Kontakt Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W)

Since its opening in 1993, the Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W) has not only successfully established itself as the number one address for architecture in Austria, it has also gone on to develop into the only architecture museum in Austria in a context of increasing public debate on the culture of building.

The Architekturzentrum Wien was awarded the official Seal of the Österreichischer Museumsbund in early 2003. In the meantime, the Az W has come to enjoy an excellent reputation both at home and abroad, based on the continually developed basis of this institution: the Az W as a centre for information and knowledge, as a centre for academic research and an architecture collection. Today the Az W is the only institution in Austria dedicated to the consistent and sustained preparation of the architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries for museum use, with an academic grounding.

With the permanent exhibition 'a_show. Austrian Architecture in the 20th and 21st Centuries', which presents the nation's architecture history from 1850 to the present day for the first time, the Az W provides the appropriate showcase as a centre of knowledge on architecture.
Several major international exhibitions every year as well as a number of smaller productions present the diversity of contemporary architecture, providing new perspectives on the history of building and new developments to come. Specially developed formats for events communicate architecture as being a combination of cultural discipline, everyday phenomenon and complex processes at the same time. Talks, lectures and panel discussion, architecture excursions and guided tours, workshops for children, publications and the annual Wiener Architektur Kongress are among the range of activities. Cooperations with partners from the fields of culture, science and politics make the Architekturzentrum Wien a mediation interface for an extended notion of architecture.

As an architecture centre, the Az W also offers a much-used professional service for anybody and everybody interested in architecture. Among the range of services on offer are an architecture library open to the public, the comprehensive online Architektur Archiv Austria database, the in-house archives and collection, as well as the documentation and research department of the Az W.

Alongside the above-mentioned tasks, which the Az W undertakes as an Austrian architecture museum, the institution's international anchorage and network contribute significantly to establishing and strengthening this position. Since 1994 the Az W is on the board of ICAM – the International Confederation of Architectural Museums – as well as on the Advisory Committee for the Mies van der Rohe Award, conferred by the EU and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe in Barcelona every two years.

Kontakt. The Programme for Art and Civil Society of Erste Group supports the ARCHITECTURE LOUNGE of the Architekturzentrum Wien.