In the Austrian pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, curators Sabine Pollak, Michael Obrist and Lorenzo Romito are focusing on the issue of housing under the title AGENCY FOR BETTER LIVING. The contribution responds to the growing housing crisis across Europe with rising rents, questionable real estate policy, dwindling municipal housing, increasing tourism and speculative vacancies. For a large proportion of the population, living in cities is becoming increasingly unaffordable – a situation on which architecture should now take a stand.
The curators have created an installation that compares two contrasting urban housing models: Vienna with its centuries-old tradition of social housing and Rome with its informal, self-organized forms of housing. The exhibition deliberately uses the symmetry of the pavilion, designed by Josef Hoffmann, to juxtapose these two systems and to present their respective “intelligences” in the sense of the Biennale’s overall theme “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective”.
Vienna is presented as a “Caring City” – a city that takes care of affordable housing for its residents in a top-down process. Rome, on the other hand, appears as a “city of ruins”, in which hard-won bottom-up processes lead to informal forms of housing with remarkable forms of self-organization. While the Viennese system creates security, the Roman system produces an active and creative civil society.
Visitors are guided through the now closed passageway into the courtyard of the pavilion. The Vienna system is presented on one side and the Rome system on the other. In the courtyard there is a platform for discussion and mutual exchange, the “Space of negotiation”. Both parts of the pavilion begin with films that tell the “mythical” stories of the cities and their approach to housing, land policy and urban space.
The Viennese part of the exhibition comprises nine stations that examine the Vienna system: Photographs show urban and communal spaces, accompanied by film clips from various decades. Infographics and diagrams illustrate facts such as the comparatively low rents in Vienna or the structures of certain buildings. Current developments are presented on the basis of new neighborhoods, including the Sonnwendviertel and the Nordbahnhof area.
The Roman section shows evidence of the struggle for living space in abandoned places and in failed plans. The history of the city is told from this perspective in the form of a sculptural “Trajan’s Column”. Seven contemporary examples illustrate different forms of self-organization, including Lago Bullicante, a former factory site that has become a natural lake due to groundwater infiltration; Ararat, an informal embassy of the Kurdish community; and several squatted buildings such as Spin Time, Porto Fluviale and Metropoliz.
In the center of the courtyard is a plateau that invites visitors to rest and discuss. The shape interprets a kidney-shaped pool planned by Josef Hoffmann in 1954, which was once part of the sculpture garden. The pool will be reconstructed from loose bricks – the material used to build Vienna and Rome. After the end of the Biennale, the bricks will be returned to the cycle of housing production. Plants are embedded in the plateau – climate winners that can withstand the predicted heat in Vienna and Rome. At 25 m², the area of the plateau corresponds to a residential unit in the Einküchenhaus and Clusterwohnen in Vienna and a former office unit in Spin Time in Rome.
In the covered area of the courtyard, the artist Armin Linke is showing a photographic essay that was created during three months of field research in Vienna and Rome (December 2024 – February 2025). The work documents spaces of negotiation, team building, planning, administration and self-organization. In Vienna, for example, Linke photographed the office of the city councillor for housing and spaces for housing subsidies, while in Rome she photographed both the processes and the places depicted in the pavilion.
Between the end of May and November, an extensive program of workshops and presentations will take place in the Austrian pavilion. In these events, the conditions for a future BETTER LIVING will be negotiated with visitors and experts. Topics include theories of better living, decision-making and politics, economics, gender planning and feminism as well as new typologies.
Sabine Pollak is a professor of space & design strategies at the University of Art and Design Linz and runs the architecture firm Köb&Pollak Architektur in Vienna with Roland Köb. She conducts research on the topics of housing and feminism, community and urbanism.
Michael Obrist is one of the founding partners of feld72 Architekten in Vienna and Professor of Housing and Design at the Vienna University of Technology. There he was involved in setting up the interdisciplinary Center for New Social Housing.
Lorenzo Romito is an artist, architect, curator and co-founder of Stalker (1995-). He is professor for space & design strategies at the University of Art and Design Linz and teaches public art at the NABA Rome together with Giulia Fiocca.
The concept of the “Agency”
With the AGENCY FOR BETTER LIVING, the curators want to explore possibilities, spaces and rules for a better life for everyone and show that it is possible to do something about current developments on the housing market. The central question is how the “Vienna system” can be made fit for the future and what it can learn from the forms of self-organization in Rome – and conversely, how the caring system in Vienna could become a template for future strategies in Rome.
The exhibition will open on May 9, 2025 and will be on display in the Giardini of the Biennale until November 23, 2025. The Austrian contribution is commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport and supported by numerous partners, including the City of Vienna, which is funding the supporting program.
Read more about the German pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice here.
