StudioVlayStreeruwitz is a part of the exhibition Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming communities with the project Freie Mitte.

Austrian architectural practice StudioVlayStreeruwitz demonstrates the possibility of rethinking the nature of the spaces we share. Their project Freie Mitte transforms a 11 hectare post-industrial site in the historic centre of Vienna, Austria. The former rail area has been taken over by nature, inhabited not by freight trains and depots, but by animals, plants – and increasingly also by people, fascinated with the sudden wilderness inside the city.

Many would be inclined to “tidying up” the plot, re-establishing order for new urban development. StudioVlayStreeruwitz’ approach has been exactly the opposite: preserving the wild habitat, letting the ecological chaos take centre stage as the new neighbourhood’s common denominator.

StudioVlayStreeruwitz is an architectural practice based in Vienna and led by Bernd Vlay and Lina Streeruwitz. StudioVlayStreeruwitz combines conceptual imagination with the challenges of everyday construction, working at the intersection of urbanism, research and architecture. Whether approaching exhibition design, housing, mixed-use buildings or large-scale urban planning, StudioVlayStreeruwitz explores each single task as a universe of possibilities, believing in the capacity to transform existing conditions to the better.