Summary
The studio is based on a reflection on the concept of the Mahala, the self-governing neighbourhood in Islamic cities. Together with research on contemporary approaches to the city composed of independent units, the task will focus on the Alliiertenviertel Am Tabor in Vienna’s 2nd district. Morphological and social analyses of the site will lead to the design of an architectural project on the vacant plot of Alliiertenstraße 6.
Neighbourhood City – Learning from the Mahala
The idea of the city, structured and composed of individual spatial units of neighbourhoods, emerged at the beginning of the 20th century as an urban design tool for Western metropolises. Accompanied by fierce criticism, it was quickly overthrown by the vast functionalist plans of modernism. Nevertheless, it reappeared as a bottom-up alternative from the 1960s onwards. Today, in the urgency to find post-fossil urban systems and local community solutions for the city, contemporary discourses lead to various concepts of clustering, with the idea of the Grätzl – the small neighbourhood unit – appearing in the Viennese context. However, the neighbourhood city is not a 20th century invention. For centuries, Islamic urbanism used the system of the Mahala to organise its residential areas. The Mahala is a local conglomerate of individual courtyard houses, self-governed with charitable funds around a central mosque and organised through neighbourly care. Formulated as a city within a city, it is independent in that it contains structures for the everyday life of its inhabitants.
A Vienna Mahala: Alliiertenviertel Am Tabor
Reflecting on the concept of the Mahala as well as on contemporary approaches to the Neighbourhood City, the studio aims to design an architectural project within the framework of a neighbourhood unit at a concrete site in Vienna: the Alliiertenviertel Am Tabor in the north-western end of the 2nd District. Bounded by two streets and the area of the former Nordwestbahnhof railway station, the quarter forms a residential triangle with public spaces around two churches in the south. Starting from conceptual ideas for the whole neighbourhood – a re-evaluation of the streets, the green and the public spaces – the studio tends towards a concrete implementation of architectural solutions on the vacant plot of Alliiertenstraße 6. Adaptations of the residential buildings in the immediate vicinity, as well as a rethinking of the role of the existing church as a communal meeting place, are explored and integrated into a new vision for the neighbourhood.
Teaching methods
Using historical and contemporary texts on the idea of the neighbourhood as a spatial unit, as well as research on the Mahala, students will first develop a definition of urban life in general and the neighbourhood in a city in particular. This will be followed by a morphological analysis in which the Alliiertenviertel will be redrawn and its historical evolution will be studied in order to reveal the formal causes of its spaces to the present day. Conceptual approaches to the creation of the quarter as a neighbourhood are followed by an analysis of the potential of its buildings and areas – the streets, the monuments, the public and green spaces, the residential blocks. As a result of the studio, elaborate designs will be created for the vacant plot at Alliiertenstraße 6.
Lecturers
Wilfried Kuehn
Eldar Hajdarević
Additional information
Video Introduction:
https://portal.tuwien.tv/Login.aspx?SourceURL=/View.aspx~q~id=10795~5j~BZGPS7vFwp&br=507
Kick-Off: Mon, 4th of March 2024, 1.00 p.m.
Gußhausstr. 27-29 – Neu El (Gußhausstraße 25-29)
All projects will be carried out in teams of two. The studio will be held entirely in English. The presentations are organized as exchange discussions with studio Vienna Re/Productive Living Space.