The Winning Projects 2023

THE DESTRUCTION ROOM

Hugo Beheregaray & JB Gambier

Build, destroy, repeat! JB Gambier and Hugo Beheregaray – one studied at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and the other at the Design Academy Eindhoven – live and work in the Netherlands. The two designers and artists share a playful approach that is inspired by do-it-yourself. This is also demonstrated by the action THE DESTRUCTION ROOM, which they specially created for the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK: Every visitor to the Destruction Room, which is furnished with white furniture, is given protective clothing, a tool that they can select themselves, and one minute. When the time is over, the damaged furniture is mended in the Repair Station with colorful adhesive tape. In this way, the installation is transformed during the course of the festival from a monochrome white space into a colorful and dynamic room.

URBAN NETWORKS

membran

Integration and social networks: The collective membran is made up of students of the University of Applied Arts. During the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, the four-strong team is employing interventions as a means of challenging passersby to become involved in the shaping of the public realm and to form places of interaction and meeting with the help of creative and sustainable methods. They are doing this by manually twisting damaged building plans into stable rope using traditional rope making skills. These ropes are then collectively knotted to form nets that create new places for sitting, lying, and playing. During the event, visitors will be able to discuss the planning and use of public spaces and actively contribute to the design process. 

HOW TO BE AUSTRIAN – THE CITIZENSHIP PUB QUIZ

Eugene Quinn (Whoosh)

The London-born creative urbanist Eugene Quinn believes that it is high time to ask questions about identity, belonging, and homeland. In HOW TO BE AUSTRIAN – THE CITIZENSHIP PUB QUIZ, he challenges Austrians to take their own citizenship test. How many of us could pass it? How relevant are the questions to our lives? And who actually composed it? In a relaxed pub quiz atmosphere, the concept of shared identity is put on the table and visitors discuss what it means to be Austrian in 2023. The questions are being asked over the course of ten days in coffee houses, bars, schools, community centers, and pensioners’ clubs in the Focus District Leopoldstadt. And, in addition to this, an info booth and the leaderboard can be found for the entire duration of the festival in the Festival Headquarters in the Prater.