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“Open your eyes!” when you walk through the city. It's not just important to pay attention to the traffic, there's also a lot to discover. A fascinating eye-catcher in public spaces is the architectural diversity. Especially in Vienna, buildings and ensembles that cover many centuries and architectural styles offer a broad field for individual considerations.
That's what happened on a Sunday in October 2016. At that time, Otto Kapfinger, an architect, author and journalist, was walking in Vienna. At Schadekgasse 18 in Vienna Mariahilf near Esterházypark he paused: "...a shocking sight. The building was, as it were, hollowed out on the three lower floors, all of the fixtures had been removed, and the bare structure of the reinforced concrete building [...] was completely exposed." You can read it on page 9 in the book about reinforced concrete that he published in 2025.
Kapfinger did not remain in a state of shock on that October Sunday. He immediately realized that something could/should/must be made of it. No sooner said than done. He informed a handful of relevant experts and outlined the vision of an almost unknown "Vienna around 1900", based on the reinforced concrete technology used in numerous buildings. This offered many possibilities and opened up new dimensions of building. His observation in October 2016 first developed into a research project, then an exhibition that ran in the Vienna Museum in the summer of 2025 and finally a printed, weighty large format with 416 pages.
Kapfinger himself describes the "system of urban development" in the introduction (from page 16) and outlines Vienna's role in the development of new concrete construction techniques at the beginning of the 20th century. The subheadings describe the essential steps. "The Start with Pipes, Bridges, Arches" addresses the structural challenges and opportunities of urban expansion from the 1890s onwards. Then follows a section called “Actors and Pioneers – Practitioners and Theorists” (page 19f), which once again presents the role of “daring, experimental entrepreneurs and builders” as well as visionary designers.
Unimaginable today, in the first ten years “things were built for which there were neither legally binding standards nor long-term proven empirical values”. This example is by no means limited to the construction industry, but is typical of innovations, regardless of the area. True to the motto: Who dares, wins.
Other sections are written by relevant experts and are dedicated to specific topics. This includes cinemas, printing houses and publishing houses, but also cabarets and variety shows, which are summarized under the title “For Day and Night” (page 130). Clubhouses, charitable institutions, public education, hygiene" are summarized under the heading "Social Reforms" (from page 228). Large commercial buildings, banks, hotels, factories, warehouses and coach houses can also be found here. In addition to well-known buildings such as the Urania, architectural icons such as the Postsparkasse or the Loos House, you will come across numerous buildings that you may have previously passed by carelessly.
According to Kapfinger, the aim of the research project was "not only to make the planning and construction history of the objects visible, but also to concisely document their use and life history up to the present day." Some buildings, such as the Piatnik playing card factory in Vienna-Penzing, still live up to their original purpose. Others, such as the Jasper printing company in Vienna Landstrasse, are now offices and laboratories of GeoSphere Austria.
The 95 objects are described using historical images, plans and sections. The book is supplemented by three photo series (“Panorama”) with current photos of numerous buildings described here.
While many of the reinforced concrete buildings described above in the former imperial capital and residential city of Vienna found new purposes through renovations in later decades, Caroline Rodlauer (architect, building and townscape expert) takes up the topic in her book "Rebuilding instead of building new" under the aspect of "land recycling in residential construction" (subtitle).
In the introduction, the author drastically presents the massive land consumption and soil sealing in Austria with figures, data and facts. "In Austria, an area the size of Vienna is lost every ten years, a full 80m² per minute" (page 17). But hope is alive: “There are definitely solutions, because existing living space in existing residential buildings can be used better through renovations, additions and densification.” (page 19). That's exactly what the 200-page book is about.
Using the example of 25 properties across all federal states, Rodlauer shows and describes case studies with the initial situation and the implemented conversion. The range of objects is wide, ranging from historic farms to houses in urban areas. The solutions are by no means limited to increases, as one might think; the word “optimizations” would be more appropriate.
The individual results of the project can be found at the end of each multi-page description as possible solutions to counteract soil consumption. Inner-city densification, expansion, conversion, activation of vacancies or change of use are mentioned here. The common denominator of the 25 examples is the sensitive handling of the existing buildings and the integration into the existing environment.
The book is loosened up and enriched by interspersed essays. The architect Melanie Karbasch writes about the use of wood in renovations as an economical and sustainable solution. The book not only proves to be a source of ideas, but also a source of encouragement and attempts to dispel existing prejudices that conversions are generally more expensive than new buildings.
Conclusion: The large-format monograph "Anatomy of a Metropolis - Building with Reinforced Concrete in Vienna 1890–1914" meets all the criteria of an excellently researched standard and reference work, the importance of which extends far beyond Vienna and will last and be valid for several generations. “Remodeling instead of building new – space recycling in residential construction” is an Austria-wide cross-section of best practice examples, an encouragement for all those who are looking for change within their four walls. (Thomas Hofmann, October 31, 2025)