22.05.2025 – 28.09.2025
The exhibition does not focus on the glamorous external image of the metropolis, but on its internal structure, which served as a framework for modern urban life. From the 1890s onwards, a revolutionary technology, reinforced concrete, not only facilitated the construction of an efficient infrastructure – water pipes, sewers, urban railways – but soon also allowed multifunctional buildings to be built, in which theatres, variety theatres and cinemas, cafés, offices and flats were placed next to and on top of each other. It was an exciting coexistence of metropolitan culture, new media and innovative building technology. The First World War brought the cultural, social and technical surge in development to an abrupt end. Models, plans and photographs, paintings, posters and original furnishings bring to life famous and lesser-known reinforced concrete buildings in Vienna around 1900 and their central role in people’s everyday lives – from the Zacherlhaus to the Looshaus, from the Residenzpalast to the Dianabad. These technical masterpieces were central to the accelerated, varied but also increasingly challenging city life of the modern age.
Ferroconcrete – Anatomy of a metropolis
22.05.2025 – 28.09.2025
Wien Museum
Karlsplatz 8
1040 Vienna
www.wienmuseum.at
