Upcoming Exhibition: 'Resident Alien'

A selection of B+U projects to be on display in an exhibition exploring the work of Austrian architects & designers.

September 24th, 2019

A selection of B+U projects will be on display alongside the work of over 30 other Austrian architects and designers in a new exhibition hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. "Resident Alien" will explore the cultural contributions of modern to contemporary migrant Austrian-American architects; the exhibition demonstrates their significant impact on modern, postmodern, deconstructivist, digital,and post-digital design culture over the past century, opening a dialogue on the dialectical interchanges between our world cultures.

Exhibition:
"Resident Alien: Austrian Architects in America"
Curated by Stephen Phillips and Axel Schmitzberger

Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 E 52nd St, New York, NY 10022

On view: Sept 25, 2019 to Feb 17, 2020
Opening, Panel Talks and Reception: Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.


About the Exhibition:
The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present Resident
Alien, an exhibition that explores the cultural contributions of migrant Austrian-American architects in the United States since the modernist period. Framed into five distinct categories – Primitive Domains, Aggregate Families, Urban Terrestrials, Cloud Natures, and Media Atmospheres, the exhibition investigates the concept of bicultural heritage constructed in spaces of the in-between alongside other formal, technological, atmospheric, and psychoanalytic architectural dialogues. Curated by Cal Poly professors Dr. Stephen Phillips, AIA (SPARCHS)
and Axel Schmitzberger, AIA (domæn Inc.), Resident Alien: Austrian Architects in America will be on view from September 25, 2019 through February 17, 2020. The exhibition will notably highlight the significant innovations and impact of Austrian architects on modern, postmodern, deconstructivist, digital, and post-digital design culture over the past century.

The exhibition will be opened in the presence of the Austrian Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Culture, Mr. Alexander Schallenberg.

The ACFNY’s gallery space is set to reflect the five themes of the exhibition. Building on architects’ recurring use of geometric primitive forms (rectangles, spheres, cones, and cylinders), the exhibition surveys the presence of these building blocks in the landscape – in a first gallery, Primitive Domains – and aggregated together into larger modular compositions – in the second gallery, Aggregate Families. The third section, Urban Terrestrials, explores the contextual placement of these forms in the urban environment through a selection of examples.
Architecture of all scales – domestic, urban, global, and universal – has significant political, social, and environmental impact on the natural and built world. Titled Cloud Natures, the fourth theme examines environmental and ecological advocacy as it materializes in architecture and its design. The fifth and final gallery, Media Atmospheres, discusses architecture’s atmospheric effects, both physical and digital, and how they affect the human condition – the ways we live,
and how we communicate.

While these themes apply to most forms of architecture, the exhibition considers them through the work of over forty Austrian-American architects, thereby exploring the implications of bicultural heritage in this context. Set in the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, these concerns take on a particular meaning. Specifically, the building, conceived by Austrian architect Raimund Abraham, acts as relevant case in point. The provocative structure, which could be described as a series of primitive trapezoidal geometric forms aggregated together into a complex tower,
has a significant impact architecturally, environmentally, and culturally on Midtown Manhattan’s urban setting – one that resonates to this day in the global discourse.

Featured architects and designers include:
Raimund Abraham, Herwig Baumgartner (B+U), Herbert Bayer, Ella Briggs, Elizabeth Close, Matias Del Campo & Sandra Manninger (SPAN), Paul Frankl, Victor Gruen, Erwin Hauer, Haus-Rucker-Co., Coop Himmelb(l)au, Hans Hollein, Barbara Imhof (LIQUIFER Systems Group), Christoph Kapeller, Frederick Kiesler, Hubert Klumpner (Urban-Think Tank), Julia Koerner, Duks Koschitz, Christoph Kumpusch, Andrea Lenardin (a-l-m project), Adolf Loos, Mark Mack, Richard Neutra, next ENTERprise, Charles Paterson, Carl Pruscha, Bernard Rudofsky, Friedrich St. Florian, Rudolph Schindler, Axel Schmitzberger (domaen), Anton Tedesko, Peter Trummer, Joseph Urban, Bettina Zerza, Liane Zimbler, and Susanne Zottl.

The exhibition has been supported by generous contributions from List GC, Zumtobel Group, and Arktura.