biennial graduation show
in architecture and spatial planning

A large number of works address the built environment through ways in which vacant, forgotten or dilapidated material structures can attain a new life and meaning rather than being demolished. These projects are therefore shown in a currently unused office space and building awaiting its renovation and revitalisation (1). Many other diploma projects share their interest in the manifold ways in which the built environment is already or may be materialised in the future by directly addressing or touching on specific material cultures. The space of their exhibition was previously used as a material laboratory and is currently a place for student teaching and learning, i.e. a place in which different approaches to gaining knowledge on materialisation are, were and will be present (2). The incorporation of new digital technologies into research, design and planning methodologies are at the centre of several diploma works which are exhibited at the building foyer of the TU’s Faculty for Electronic and Informational Engineering (3). Other diploma projects deal with cemeteries and hospices which are shown in a building entrance erected in place of a former burial ground (4). Several other works address some of the discipline’s inherent limits and are deliberately displayed at the TU’s Alumni Club in order to communicate what architecture and spatial planning are capable of (5). Diploma works which should be discussed urgently in the professional practice of architecture are exhibited at the IG Architektur (6) and those addressing concerns with the natural environment at the Haus der Landschaft (7). And, last but not least, diploma works addressing the potentials and challenges public transport infrastructures imply in the city and countryside are located at Stadtraum Mitte 15 which is a neighbourhood community space in close proximity to the Westbahn area, one of the most hotly debated urban developed sites in Vienna right now. What these diploma projects and exhibition spaces therefore produce is a dual landscape of knowledge in and on the city: one physical, the other immaterial.

Sustainability was essential for us from the beginning of this journey. We believe that spending a lot of resources on an exhibition should not come without benefits that extend beyond the display of work. For this reason, it is our attempt to envision and build an exhibition system that can be used as necessary furniture in the TU’s architecture and spatial planning student workspaces and semi-public courtyard spaces once the Archdiploma exhibition is over. We also hope that some of the exhibition spaces generously offered to us by premium partners will turn out to become student workspaces in the near future. And what we envision for the next academic semesters to come are engagements with those spaces of the TU’s many campuses which are currently underused or simply off teaching and learning.