At a glance

Type

National museum of architecture

Founded

1993; at the MuseumsQuartier since 2001

Location

Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, Austria

Permanent exhibition

a_schau — Austrian architecture in the 20th and 21st centuries

Coordinates

48.2042° N, 16.3578° E

Overview

Conceived as a centre for exhibitions, events and research into architecture and related fields, the Architekturzentrum Wien is the only museum in Austria dedicated wholly to the discipline. It occupies part of the MuseumsQuartier, the large cultural complex laid out in the former imperial court stables between Vienna’s Museum of Fine Arts and Natural History Museum. Alongside its galleries, the institution maintains an archive and a specialist library of roughly 27,000 architectural titles, together with an online database of Austrian building.

History

The Az W was established in 1993 and spent its first eight years in temporary premises before moving, in 2001, into the newly opened MuseumsQuartier. Since then it has built a permanent collection, mounted a continuous programme of temporary exhibitions on Austrian and international architecture, and become the national point of reference for the study and public understanding of the field.

What you see

The heart of the museum is its permanent exhibition, a_schau. Österreichische Architektur im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, which follows Austrian architecture from around 1850 to the present through models, drawings, photographs and documents. Around it, changing exhibitions examine single architects, building types and contemporary debates, while the museum’s meeting hall and library open the subject to specialists and general visitors alike.

Cultural significance

As Austria’s national architecture museum, the Az W anchors the country’s architectural memory and its current debates in one place. Its exhibitions, publications, children’s workshops and the annual Vienna Architecture Congress make it a working institution as much as a display space — a forum where the profession, students and travellers meet the built history of a city that shaped modern architecture.

Practical information

The museum stands at Museumsplatz 1, inside the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna’s seventh district. It runs regular guided tours — including curator-led tours of its exhibitions — for which places can be reserved directly with the museum. Admission and tour details are published on the institution’s own website.

Getting there

The MuseumsQuartier is served by the U2 underground line (MuseumsQuartier station) and by the U3 (Volkstheater station), both a short walk from the entrance on Museumsplatz. Numerous tram and bus lines stop nearby on the Ringstrasse and the Zweierlinie.

Sources & resources

• Architekturzentrum Wien — official website: azw.at
• Wikipedia — Architekturzentrum Wien
• Wikidata — Q635399