As part of our collaboration with VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, the year 2015 saw the first awarding of a prize for a project in the City Work format. In addition to honouring the designers’ work, the ExtraVALUE Design Award also draws attention to the topic of social design.
The ExtraVALUE Design Award 2015 went to the committed project Infrequently Asked Questions by Ebru Kurbak.
Furthermore, the ExtraVALUE Design Award Honorable Mention was awarded to the students Pia Plankensteiner, Sebastian Scholz and Jürgen Steineder for their project Where Do the Bricks Come From?
Infrequently Asked Questions
Ebru Kurbak
What we regard as valuable quality, skill, interest and knowledge is influenced by social factors and depends on where the evaluation takes place. We have to develop numerous skills to survive and adjust ourselves – socially and culturally – to our living environment. When a person migrates, however, some of these skills become obsolete. Regardless of how well educated a person is, he or she has to acquire a new set of skills. Infrequently Asked Questions opens up this topic to public debate by presenting a reversal of conventionally accepted roles. In an intervention, conceived together with the participants of the Caritas Lernsprung program, unnoticed skills and knowledge will be shared with the local public.
The winner of the ExtraVALUE Design Award 2015, the social-design project INFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (iFAQs), was being continued with an exhibition from 30 September until 16 October 2016 in the Vienna Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art and an accompanying catalogue. Conceived and realised as part of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK’s City Work format, iFAQs intends to change commonly accepted roles and open a two-way discussion on the subject of integration by posing the precise question: What are you good at? The exhibition shows talents and skills that women and men who came to Austria brought along with them. The accompanying catalogue approaches the topic from various aspects and encourages people to spread the idea.
Where Do the Bricks Come From?
Steineder, Plankensteiner, Scholz
Today, hardly anything reminds us of the time when Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten, was dubbed the “workers’ district”. Former clay pits are now bathing ponds in the recreational area of Wienerberg, historic brick buildings are hidden behind plaster rendering, and in the meantime “Novak” and “Vesely” have become typical Viennese surnames. What most people have forgotten, however, is that this only happened over time. Their ancestors originally came from Moravia and Bohemia – also, to make bricks. Where Do the Bricks Come From? explores the district’s identity.
Further City Work Projects 2015
Welcome to The Living Room!
migrationlab, verein08, Alice Stori Liechtenstein
This project aims to change urban spaces and the way we perceive them, and to enhance social inclusion. Designed in collaboration with the community of Vienna’s 10th district, the temporary “living room” is a place of discovery, free of consumer compulsions. The project addresses migration topics in a creative way – so that we can rediscover one another, experiment together, exchange ideas and find inspiration for peaceful co-existence.
Fotolabor Kreta
Kreta Kollektiv
Fotolabor Kreta is a combination of photo studio and urban lab, a temporary setup that intends to create a picture archive for the 10th district. In order to achieve this, various image sources are tapped: Citizens are invited to take their own pictures, while the Kreta Kollektiv does some photographic field research, reusing existing material and introducing it into new contexts. Anyone interested can browse through his or her private archive and bring along photos, which will then be digitalized, duplicated and exhibited on site.
New Local
REPLYtoALL and Microgiants
New Local establishes a lively communication platform through communal cooking and meals while focusing on the personal stories of immigrants who have found a new home in Vienna. In the summer of 2015, they were invited to prepare their favourite recipes. Subsequently, the Microgiants and REPLYtoALL teams organised a workshop for graphic designers in which the findings and the available open data were visualised. The results can be seen during the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. In addition, visitors are invited to participate in the various workshops of the Caritas Community Cooking kitchen, to taste specialities and talk to the chefs. The New Local (cook-)book can be purchased on location.