Critical Care

A planet in crises. The earth in intensive care. Man-made environmental and social catastrophes are threatening to render the planet uninhabitable. The situation is critical and, dominated by the interests of capital, architecture and urbanism are caught up in crisis. The exhibition "Critical Care" shows how architecture and ubranism can contribute to repairing the future and keeping the planet and its inhabitants alive. After stops in Vienna, Zurich, Dresden and Berlin "Critical Care" is on showncase in De Singel, Antwerp.

Critical Care, an exhibition of the Architekturzentrum Wien, is an appeal for a new appoach, for a caring architecture and urbanism. 21 current examples from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, the USA and Latin America prove that architecture and urban development do not have to be subservient to the dictates of capital and the exploitation of resources and labour.

The relationships between economy, ecology and work are redefined in each of these projects. The instigators of this care are extraordinarily diverse groups of people: activists, lawyers, anthropologists, artists, but also city councils and companies, working together with architects and planners. Care is always concrete, the specific local conditions are the starting point, as the exhibtion shows, including earthquake-proof and sustainable village development in China, flood protection through traditional low-carbon building techniques in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the diverse conversion of modernist buildings in Brazil and Europe, an ecological community land trust in Puerto Rico, the revitalization of historical irrigation systems in Spain, new concepts for public spaces and mixed urban districts in Vienna, London and Nairobi.