A Public Need
Graz is beautiful, Graz is safe; Graz has a university, and Graz has cars and people who like to drive them. These are all reasons why the city is especially attractive to investors and speculators. The current boom in apartment building construction is driven more by monetary interests than by social or ecological motives. As the pressure continues to grow in urban environments, the interests of the public, or parts of the public, are pushed back, and the question of property ownership becomes a key factor.
Graz 2020
That is why the City of Graz has declared 2020 the Year of Culture. Under the motto “culture creates an urban future,” the city hopes to encourage discussions and negotiations about how living and working together in urban spaces could look in the future.
Club Hybrid
Club Hybrid is an open demonstration building in Graz designed to be a demonstrative, experimental site for holding exhibitions, presentations, and discussions during the summer of 2020. In daily scientific, artistic, and activist events, we will visualize various forms of living and discuss aspects of urban participation, city planning, and market logic. The goal is also to involve people living in the surrounding neighborhoods in the exhibitions, workshops, and guest lectures as a way of discussing and experiencing first-hand the possibilities of shaping and claiming public space.
All Under One Roof.
Club Hybrid is an active intervention that will remain open for the 100 days of the culture program. During this time, it will continue to question current urban planning policies and encourage research and discussion of possible ways of reinterpreting and pushing the limits of urban space with the goal of creating an applied practice of production and quality living in an urban environment.
Temporary? Temporary? Permanent!
Club Hybrid will not be temporary; it will be permanent. In place of a short-lived structure that must be entirely demolished afterward, which is a waste of resources, the reusable structure built with a minimum of waste and a maximum of flexible urban spaces will be become a permanent part of the city. The project of experimenting in alternative forms of living and working will transform into a hybrid demonstration building that will be developed in collaboration with its future users.
Project author: Heidi Pretterhofer and Michael Rieper
As part of Graz Kulturjahr 2020