Based on a collaborative research effort and accompanying exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Big! Bad? Modern compiles contemporary assessments of four buildings from the controversial postwar modernist period between 1950 and 1980: the Vienna General Hospital, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation studio, the Vienna University of Economics, and the Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa residential estate. Architecture from this period remains controversial to this day, its quality and significance the subject of frequent debate. Contributions to Big! Bad? Modern assess the selected buildings’ current state and use, as well as their aesthetic and historic appeal and history of public acceptance. Alongside these assessments are proposals for how the existing structures might be changed, from small alterations to radical redesigns. With more than three-hundred illustrations, including many in color, the book also contains a preface by renowned architect Nasrine Seraji and essays by Hermann Czech, Françoise Fromont, Harry Glück, Sabine Kraft, and Michael Zinganel.
Table of Contents
Access
From Process to Access
Angelika Schnell
AKH
Allgemeines
Krankenhaus Wien
Angelika Schnell
Allotment
Allotment City-From Mono-use to Multi-Use
Peter Leeb, Markus Vogl
Alterlaa
Wohnpark Alterlaa
Angelika Schnell
Archaeology
An Archaeology of the Recent Past
Françoise Fromonot
Audacity
The Audacity of Preservation
Michelle Howard, Christian Fröhlich
Bigness
The Architecture of Late Capitalism or Whatever Happened to the Avant-garde?
Stefan Gruber
City
Architecture as the City
Stefan Gruber
Community
Du, meine konkrete Utopie
Zara Pfeifer
Continuous
Continuous Change
Christopher Ghouse
Criticism
No Need for Panic
Hermann Czech
Curating
Curating BIG! BAD? MODERN:
Angelika Schnell, Christina Condak, Antje Lehn
Déjà-Vu
Déjà-Vu Views
Wolfgang Tschapeller, Werner Skvara
Demolition
Demolition Scenario
Matthias Brandmaier
Dissecting
Dissecting Bigness
Dagnija Smilga
Environment
From Energy to Environment
Angelika Schnell
Exhibition
BIG? BAD! MODERN:
Angelika Schnell
Exquisite Corpse
Scenario for the WU’s Future Stefan Gruber, Lisa Schmidt-Colinet
Facade
A New Face for the WU
Cora Kaindl
Future
The Presence of the Future
Peter Jakowitsch
Glück
From Happiness to Wellness
Angelika Schnell
Grid
The Curse of Hippodamus
Harry Glück
Happiness
Built Happiness
Kata Fodor
History
From Utopia to History
Angelika Schnell
Inhabitation
House-in-House
Christopher Ghouse
Kleinbehälter-Transportanlage
Architecture of Bigness—AKH
Clemens Hasler
Land
Das Land Alterlaa
Philipp Soeparno
Lecture Series
Light
Just Enough Light
Martin Duselis
Lonely
Lonely Platforms
Max Weidacher
Looseness
Michelle Howard
Looseness
The Efficiency of Looseness
Michelle Howard, Christian Fröhlich
Looseness
Undesired Solitude
Janica Sipulova
Looseness
Loose Hub
Lisi Zeininger
Looseness
Grasping Character, Exploring Looseness
Laurenz Berger
Machine
From Function to Program
Angelika Schnell
Mass Housing
Housing Projects—A Legacy of Modern Failure?
Sabine Kraft
Material
Mass Distribution of Reinforce Concrete
Mark Werner, Christian Gattringer
Micro—Public Space
On a Dream of a Lifestyle and its Reality
Katalin Tóth
Modernism
What’s Wrong with Modernism?
Angelika Schnell, Lisa Schmidt—Colinet
Moebius
Unique and Superlative
Monsters
Good and Evil Monsters of Modernity
Michael Zinganel
Monument
The Cult of (a) Modern
Monument(s)
Christian Friess
Mountains
From Centralization to Bigness
Angelika Schnell
Optimism
Original illustrations of AKH, Alterlaa and WU
ORF
ORF Zentrum Wien
Angelika Schnell
ORF
Boost for the Old House
Christian Fröhlich
Panorama
ORF Panoramas
Matthias Brandmaier, Tina Wintersteiger, Elisabeth Zeininger, Mariedl Kleemann
Platforms
Institute for Art and Architecture
Re-Use
From Flexibility to Re-Use
Angelika Schnell
Reassessing
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Peter Leeb
Relatives
Close and Distant Relatives
Lisa Schmidt—Colinet
Representation
Bitte Fenster geschlossen halten! Frischluftgefahr
Elisabeth Zeininger
Ruin
Ruined Visions
Nefeli Papakyriakopolou
Ruin
Decaying Landmark
Fabian Liszt, Romana Prokop, Doris Scheicher
Scale
Scandal
The Vienna
General Hospital—The Health Machine
Matthias Oltay, Dawid Klich
Soft Urban Renewal
Meanwhile in Postwar Vienna
Stefan Gruber
Subtractive Urbanism
From Revolution to Evolutions
Stefan Gruber
Success
Success Through Access
Admir Selimovic
Ugly
Urbanscape
From Plan Libre to Urbanscape
Angelika Schnell
Victuals
On the Everyday Life of Large Housing Estates
Markus Vogl
Vienna
Wu
Wirtschaftuniversität Wien
Angelika Schnell
Authors
Image credits
Acknowledgements
From Process to Access
Angelika Schnell
AKH
Allgemeines
Krankenhaus Wien
Angelika Schnell
Allotment
Allotment City-From Mono-use to Multi-Use
Peter Leeb, Markus Vogl
Alterlaa
Wohnpark Alterlaa
Angelika Schnell
Archaeology
An Archaeology of the Recent Past
Françoise Fromonot
Audacity
The Audacity of Preservation
Michelle Howard, Christian Fröhlich
Bigness
The Architecture of Late Capitalism or Whatever Happened to the Avant-garde?
Stefan Gruber
City
Architecture as the City
Stefan Gruber
Community
Du, meine konkrete Utopie
Zara Pfeifer
Continuous
Continuous Change
Christopher Ghouse
Criticism
No Need for Panic
Hermann Czech
Curating
Curating BIG! BAD? MODERN:
Angelika Schnell, Christina Condak, Antje Lehn
Déjà-Vu
Déjà-Vu Views
Wolfgang Tschapeller, Werner Skvara
Demolition
Demolition Scenario
Matthias Brandmaier
Dissecting
Dissecting Bigness
Dagnija Smilga
Environment
From Energy to Environment
Angelika Schnell
Exhibition
BIG? BAD! MODERN:
Angelika Schnell
Exquisite Corpse
Scenario for the WU’s Future Stefan Gruber, Lisa Schmidt-Colinet
Facade
A New Face for the WU
Cora Kaindl
Future
The Presence of the Future
Peter Jakowitsch
Glück
From Happiness to Wellness
Angelika Schnell
Grid
The Curse of Hippodamus
Harry Glück
Happiness
Built Happiness
Kata Fodor
History
From Utopia to History
Angelika Schnell
Inhabitation
House-in-House
Christopher Ghouse
Kleinbehälter-Transportanlage
Architecture of Bigness—AKH
Clemens Hasler
Land
Das Land Alterlaa
Philipp Soeparno
Lecture Series
Light
Just Enough Light
Martin Duselis
Lonely
Lonely Platforms
Max Weidacher
Looseness
Michelle Howard
Looseness
The Efficiency of Looseness
Michelle Howard, Christian Fröhlich
Looseness
Undesired Solitude
Janica Sipulova
Looseness
Loose Hub
Lisi Zeininger
Looseness
Grasping Character, Exploring Looseness
Laurenz Berger
Machine
From Function to Program
Angelika Schnell
Mass Housing
Housing Projects—A Legacy of Modern Failure?
Sabine Kraft
Material
Mass Distribution of Reinforce Concrete
Mark Werner, Christian Gattringer
Micro—Public Space
On a Dream of a Lifestyle and its Reality
Katalin Tóth
Modernism
What’s Wrong with Modernism?
Angelika Schnell, Lisa Schmidt—Colinet
Moebius
Unique and Superlative
Monsters
Good and Evil Monsters of Modernity
Michael Zinganel
Monument
The Cult of (a) Modern
Monument(s)
Christian Friess
Mountains
From Centralization to Bigness
Angelika Schnell
Optimism
Original illustrations of AKH, Alterlaa and WU
ORF
ORF Zentrum Wien
Angelika Schnell
ORF
Boost for the Old House
Christian Fröhlich
Panorama
ORF Panoramas
Matthias Brandmaier, Tina Wintersteiger, Elisabeth Zeininger, Mariedl Kleemann
Platforms
Institute for Art and Architecture
Re-Use
From Flexibility to Re-Use
Angelika Schnell
Reassessing
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Peter Leeb
Relatives
Close and Distant Relatives
Lisa Schmidt—Colinet
Representation
Bitte Fenster geschlossen halten! Frischluftgefahr
Elisabeth Zeininger
Ruin
Ruined Visions
Nefeli Papakyriakopolou
Ruin
Decaying Landmark
Fabian Liszt, Romana Prokop, Doris Scheicher
Scale
Scandal
The Vienna
General Hospital—The Health Machine
Matthias Oltay, Dawid Klich
Soft Urban Renewal
Meanwhile in Postwar Vienna
Stefan Gruber
Subtractive Urbanism
From Revolution to Evolutions
Stefan Gruber
Success
Success Through Access
Admir Selimovic
Ugly
Urbanscape
From Plan Libre to Urbanscape
Angelika Schnell
Victuals
On the Everyday Life of Large Housing Estates
Markus Vogl
Vienna
Wu
Wirtschaftuniversität Wien
Angelika Schnell
Authors
Image credits
Acknowledgements