European Urban Public Space
Architekturzentrum, Vienna, 14. 10. 2010 – 31. 01. 2011.

London, Parking Town Square , muf architecture / art , Allford Hall Monaghan & Morris , photo: Jason Lowe

To mark the 10th jubilee of the European Urban Public Space Awards the Architekturzentrum Wien is engaging with that often addressed and sometimes overplayed subject of Public Space. Numerous questions are posed, from: What is public space? How does it arise and does it even still exist? Who does it belong to, what does it represent and who decides, for better or for worse, over public space? Who needs it and who is allowed to use it?’ Is the issue still between private and public, or more about exclusion and inclusion? And finally: ‘To what extent do built structures and social conditions impact on the negotiable possibilities? All of these questions are posed in the exhibition to represent the breadth of the various levels of discussion.

In addition a number of exceptional international projects are contrasted with a presentation of existing situations in Vienna, current artistic, interventionist and architectural positions, theoretical analyses of urban development and representations showing the production and negotiable possibilities of and for public spaces with strategies of resistance and appropriation.