20th TURN ON Architecture Festival

The TURN ON architecture festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, offers a top-class programme with numerous speakers from Austria and abroad.

As in the past, the festival continues to present ambitious architectural projects while informing on essential topics related to the contemporary building landscape. The festival thus acts as a mirror to current events in the field, but also acts as a platform for critical reflection on currently relevant questions within the building industry. Within the lecture programme, selected projects are presented, different meta-levels of architecture are explored and practical, pragmatic as well as political questions around the subject of our built environment are discussed. The overarching theme of TURN ON 2022 is 'Architecture creates Identity'. The programme includes established speakers, younger, up-and-coming Austria architects, as well as international guests from Paris, Berlin and St. Gallen.

The keynote lecture 2022 on Friday morning will be given by Ernst Beneder, who has been working as an architect in Vienna for many years. Beneder is known for his early cultural-philosophical comparisons between Japan and Europe. In recent years, he has been a member of several design advisory boards in Austria. In this context, architectural thinking expands and becomes an explicitly political one. The title of the keynote lecture is 'The great project lies before us'.

The TURN ON architecture festival is listed as an official further education event by the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) and is credited as such by numerous architectural associations.

The lectures in this programme are in tune with the times and open up new perspectives for the future. This year, too, the expert speakers represent different disciplines and perspectives. As always, the range of topics is broad; one focus is the cooperation between influential developers and architects. Among other topics, the urban development aspects of selected sites will come into play. This year, too, the spectrum ranges from central development areas of big cities to issues around medium-sized cities and smaller towns.

The residential buildings presented on Saturday could not be more diverse: a 'Gründerzeitblock' is reinterpreted as a 'Smart Block', a studio house forms a spatial firework, emphatically functional residential buildings represent a convincing urban ensemble, and three residential towers appear as sculptural contemporary figures. The presented residential buildings in Paris and Berlin are quite different from these Viennese projects.

After the panel discussion on 'What is expected of architects? – Professional image and their role in society', revitalisation projects will provide answers to the question of how the historical character of architecture can be preserved and transformed into a new identity. One focus is on educational buildings, another on infrastructure. The last two lectures present selected designs by students.

Thursday, 3 March 2022: 2.30–18.30
Friday, 4 March 2022: 10.30–19.00
Saturday, 5 March 2022: 13.00-22.00

Admission free

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