Wildgarten, public housing in Vienna

Vienna was a pioneer in the construction of public housing at the beginning of the 20th century. Its most emblematic example is the Karl Marx Hof complex (‘yard’, in German), the largest of the massive construction projects for public housing carried out by the socialist government of Vienna between 1923 and 1933, and one of the most famous in the world of architecture and housing. It extends over a 1.2 km long super-block and houses nearly 1,400 homes, leaving the interior space free for a green area and different uses by the community: children’s play areas and gardens, laundries, indoor swimming pools, nurseries , library, medical emergency, pharmacy, etc.

History has left a well-established public housing model in the Austrian capital, which has spread to much of Europe. This is how we can see it in the exhibition ‘Bizimoduak. European ways of living‘ and this is how the architect Luis Basabe, from the Arenas Basabe Palacios Arquitectos studio, will explain it to us at the Basque Country Institute of Architecture, at the conference ‘Wildgarten, public housing in Vienna’.

This studio has several projects built in Vienna. One of them, ‘Garden>Courtyard‘, can be seen at ‘Bizimoduak’. This is a residential block built as part of the 10 hectare (approx. 1000 dwellings) Wildgarten masterplan , which was developed over 5 years in a collaborative process in the suburban area of Emil-Behring-Weg, Meidling (Vienna).

But it is not the only one that Arenas Basabe Palacios Arquitectos has carried out in the Austrian capital and, in this appointment, Basabe will bring details and curiosities about three of them, with the aim of knowing the current panorama of public housing in this city . You can register now.

About Luis Basabe Montalvo

Luis Basabe Montalvo (1975) is an architect by the TU Graz (Austria). He is Visiting Professor at the Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (DAStU) of the Politecnico di Milano. In addition, he is Professor of Architectural Projects at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid since 2003, first as FPU scholarship holder and currently as Associate Professor. He has been a researcher and visiting professor at the universities RWTH Aachen (Germany), Cambridge (UK) and CEPT Ahmedabad (India).

About Arenas Basabe Palacios Architects

Arenas Basabe Palacios is an architecture and urban planning firm based in Madrid. Its partners, Enrique Arenas Laorga, Luis Basabe Montalvo and Luis Palacios Labrador, have been working together since 2006. Since then, they have won around thirty prizes in architecture and urban planning competitions. They have lectured at multiple institutions and presented their work and research in international exhibitions. They have published and exhibited their work in Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Cyprus, India and Korea.