Completed Projects

Ambivalences of Modernity. The Architect and City Planner Roland Rainer between Dictatorship and Democracy. FWF (P 34938-G) January 2022-2024

Roland Rainer was one of the best-known architects and urban planners of post-war modernism in Austria. The Stadthalle in Vienna (1958), the Puchenau housing estate near Linz (1965-2000) and the ORF Centre in Vienna (1968-1974) are among his buildings. It is less well known that he went to Berlin as early as 1936, two years before Austria’s “Anschluss” to the National Socialist German Reich in 1938, and placed himself in the service of the German Academy for Urban Development, Reich and Regional Planning (DASRL), which was practically and theoretically subordinate to Albert Speer, the General Building Inspector for the Reich capital. Consequently, he was integrated into the National Socialist system not only through his early membership in the NSDAP, but also through his practice, hardly just through opportunism. In fact, he already developed his central theories on urban planning and architecture in the early 1940s at the DASRL. During this period, he conceived and wrote, together with his colleagues Johannes Göderitz and Hubert Hofmann, the first version of Die gegliederte und aufgelockerte Stadt, which was published in 1945 and became a standard work in German-speaking countries in its second version of 1957.

This writing contains something typical for its time: it criticises the modern, densely populated city, it pleads for a garden city model in which living, working, traffic and leisure are disentangled and people live “at ground level”. Only in the first version is this living “folk-biologically” propagated as the right way of living. Racist dictions like this are no longer found in the second version of 1957. But has the concept changed significantly as a result?

The research project, a collaboration between the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (where Rainer taught as a professor) and the Architekturzentrum Wien (where Rainer’s estate is located), will be dedicated to investigating this question in two ways. On the one hand, Rainer’s historical development as a modernist architect will be examined in more detail for the first time; this includes his time as a student at the Vienna University of Technology in the 1920s. On the other hand, a current reassessment of the “ambivalence of architectural modernism” itself will be possible via Rainer’s concrete biography. Especially in the context of recent research on colonialism and racism in modern architecture, the question of the inherent biopolitics of garden city models can become substantial with the analysis of Rainer’s work. To this end, the “articulated and loosened city” as described by Rainer will be sketched for the first time and compared with other urban planning models. In addition, the complete estate will be reviewed and evaluated, and further material on Rainer will be excavated and analysed in archives in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In this way, Rainer’s work is placed in a differentiated and well-founded context.

Prof. Dr. Angelika Schnell, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Principal Investigator)
Dr. Ingrid Holzschuh, Dipl.-Ing. Waltraud P. Indrist, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Postdoc Associates)
Mag. Susanne Rick, (Praedoc Associate)
Dr. Monika Platzer, Architekturzentrum Wien, (National Research Partner)

The metadata generated in the project from archival research is publicly accessible in the repository of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and can be accessed via the following link: Roland Rainer-Database. Metadata

2016–2018 Research

Roland Rainer and his Biographical Entanglements from 1935 to 1945

In cooperation with the Academy of Fine Art Vienna: A study of original source documents from the many years in which Roland Rainer was influential, held in German, Austrian and Polish archives. This research was necessitated by the unclarified role he played during the Nazi era. The first findings of this extensive architectural research in Austria and abroad was presented and discussed in 2018 at SammlungsLab #3, Roland Rainer. (Un)Disputed. New Findings on the Work (1936–1963).

A full day international symposium on 20.10.2018 shed light on Rainer’s life and work, going beyond the borders of Austria into the European context. The international experts placed Rainer’s impact during the Nazi period as well as after 1945 in a broader regional and transnational context. Equally themetised were the leeway for manoeuvre and the socio-political responsibility of Rainer, and so by proxy of the architect’s profession.

Project team: Ingrid Holzschuh, Waltraud Indrist, Monika Platzer

The project was supported by: Zukunftsfond der Republik Österreich, Bundeskammer der ZiviltechnikerInnen, Wien Holding GmbH, Kammer der ZiviltechnikerInnen, ArchitektInnen & IngenieurInnen für Wien, Lower Austria & Burgenland.

2016–2018: Processing the Estate

Günther Domenig (1934–2012)

Günther Domenig was one of the protagonists of the Graz architecture scene, which caused a furore internationally known under the name of “Grazer Schule”.

Project team: Monika Kus (2016), Christoph Freyer (2017), Katrin Stingl (seit 2016)

The extensive holdings were transferred in 2014 from the office Domenig & Wallner ZT, the last place where Günther Domenig worked, to the Az W and are at present being categorised scientifically. From 1964 to 1975 Domenig worked with Eilfried Huth (*1930), whose architectural archive is also in the Az W. This makes it possible to bring together all the projects by the office partnership Domenig Huth and to document them completely. Today their buildings and above all their visionary competition entries are considered master works in the history of Austrian architecture. For the mega-structure project spanning over the town of Ragnitz, which was shown in 1966 in the context of the exhibition “Urban Fiction”, they were awarded the Grand Prix d’Urbanisme et d’Architecture in Cannes in 1969, which laid the foundation for their international career.

2013–2014 Teaching

Seminar “Object based research in the Az W Collection. The estate of Eugen Wörle”

In cooperation with the Lehrstuhl für Denkmalpflege und Bauen im Bestand, TU Vienna

Lecturers: Nott Caviezel, Birgit Knauer, Monika Platzer

This seminar was intended to offer students an insight into the practice of architectural research and archive work while at the same time conveying the basis of scholarly work (structuring a written work both methodically and in terms of its content). Dealing with archival material from the area of Austrian architecture of the 20th century was also one of the focal points.

2013 Research

The scholarly processing of the NS Archive of Klaus Steiner was successfully completed through the research project “Bauen im Nationalsozialismus am Beispiel Wien”(Building in National Socialism, using Vienna as an example).

Lecturers: Ingrid Holzschuh

The extensive archive of Klaus Steiner was integrated in the database of the Az W Collection. This means that the entire archive material on the history of architecture in Vienna under National Socialism is now accessible to the public. Funded by the Zukunftsfonds of the Republic of Austria.

2012–2013 Teaching

Seminar at the Institute for Art History and European Ethnology, Vienna University: “Archival based research on the history of 20th century architecture”

Lecturers: Ingrid Holzschuh, Monika Platzer

Using the example of various architecture projects from the Az W Collection the students were trained in dealing with primary sources in the archive. The existing source material was researched, examined and analysed with regard to the architectural scope of the project.

2010 Teaching

Cataloguing and Processing the Estate of Johann Staber

In cooperation with the TU Vienna/Institute for Art History, Building Research and Monument Conservation. In the framework of a seminar the architectural bequest of Johann Staber (1928–2005), who built the UNO City Vienna, was inventoried and processed by students.

Lecturers: Caroline Jäger-Klein, Sabine Plakolm

Supervision Az W: Katrin Stingl

2009–2010 Teaching

Cataloguing and Processing the Estate of Kaym & Hetmanek

In cooperation with the TU Vienna/Institute for Art History, Building Research and Monument Conservation

Lecturers: Caroline Jäger-Klein, Sabine Plakolm

Supervision Az W: Monika Platzer, Katrin Stingl

Ongoing Projects

Diploma Theses, Master Degree Theses, Doctoral Theses, Studies

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