Monuments At Risk

SOS Brutalism — hardly any architecture is so under threat of being demolished as that of the postwar decades. In 2016, for instance, Birmingham Central Library (1974) was torn down despite years of lobbying.

In Austria, too, the alarm bells are sounding for many buildings from the 1950s to the 1980s. Although, with its numerous culture centres, universities or schools, it was this epoch in architecture that felt dedicated to the broader public good. To what extent, alongside architectural relevance, do cultural and socio-political relevance play a role for the conservation authorities? These and other pressing issues are discussed by a panel of illustrious experts.

British architect Owen Luder said of his work: In the sixties my buildings won prizes, in the seventies approval, in the eighties they were challenged, in the nineties people found them ridiculous. And as the year 2000 approached, the ones I liked most had already been knocked down.

Guests:

Nott Caviezel, Professor for Monument Preservation and Building in Existing Structures, Vienna University of Technology

Caroline Jäger-Klein, Head of Icomos Österreich

Norbert Mayr, action group Bauten in Not

Barbara Neubauer, President of the BDA (TBC)

Josef Weichenberger, architect

Moderated by

Sonja Pisarik, Collection Az W