Stadtarbeit 2025

Multiplying Beauty!
With its format Stadtarbeit, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK – supported by the Erste Bank sponsorship program Vermehrt Schönes! (“Multiplying Beauty!”) and in cooperation with Caritas Vienna – has created a now internationally established framework for the realization of social design ideas.

Archives for the Future!
Through an open call ahead of the festival, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK invited submissions of ideas, concepts, and projects that approach the city as a living archive. In this edition, Stadtarbeit, the festival’s social design format, encouraged the preservation and sharing of knowledge, memories, and stories through design – making them accessible to all.

Through walks, workshops, and other free public events in and around this year’s Festival Headquarters – the former Vienna University of Economics and Business (Alte WU) – as well as at the Startgalerie musa and various public spaces across the city, the three selected projects invited visitors to document Vienna’s unique character using urban wood, sound, and stamps, collectively creating archives for the future.

Chosen by a jury, the three projects formed the eleventh edition of Stadtarbeit. With implementation funding provided by the format, they were realized as part of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK and were honored during the festival with the Erste Bank Social Design Award.

Projects:

• ARCHIVE OF APPROPRIATION – Kollektiv Raumstation Wien
• THE URBAN WOOD ARCHIVE – STORIES FROM VIENNESE TREES – Verein Stadtholz
• CITY STAMPS IN THE MUSA STARTGALERIE – studio pari–pari

Jury:

• Lena Rücker (MA 18 – Urban Development and Planning)
• Hannah Horn and Luca Hierzenberger (klub für echtes und erdachtes (klee), designers and winners of the Erste Bank Social Design Award 2024)
• Clemens Foschi (Caritas, Archdiocese of Vienna)
• Ruth Goubran (Erste Bank)
• Julia Habarda and Gabriel Roland (VIENNA DESIGN WEEK)