Architecture as Global Politics

A historical look at Austria's construction projects in Africa and Asia from 1955 to 1989, between neutrality, influence and global interdependence.

New opportunities opened up for architects in the young independent states of Africa and Asia in a context of the global power struggle during the Cold War and with the independence of European colonies. As the exhibition ‘Global — Neutral’ shows, Austrian architects acted as independent experts from a country ostensibly without a colonial past. Nevertheless, their projects — in countries such as Burkina Faso, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Nepal and Tanzania — remained closely intertwined with the political and economic interests of the time, i.e. as part of development programmes and as symbolic and diplomatic gestures on the international stage. Following a brief introduction by the curators of the exhibition Monika Platzer and Susanne Rick, contemporary historian Lucile Dreidemy delves deeper into the themes of the exhibition relating to foreign policy, global interdependencies and postcolonial dynamics.

Introduction: Monika Platzer & Susanne Rick, exhibition curators, Az W

Vortrag: Lucile Dreidemy, contemporary historian, University of Vienna