About this tour
Tour the major Central European city of Vienna, where east meets west in what was once the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Together on this Study Tour, we will experience the historic city center of Imperial Vienna, known for the Habsburg legacy of architecture and highbrow culture. We will read the city, looking towards the Ringstrasse, a ring road of grandiose palaces, as well as parks, public institutions, and places of art and culture.
Through walking tours, lectures from local historians, meetings with urban planners, and visits to various museums, we will explore the city through time, investigating Vienna of 1900 as a seat of empire, Red Vienna between the first and second World Wars and the models for affordable housing developed at the time, and finally Vienna of the 2000’s, with it’s current urban agendas and new developments, in order to understand what makes Vienna so livable today.
Learning outcomes
- Gain insight into factors shaping this city and influencing others, both in the past and now in present day
- Explore the complex relationship between the various facets and scales of the urban experience
- Embrace the city as the ultimate classroom
- Engage with fellow students and instructor in an educational and social setting outside of DIS
Possible activities
- Explore Aspern Seestadt, an intelligent construction site for the smart city of the future
- Tour of gentrification in Vienna
- Visit one of Vienna’s many art museums