international a newsletter for living future - no.: 4 - June 1st 2015 in Wien Summer Camp the housing project is continued on page 3 www.meetup.com/internationals-in-wien/
Editorial When I write this editorial it is cold like winter and raining outside, but when the newsletter is sent out it should be summer hopefully. So while the last two issues focused on the inner life and consciousness, this issue is about how to reach a meaningful life in reality. Read about Markus, and how he managed his way living in Burgenland and organizing the Summer Camp outdoor Meetups and see the pictures of the Natural Park next to Neusiedlersee at Page two. With all the pictures contributed to the Living Future Housing project, I could create an idea of how the housing project could look like. The next step will be a housing design workshop. Everyone who signed up for this newsletter will be invited by mail. As a preview to this workshop in this newsletter I want to discuss why most people prefer to live in old style buildings and what young innovative architects envision have to give back as a human dimension to buildings. I had a nice meeting with Jakop Dunkl from Querkraft Architects in Vienna who showed me the current projects and concepts they are working on. Read more about them on page two and three. Summer Camp - page 2 Future Living - page 3 Querkraft- page 4 Yes, and if you have an idea to run an event or project and want to present it in this newsletter, just write me a note to project@martinritter.at Best Regards, Martin Internationals in Wien project@martinritter.at published by Martin Ritter Internationals in Wien Meet-Up Group - 2015 1
Summer Camp Why not have everything: Raising a family surrounded by nature, doing a job that gives sense and being part of a worldwide community? Listen to Markus how he did: I grew up near the Austrian mountains, studied at a university in the valley of Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol in western Austria, and joined a Fulbright program in USA. In Innsbruck I met my wife but we decided to live and to raise our two children in Vienna. Then I got a job offer in social service in Burgenland, the very eastern part of Austria. So our family moved to Eisenstadt the capital of Burgenland. The flat-land there is called the Pannonian Plain is completely different from the mountain area I came from. However, soon I realized that I live next to an UNESCO world heritage natural park, a kind of a paradise on earth with amazing landscapes and wildlife around the Neusiedler See and a region that offers all kinds of outdoor events such as swimming, sailing, kite-surfing, hiking and also a lot of culture. I explored the region and became friends with the local community, but job wise kept the connection to the big wide world, which is important for me. Then I had the idea to bring the big wide world to our amazing landscape and share free time. I contacted Anya from Russia to help me, met Martin from Meetup and the Idea of Summer Camp in Rust am See was born. tiny huts directly at the lake Marus our host in Burgenland Anya on the ferry boat guiding the biking group the natural park landscape See you at Summer Camp Markus thevillage of Rust where we meet 2
Future Living housing project What s up with architecture of today? If tourists come to Vienna and look for interesting architecture they end up on looking at houses built more than 100 years ago such as the so called Majolika House next to Naschmarkt in 6th district done by the Architect Otto Wagner. It is a great building for several reasons: First because Otto Wagner built all levels equal in height for a democratic society equal in rights in a time when the aristocracy still ruled. Then he opened the street level with shops and restaurants for the common people - instead of just building a wall, and finally he decorated the facade with a lovely floral pattern in the manner of Jugendstil, and that gives the whole building a unique nice expression. Sadly World War I and II however seem to have removed joy from both people and architecture for a 100 years. Modern Architecture was quite innovative in the beginning but soon turned into faceless superblocks and boring minimalism. This is why people often feel uncomfortable with the architecture of today. But joy and decoration are not dead as two members of our Meetup group prove. Cyrill and Lise Gulassia from Berkeley California and now also Vienna based follow their mission to color up the world again by designing lively patterns for wallpapers and textiles and... why not... houses again. I am always proud of presenting the work of our members. Have a look at: www.sistersgulassa.com the famous Majolica House in Vienna from about 1900 Lilla did this picture in Paris where real plants seem to design the facade of the buildings a vivid warm colored floral patter also by Sisters Gulassia a nice floral patter similar to the paris blossoming trees by Sisters Gulassia 3
Querkraft Young innovative Architects such as Querkraft from Vienna have the same mission: Bring back the human dimension to the building industry. At one of their first housing projects they convinced the investor that printing a grass pattern on the glass plates of the balcony railing would give the people the feeling of living in a garden. It cost just a little more but can make people happy. In a future project they want to go even a step further and hang real trees in big pots out of the balcony zone to give the impression to live in a forest. Jakop Dunkl, one of the partners of Querkraft, shows with fun cartoon like drawings what the main idea is about. A man leaning to the railing reading a book with a tree on one side and a glass of red wine on the other side just enjoying his life. a plant pattern on a balcony Querkraft is an amazing internationally working office for architecture, that is not only envisioning innovative large scale projects but also to building them. The waved facade of their latest high rise building already resembles a huge plant but will look like a vertical garden after people have put out their greenery on the balcony similar to what is shown in the computer graphics. real plants on a balcony If you want to know more about innovative Architecture have look on their web page: www.querkraft.at plants covering the whole building, the newest buiding of Querkraft all pictures (c) by Querkraft Architects 4