The project envisions a sequence of public Fora by redefining the Heldenplatz.
„If one wants to pass through open doors easily, one must bear in mind that they have a solid frame: this principle, according to which the old professor had always lived, is simply a requirement of the sense of reality. But if there is such a thing as a sense of reality—and no one will doubt that it has its raison d’être—then there must also be something that one can call a sense of possibility.“
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
For the last one year we have been shown how the real can be substituted by the possible, even magical - think of massive state interventions, rapid vaccine production, social solidarity. We have also experienced what does it mean to have (or miss) a balcony, a park or a river nearby. In this sense, we believe that the magical is not only possible, but necessary.
We propose three projects for the city of Vienna - Main Alley, Public Fora, New Danube Stations. Each project consists of one precisely situated intervention, which brings the existing fragments into a bigger whole. Thus our proposal does not envision a new public infrastructure per se, but a new thinking of the already existing one.
Public Fora
Franz Joseph I. had the grand ambition to shape his residence in Vienna according to the model of the Roman Empire - the Kaiserforum. Due to unprecedented events the Kaiserforum was not finished and the Heldenplatz was left half framed, half open. By substituting the existing parking space with a monumental water basin we propose to bring the water back into the city and spatially recall the missing half of the Hofburg. At the level of the city the Heldenplatz aims with its redefinition to complete the latent axes of public amenities - Michaelerplatz, In der Burg, Heldenplatz, Maria-Theresien-Platz, Museumsquartier.
