100 Years of Vienna Social Housing - in 3 iconic buildings

This is an experiment where we show you how the housing needs in Vienna have changed, from 1930 to 2024. We visit three such different places, to see how the population developed, but also family sizes, architectural style and the future of how we will live together.

Our first building is in fancy Döbling, to show how Red Vienna wanted to mix up every income group, by building proud social-housing in one of the richest parts of town (they also wanted ever District to vote red).

Our second building, in the eastern Landstrasse neighbourhood, is playful, Disneyland joy, created by the ecological, peace campaigner, Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He was a Vienna original, hating straight lines and bringing Gaudi up to date, with vibrant natural elements. Not all locals take him seriously, but we find these dramatic statements both welcome and important. Plus the 1980s were mostly an ugly decade, but Vienna avoided the craziest styles of that moment (1986).

And our third choice is a look to the future of social-housing, and an elegant Vienna solution: Gleis 21, referencing the nearby railway station, in the new urban development at Sonnwend Ost. This is utopian thinking, and social dialogue, with a colourful group of visionaries living together and committing to each other and the wider Favoriten neighbourhood.