Exhibition

Critical Care

Name: Critical Care
Start: 2019-04-25T08:00:00+02:00
End: 2019-09-09T08:00:00+02:00
Location: Architekturzentrum Wien – Exhibition hall 2

Architecture for a Broken Planet

Thu 25.04.2019 – Mon 09.09.2019, Täglich 10:00-19:00

A planet in crisis. The earth in intensive care. Man-made environmental and social catastrophes are threatening to render the planet uninhabitable. The situation is critical and, dominated by the interests of capital, architecture and urbanism are caught up in the crisis. The exhibition 'Critical Care' shows how architecture and urbanism can contribute to repairing the future and keeping the planet and its inhabitants alive.

The exhibition ‘Critical Care’ is an appeal for a new approach, for a caring architecture and urbanism. 21 current examples from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, the USA and Latin America prove that architecture and urban development do not have to be subservient to the dictates of capital and the exploitation of resources and labour.

Video of the Exhibition

The relationships between economy, ecology and work are redefined in each of these projects. The instigators of this care are extraordinarily diverse groups of people: activists, lawyers, anthropologists, artists, but also city councils and companies, working together with architects and planners. Care is always concrete, the specific local conditions are the starting point, as the exhibition shows, including earthquake-proof and sustainable village development in China, flood protection through traditional low-carbon building techniques in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the diverse conversion of modernist buildings in Brazil and Europe, an ecological community land trust in Puerto Rico, the revitalisation of historical irrigation systems in Spain, new concepts for public spaces and mixed urban districts in Vienna, London and Nairobi. The exhibition ‘Critical Care’ shows how architecture and urbanism are helping to revive the planet. The repair of the future has begun.

Curators: Angelika Fitz, Elke Krasny

Exhibition architecture: the next ENTERprise

Exhibition graphics: Alexander Schuh

Aerial photograph of an area with circular structural deepenings

Colectivo 720: Unidad de Vida Articulada Orfelinato, Uva de La Imaginacíon, Medellin, Columbia, 2015
© photograph: Sergio Gómez

Several sitting children and young adults bent over plans

Kounkuey Design Initiative: Kibera Public Space Project, Nairobi, Kenya, since 2006
© Kounkuey Design Initiative, photograph: Jesús Porras

Multi-storey white apartment blocks with a crane and trees in the foreground

Lacaton & Vassal, Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin: Lacaton & Vassal, Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin: Transformation of 530 apartments, Cité du Grand Parc, Bordeaux, France, 2016
© photograph: Philippe Ruault

two one-storey mud houses with one door and one window each

Yasmeen Lari/Heritage Foundation of Pakistan: Sindh Flood Rehabilitation, Sindh Region, Pakistan, since 2010
© Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

Interior view of a hollowed out building with balconies, stairs and a tree

architecten de vylder vinck taillieu: PC Caritas, Melle, Belgium, 2016
© photograph: Filip Dujardin

A wooden terraced building in the middle of a hilly landscape

Xu Tiantian/DNA_Design and Architecture: Tofu Factory, Caizhai Village, Songyang, China, 2018
© photograph: Wang Ziling

Clay building with a circular base and small round openings

Emergency Architecture & Human Rights (EAHR): 100 classrooms for refugee children, Za’atari Village, Jordan, 2017
© photograph: Martina Bo Rubino

Swimming pool on a roof with bathing people and skyscrapers in the background

Paulo Mendes da Rocha and MMBB Architects: SESC 24 Maio, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017
© photograph: Ana Mello

Exhibition "Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet"
© Architekturzentrum Wien, photograph: Lisa Rastl

Angelika Fitz, Elke Krasny, Architekturzentrum Wien: Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanismus for a Broken Planet, The MIT Press
© photograph: Alexander Schuh

A book was published by MIT Press to accompany the exhibition, ‘Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet‘, containing all 21 case studies as well as 12 essays by international authors on the topics of work, economy and ecology in architecture; edited by Angelika Fitz, Elke Krasny and Architekturzentrum Wien.

Opening of the Exhibition

Opening "Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet", 24.04.2019
© photograph: eSeL

Related Events

Architekturzentrum Wien – Exhibition hall 2

Museumsplatz 1 1070 Vienna

Map

Entrance fees

Tickets: € 9 / € 7

Opening

Wed 24.04.2019, 19:00

Press conference

Wed 24.04.2019, 11:00

Bookable guided tours

The Architekturzentrum Wien offers bookable guided tours of each of its exhibitions, in German or English, on dates and at times to suit you.

Zur Buchung

Parts of the exhibition as well as the accompanying programme are from the three-year research and development project Mischung: Nordbahnhof (lead TU Wien), sponsored by Klima- und Energiefonds as part of the Smart Cities Initiative.

Thanks to:

Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie/Stadt der Zukunft
GRÜNSTATTGRAU
Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien / Energie Design

Inquiries

Lisa Kusebauch-Kaiser
+43-1-522 31 15
office@azw.at

Video of the Exhibition

Related Events

Critical Care. Architecture for a Broken Planet

Focus on Work: The reality of work as a cleaning worker

Solidarity-Based Architecture

To accompany the exhibition 'Critical Care'

‘Caring for Communities?!’