»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 19th-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 19th-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 19th-century spa towns as landscapes of health in which new relationships between humans, landscapes, and cure were architecturally framed.
Movie Screening and Conference honors Viennese born Architect and Thinker
Richard Neutra, Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA, 1946 (c) Oliver Sukrow, 2019.
California’s culture and lifestyle are often thought to epitomize beauty, optimism, technological innovation, and future potentiality. In this conference, we will explore the cultural history of California, particularly its Viennese influences, through the example of the émigré architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970), who was crucial in the development of ‘Californian Modernity.’
The point of departure for this conference is Richard Neutra’s architectural practice, which found its ideal environment in Los Angeles. Neutra designed beautiful minimalistic houses that connected inside and outside and promoted the physical and mental health of their inhabitants. An international group of speakers will analyze the diverse and entangled sources of Neutra’s work and thought, including his interest in psychoanalysis and his concept of biorealism. We will discuss the links between the ideas of the 1920s avant-garde in Europe and the hippie avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s in California. The conference thus aims to explore the global history of what might be called Californian Modernity—which continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary culture—and to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between architecture and landscape, health and space, and of the cultural entanglements between Europe and the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. The conference is the result of a collaboration between the IFK | University of Art and Design Linz, the Wien Museum, the Research Unit Art History at the Institute of Art, Building Archaeology and Restoration at TU Wien, and the Filmarchiv Austria.
