In Vienna, the Hands-On Urbanism 1850–2012 exhibition is taking place

The right to the city was written about by French intellectual Henri Lefebvre in the 1960s. In Vienna, this topic is currently relevant at the local MuseumsQuartier. A unique exhibition is taking place at the Architecture Center AzW that deals with greenery and agricultural spaces in cities.
     Curator Elke Krasny presents historical and contemporary examples of bottom-up urban development. She provides an overview of independently organized, collective, informal movements and simultaneously also of the places that arise thanks to them. The exhibition presents a different story of urbanity that poses an urgent question regarding the responsibility of architects and urban planners and the management of resources and natural wealth. What can one learn from this story when a city emerges from below, and how do architects act in these processes? The exhibition's author presents examples from Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Bremen, Paris, and Istanbul, as well as from Chicago and New York, or even from distant Hong Kong, Porto Alegre, Havana, and Quito.
     The examples from Vienna date back to the early 20th century. Gardens were created during World War I in an area called Schmelz as war vegetable gardens; today, this area is the largest garden colony in Central Europe. The establishment of community houses is also characteristic. Since 1918, residents of housing estates and gardeners have gradually organized themselves into cooperatives. Currently, an interesting project is the Recycle-Garten, realized by the artist group Cabula6. They took over the Macondo area, which was existentially threatened, in 2009. Since 1956, refugees from various countries have headed here and established an informal gardening culture.

The exhibition is accompanied by the book "Hands-On Urbanism 1850-2012. Vom Recht auf Grün," published by Turia + Kant.