For the first time in history, the three architecture schools of Vienna – the IKA, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the I oA, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Institute of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Technical University Vienna, – came together to organise a joint experimental September School.

It took the form of a competition between several multidisciplinary groups of student participants, each supported by a duo of professors/teachers from participating institutes. Every group was invited to create a full brief for an imagined international design contest for a specific site in Vienna.

Over the span of four days, architecture master’s students along with the students from the departments of urban planning, social design, sociology and political science were preparing a convincing conceptual rationale and programmatic guidelines for the future development of the chosen site (the why? and the what?), while also specifying the procedure and related protocols of the competition itself, including the phasing, the jury, and the selection criteria.

For the First edition of September School in 2024 we selected the highly charged site of the Alte Wirtschaftsuniversität (WU). The municipality of Vienna has already scheduled it for demolition: a new university campus – the largest in Austria! – was planned instead on the massive site of Alte WU.

For the the Second edition in 2025, we focused on the highly charged site of the former Opel Werk Seestadt Aspern. Operational since 1982 and closed in 2024, this expansive industrial plant was also recently scheduled for transformation and repurposing by the municipality of Vienna

Rarely do sites of such complexity and significance for the city become a subject of dramatic rethinking. Our joint project gives the younger generation of designers and researchers a voice in this critical discussion which is usually led mainly by the city’s authorities and a selected group of experts. Formulate a design assignment yourself, not just respond to briefs formulated by others! – this is the fundamental task of our unique educational project. 

In September School, participants are envisaged as proactive ideators with unique expertise rather than students. Group leads take the roles of inspirational interlocutors and process moderators, not teachers, creating an inter-generational coalition with participants. The project also prompts convergence between professional specialisations of three institutions, benefitting from their different educational curricula and teaching approaches.

The international committee of professionals is invited to revise all submitted briefs. After a collective discussion the jury awards one winning entry, which is honoured with a prize during the public event.

The results of the competition are broadly publicised and reflected upon in various social media and the press. Perhaps, some of the ideas developed in the course of this collective project could even inform the brief of the official architectural contests which the municipality of Vienna plans to announce in the near future.