-based industrial designer Robert Rüf (*1981), who also hails from Vorarlberg.
The tables were brought into the houses that are detailed in the exhibition, where conversations take place between the oldest representatives (Karl Sillaber *1932, Gunter Wratzfeld *1939) and young architects (Andreas Cukrowicz *1969, Matthias Hein *1971, Bernardo Bader *1974).
However, the picturesque Vorarlberg landscape and the rapidly developing economy have resulted in skyrocketing rents, slowly surpassing even Vienna. Property prices have doubled in the past five years, and one third of the developable land is in the hands of speculators. Citizens are simultaneously becoming aware of the qualities of the free nature and do not want to embark on the path of relaxed development of single-family homes. Currently, an initiative called “vau | hoch | drei“, in collaboration with architects and mayors, is being formed to address these issues. Although there are four decades between the two generations, surprisingly, they face the same difficulties in building, namely finance. Both the post-war modernists and today’s young generation are dealing with a lack of affordable social housing. What remains, however, is the enlightenment of public administration, which is open to addressing these challenges.
The exhibition will now move from the Vienna gallery AzW to vai (Vorarlberg Architectural Institute in Dornbirn), where it will be re-opened in mid-March.

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