Program

2 p.m.
Curator’s guided tour through the pavilion

3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
FINAL ASSEMBLY

Guests: Kurt Hofstetter (MA50, Vienna), Elke Krasny (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Verena von Beckerath (Berlin), Tim Heide (Berlin) and experts from Rome

The final assembly takes stock. In ten discussion rounds, questions about BETTER LIVING were formulated, theses were proposed, and possible answers were discussed. Points were recorded, places of togetherness were visited, and visions were developed—visions of how we might achieve BETTER LIVING for all: ecological, economic, communal, activist, and feminist visions.To conclude, another discussion is initiated. Invited guests, pavilion visitors, and the curators discuss the potential rules, necessary actions, and new principles for a future BETTER LIVING. The essence of this forms the foundation of a manifesto for BETTER LIVING, written as the final act in the pavilion.

Kurt Hofstetter is a graduate of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna. As an employee of the City of Vienna since 1991, he has been involved in various leadership functions with urban planning and development issues, including zoning and development planning as well as landscape planning for the whole of Vienna. From 2003 to 2015 he was significantly involved in the urban development of Seestadt Aspern in Vienna. He then was director of the International Building Exhibition “IBA_Vienna – New Social Housing” from 2016 to 2022, which held its final presentation in 2022. Since 2023, he has been involved in strategic projects for the City of Vienna and in International affairs on the topic of housing as an expert on housing issues. This brings a main focus to linking social objectives with the requirements of the climate crisis. Among other things, he is a member of the jury for property developer competitions and on the quality advisory board of the Vienna Housing Fund (“Wohnfonds Wien”).

Elke Krasny is professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Krasny’s writing and research connects spatial, urban and environmental humanities with a focus on social reproduction and dimensions of care in in architecture, urbanism, and contemporary curatorial and artistic practices. Furthermore, Krasny contributes to critical museology and practices of curating, in particular feminist and queer activism in museum curating as well as urban curating. Her exhibition Hands-On Urbanism was included in the 2012 Biennale of Architecture in Venice. Krasny co-edited Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet with Angelika Fitz (MIT Press, 2019), Radicalizing Care. Feminist and Queer Activism in Curating (Sternberg Press 2021), Feminist Infrastructural Critique with Sophie Lingg and Claudia Lomoschitz (FKW Journal, 2024), and Abundance not Capital. The Lively Architecture of Anupama Kundoo with Angelika Fitz (MIT Press, 2025).

Verena von Beckerath is an architect based in Berlin and a co-founder of the architecture practice Heide & von Beckerath. She studied sociology, art history and psychology in Paris and Hamburg and architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. She was teaching and research assistant at Universität der Künste Berlin and visiting professor at Technische Universität Braunschweig and Cornell University. Verena von Beckerath held a fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and was a recipient of the Rome Prize at the German Academy in Rome Villa Massimo. Since 2016, she has been a professor of architecture at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar where she holds the Chair of Design and Housing.

Tim Heide is an architect based in Berlin and a co-founder of the architecture practice Heide & von Beckerath. He studied design at Universität der Künste Berlin and graduated in architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. He has held teaching positions at Berliner Hochschule für Technik and Potsdam School of Architecture and was a professor of architecture at Technische Universität Berlin where he led the Chair of Design and Building Construction. Tim Heide was visiting professor at Cornell University and lectures extensively throughout Germany and abroad. From 2019 until 2024, he has been serving as chairman of the board of the Deutscher Werkbund Berlin.

Heide & von Beckerath is an architecture practice based in Berlin. Applying both conceptual and rational thinking, their projects are informed by structural and formal clarity. The range of work covers urban design, architecture, interior design and research. In treating every project in its formal, cultural and social dimensions as a whole, the studio collaborates with other architects and specialists where appropriate. Their work is widely and internationally exhibited and published and has received numerous prestigious awards.