Az W Vienna – Museum of architecture

This is a must-see for all architecture lovers. Located within the border of the famous Museumsquartier, the Az W was founded in 1993. It is the official Austrian architectural museum. Exhibitions are split up in two different buildings, one hosting the permanent exhibition, the other one hosting the temporary ones. The permanent one deals with the history of Austrian architecture over the past 150 years. It is nicely divided into different themes, like the "Red Vienna“, "Utopian Ideas“, "Idealism“ or "Power“. The temporary exhibitions change regularly (every one to two months) and are usually worth a visit, as they try to use various forms of communication channels (like videos, 1:1 installations, texts, pictures, etc.) and deal with recent architectural, social or ecological challenges.

After the visit, I recommend going to Corbaci, which is a café/restaurant within the Az W. The French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal did a marvelous job on the architecture of this place, which is minimalistic and focused on raw materials. Take a glance at the curved ceiling with the beautiful mosaic tiles!