Image: Exhibition key visual, 'Global – Neutral. Architektur aus Österreich in Afrika und Asien 1955–1989', Architekturzentrum Wien, Vienna
The Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W) is presenting ‘Global – Neutral. Architecture from Austria in Africa and Asia 1955–1989’, an exhibition tracing the work of Austrian architects active across Africa and Asia during the decades of decolonisation and the Cold War. The exhibition opened on 16 April 2026 and is on view in Exhibition Hall 2 at the Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna through 5 October 2026.
Drawing on the Az W collection, the exhibition brings together plans, photographs and models documenting architectural projects in postcolonial states, based on realised and planned work by around 25 Austrian architects. Its focus is not only on the buildings themselves, but also on the political circumstances in which they were commissioned and developed. According to the exhibition’s presentation, these projects became sites of political negotiation, shaped by development programmes, diplomatic rapprochement and forms of transnational cooperation.
The exhibition examines the position Austrian architects occupied within those relationships. Austria’s self-understanding as a neutral state without a colonial past gave its architects a particular role between East and West, the Az W says. At the same time, their projects were connected to political, economic and cultural interests, complicating the idea of architectural neutrality suggested by the exhibition’s title.
Works and project materials by Carl Auböck, Hans Hollein, Hannes Lintl, Carl Pruscha, Roland Rainer, Shahrzad Seradj-Kraupp and Anton Schweighofer are among those included. The selection presents the activity of individual architects alongside the broader networks of international development and cultural exchange in which they operated. The show is curated by Monika Platzer and Susanne Rick, with exhibition design and graphic work by Steinbrener/Dempf & Huber.
‘Global – Neutral’ forms part of the Az W’s continuing effort to make architecture visible in its social dimension. The Vienna institution describes its holdings as the most significant and comprehensive collection of Austrian architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries. Its permanent collection exhibition, ‘Hot Questions – Cold Storage’, places both prominent and lesser-known objects under examination and questions gaps in the established canon of Austrian architectural history.
A book accompanying the exhibition, ‘Global – Neutral. Architecture from Austria in Africa and Asia 1955–1989’, has been published by Park Books. It is edited by Platzer, Rick and the Architekturzentrum Wien. The exhibition programme also includes a discussion on 2 September at 6pm, when Eugen Gross, Carl Pruscha, Shahrzad Seradj-Kraupp and Gunter Wratzfeld will discuss projects in Iran, Nepal, Lebanon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The session will be moderated by Platzer and Rick. Further guided events are scheduled for 8, 22 and 29 September, with the 22 September dialogue tour featuring architect and contemporary witness Erich Raith. The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 6pm, and until 8pm on Wednesdays, through 5 October 2026.
