10 December 2025

Social Spaces between Direct Urbanism and Architecture

A major aspect of transparadiso’s longterm transdisciplinary practice is the method of direct urbanism.In projects like „NORMAL“ (Graz Culture Year 2020/2021) or „Request for the unrequested voluntary interlinguisticality“ (Pottenhofen, Lower Austria, 2016), Paul Rajakovics will show how the practice of direct urbanism engages in furthering a socially committed urban planning and urban development, and which artistic-urbanistic tools transparadiso has been developing for a durational process as part of a longer term urban planning strategy. Referring to the Situationsts and Henri Lefebvre transparadiso considers architecture in its complex responsibility for society for which transparadiso creates situations for participation and active engagement often transgressing the usual field of architecture. Projects like „Bienvenue Quarter“, a social housing project in Vienna, show the engagement in social/ cultural programming and the emphasis on creating urban public space free of consumption, like in the cooperative housing project „At the City Balcony“ in the new urban development area behind Vienna’s new Main Train Station.