New Salzburg. Between Memory and Contemporaneity

Surrounded by unique natural sceneries and boasting a landmarked old town, Salzburg is recognized all over the world as a city of singular beauty. This special situation has frequently posed considerable challenges for political decision-makers, urban planners, and residents. Numerous urban planning ideas and development projects including new constructions as well conversions never made it beyond the design stage. In 2015, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and its director Sabine Breitwieser presented the exhibition Salzburg Unbuilt, which showcased a selection of unrealized ambitious public construction projects and established the museum as a premier platform for public engagement with questions of urban development. Two years later, the research project and exhibition New Salzburg resumed this discussion of (new) urban design and living environments with a critical view to the city’s future. Visionary projects created in an initiative launched in collaboration with the Accademia di architettura at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Mendrisio illustrated how contemporary architecture can change a city’s complexion in innovative ways.

Does Salzburg have potential for a future in which it does not turn into a museum of its own past? Can Salzburg meet the current challenges of society and renew itself under the current conditions? To answer these questions, 122 architecture students developed building projects for 15 selected areas in the city of Salzburg as part of their diplomas under the supervision of their professors. The projects were developed under the guidance of fifteen internationally renowned architects: Manuel and Franciso Aires Mateus, Walter Angonese, Michele Arnaboldi, Valentin Bearth, Frédéric Bonnet, Mario Botta, Jan De Vylder (De Vylder Vinck Taillieu Architects), Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara (Grafton Architects), Quintus Miller, João Nunes—João Gomes da Silva, Valerio Olgiati, and Jonathan Sergison.

Fifteen sites were selected in cooperation with the city of Salzburg; combination of sites reduced the final number to fourteen: the Augustinerkloster parking lot, Mirabellplatz, the AVA-Hof building, the northern Kapuzinerberg, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, Auerspergstraße, Möbi (Fürbergstraße), the railway station, Harmath & Weilinger, Nonntal—Dr.-Franz-Rehrl-Platz, the trade fair site, the former border checkpoint at Freilassing and the Residenzplatz.

An extensive program of events organized in collaboration with the municipal authorities and the organization Initiative Architektur invited the public to become actively involved in the debates around the future of urban development in Salzburg.