OPEN MINE DAY
Potential for value creation and art on the deconstruction site
Exhibition and press conference (March 25-26, 2022) at the end of 6 months of Social Urban Mining in the Sophienspital
In cooperation with SOZIALBAU AG and WBV-GPA, BauKarussell organized the first OPEN MINE DAY in former Sophienspital in Vienna. At the end of the six-month social urban mining accompanied by street artists, BauKarussell is exhibiting the building, which was erected in 1999 and is now to be demolished, with a reversed sampling of its components. The exhibition highlights the existent value creation potential in building demolition and tells of its limits. At the same time, BauKarussell opens the building to young street artists moiz, Jakob der Bruder, Seco und Skirl and invites the artist duo Ursula Gaisbauer and Friedrich Engl with their MININGs, art installations in demolished buildings. Social Urban Mining here stands in a socio-cultural context and enters into dialogue with art confronting dismantling.
BauKarussell is one of the first Austrian providers for recycling oriented dismantling with a special focus on reuse for large-volume buildings. In cooperation with major Viennese project developers, re-usable parts and components are removed before demolition and made available for re-use in new buildings. At the same time, recyclable building materials are separated manually and recycled. This work is carried out by workers from socio-economic enterprises, who receive qualifications, job training and better opportunities on the labour market. Since the beginning of 2017, the project has been supported by the Austrian waste avoidance programme, the City of Vienna's "Less waste" initiative and the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and Business Location. The socio-economic companies DRZ (Demontage- und Recycling-Zentrum, Tochter der Wiener Volkshochschulen GmbH) and Caritas SÖB are also supported by AMS Wien.
