Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies Research Grant

»Alternative Spaces of Innovation. A Comparative Study of 19th-Century Spa Towns as Regional Innovation Clusters«

I received a BIAAS grant for my Postdoc research project “Alternative Spaces of Innovation. A Comparative Study of 19^th-Century Spa Towns as Regional Innovation Clusters.”

This interdisciplinary project aims from a historical-comparative perspective at exploring how 19th-century spa towns in Austria and California became regional innovation clusters. The project argues that innovation in 19^th-century Austria and California also occurred in ‘alternative’ spaces such as spa towns.

I am particularly interested in exploring which architectural and cultural strategies were employed in order to re-design the natural conditions in and around 19^th-century spa towns as landscapes of health in which new relationships between humans, landscapes, and cure were architecturally framed.

Project duration: September 2020–December 2021

https://botstiberbiaas.org/avada_portfolio/oliver-sukrow-alternative-spaces-of-innovation-a-comparative-study-of-19th-century-spa-towns-as-regional-innovation-clusters/