* The Works of the International Architectural Competition of the 
  New Estonian National Museum Building
  4 - 26  March 2006
  On 16 January 2006, the winning works of the international architecture competition 
  held to design the new Estonian National Museum building and their authors were 
  revealed at a public session of the competition jury.
  The best work, entitled “Memory Field”, was by an international group of architects 
  based in Paris and London—Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane, (work 
  group Deidre O’Neill, John G Williams, Niccolo Baldassini).
  The architecture competition to design the new Estonian National Museum building, 
  announced last June, was organized by the Estonian National Museum, the Estonian 
  Ministry of Culture and the Estonian Architects Association. 
  The goal of the architecture competition was to achieve the best architectural 
  solution for the new Estonian National Museum building complex, including planning 
  of the grounds. The deadline for submission of competition works was 14 November 
  2005. A total of 108 entries were received by the Estonian Architects Association. 
  The organization of the architecture competition was funded by the Cultural 
  Endowment of Estonia.
 

* Vienna - Architecture, Urban Preservation and Renewal
  13 April - 21 May 2006
  The exhibition illustrated the ways and means used to preserve and renew the rich 
  architectural heritage of the Austrian federal capital while at the same time 
  promoting the development of new high-quality architecture.
  The roughly 140 projects featured in the exhibition were designed by more than 140 
  architects and artists. The projects implemented (or initiated) in the last year of the 
  20th century reflected the key trends of contemporary Viennese architecture. 
  The Architecture section showed objects that are outstanding examples of specific 
  areas of urban development in currrent-day Vienna. These included schools and 
  daycare facilities for children, industrial and traffic structures, housing developments 
  and blocks of flats. The exhibition featured major urban development areas in the 
  densely built-up centre and at the outskirts of the city (Donau City, Wagramer 
  strasse, Handelskai / Brigittenau centre as well as Ottakring centre).
  Curator Leopold Dungl.
 

* Housing in Vienna. Architecture for Everyone
  13 April - 21 May 2006 Gallery:
  The exhibition used a number of outstanding examples of housing projects to show 
  the history of the development of the housing programme in Vienna from the years 
  between the two world wars up to the present day. Images, plans and texts provided 
  both a chronological and a theme-based survey of the particular situation in the 
  capital of Austria.
  Viennese housing began to gain a reputation beyond the nation's borders about 
  100 years ago with the first developments towards a social housing policy. Decisive 
  for the housing offensive of Red Vienna was a major shortage of housing and the 
  frequently catastrophic living conditions in the substandard Bassena apartments of 
  the inter-war years. With the introduction of an earmarked housing development tax,
  part of the revenue gleaned by the landlords flowed directly into the communal 
  coffers and was used to provide the means to build local community homes, to offer 
  all of the city's inhabitants affordable and healthy living space.
  The economic and social framework has altered radically since those times, however 
  a key issue in Viennese housing policy has remained the creation of homes for 
  weaker social strata and a mixed social environment. This model of social housing 
  projects proved an effective strategy in combating the spread of slums in Vienna. 
  Contemporary buildings provide a special focus in the exhibition, with a broad 
  spectrum of architecturally high-ranking projects that, as a specific feature of 
  Viennese architecture production, show how the face of a city can be characterised by 
  projects ranging from socially ambitious developments to freely financed ones, and 
  the quality of accommodation for its populous improved. 
  Housing developments by Raimund Abraham, ARTEC, BKK-3, BUSarchitektur, Coop 
  Himmelb(l)au, Cufer + Partner, Delugan_Meissl, Jean Nouvel, Adolf Krischanitz, and 
  many more show progressive approaches to housing conceived for a broad strata of 
  the population. 
  The Architekturzentrum Wien exhibition Housing in Vienna. Architecture for Everyone 
  was financed by Geschäftsgruppe Wohnen, Wohnbau und Stadterneuerung and by 
  the Wohnfond Wien.
  Exhibition concept Wolfgang Förster, Dietmar Steiner, Alexandra Viehhauser
  Curator: Alexandra Viehhauser.
  Exhibition design SPAN-architekten (Matias del Campo, Sandra Manninger, Sebastian
  Michalski).
 

* Ödon Lechner, Hungarian architect
  31st May - 21st August 2006 Gallery:

* ARCHITECTS COMPETING
  15 Years of Architectural Competitions in Estonia 
   16 June - 19 August 2006
   Architectural competitions are an integral part of any democratic architectural scene.
   These competitions often provide the best means for stimulating the generation of
   ideas and creating equal opportunities for the architects. The past 15 years have
   witnessed a considerable number of architectural competitions in Estonia. The 
   competitions have resulted in the construction of important buildings such as the 
   Pärnu Concert Hall, the Lasnamäe Sports Centre, the Museum of Occupations, etc.
   Yet many of the competition projects have remained on paper. Thus we have no
   House of Architects, no Sakala Centre, and no properly planned Liberty Square or
   port area. Could it be blamed on the poorly organized competitions, the incompetent
   commissioning or the misguided choice of the jury? This raises the question whether
   the public architectural competition should be considered a miracle cure bound to
   produce the desired outcome? Nowadays many clients have opted for invited
   competitions or the combined version of public competitions and competitions with
   invited participants to ensure more professional results.

  The presentation of the original ideas was relevant because many of the plans (Viru 
  Square, Liberty Square, seaside area of Tallinn) continued to be the subjects of 
  heated debates. The designs themselves provided excellent opportunities for
  imagining what the finished building would have looked like had the jury come to a 
  different decision.

  Karin Hallas-Murula 
  Curator of the Exhibition