An impressive permanent exhibition on the topic of Austrian Architecture in the 20th and 21st centuries can be seen at the Austrian Architecture Museum, alongside a steady stream of international exhibitions on a range of different subjects. The Az W also draws a specialist crowd and architecture fans with around 500 events including symposia, workshops, lectures, city tours, and film series. The Austrian Architecture Museum is located in the MuseumsQuartier, Vienna and is part of Europe's largest cultural area.

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At its heart is the social dimension of architecture, but topics such as distributive justice and dealing with limited resources are also important aspects of the Az W. Because sustainable architectural approaches are a strong lever for counteracting the effects of the climate change we are currently experiencing. An in-house library underscores the depth of content, as does an online building database and the online architects' lexicon. If you're interested in Vienna's architecture you won't want to miss the Austrian Architecture Museum, which occupies an area of around 2,000 m². The Az W reflects the spirit of the age and creates awareness.

Burning questions and many answers

An absolute highlight and a must for all fans of architecture is the show collection of the Az W, completely recurated for 2022. Under the title "Hot Questions – Cold Storage", the Az W looks at the history of Austrian architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries – viewed from a global standpoint. In doing so, the Az W exploits a unique pool of architectural history. It possesses the most important and extensive collection on Austrian architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Around 100 bequests by important architects also belong to the inventory of the Az W including project collections, architectural models, drawings, furniture, fabrics, documents, and films, which are presented in a very playful, atmospheric and sensual way in the show collection. The exhibition is arranged into seven thematic sections, each of which is introduced with a "hot" topic of the present day.

Wagner, Loos, Barbie

Visitors with an interest in architecture will come across the unexpected, like Barbie dolls of architects and builders – the show also questions why there are still so few women working in the field of architecture. The show collection also looks at how today's perception of the architecture of Vienna Modernism came about. Because Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and others were not always a big hit in the course of the 20th century – only from the 1960s was the value of these visionary architects of Vienna around 1900 recognized again.

From concrete to Lego

Post-war modernism and building in times of increasingly scarce resources is also a topic of "Hot Questions – Cold Storage", as are child-appropriate architecture, socially sustainable architecture, and many other socially relevant aspects of construction. All in all, the new show collection has around 400 objects that really bring the subject of architecture to life. They also include the fantastic architectural Lego models by the Viennese artist Harald Gach, who made well-known and less well-known Viennese buildings out of the colorful plastic bricks.

• Modern architecture in Vienna
• MuseumsQuartier: Overview