The adaptation of the Palais Coburg revealed the archaeological secret lying dormant in its cellars: the largest surviving trace of the Renaissance fortifications. This dramaturgical concept interprets the walls' symbolic filtering of the outside reality from the inside illusion and the centuries long physical, socio-cultural and psychological effect on the “City of Dreams”. Built upon the Braunbastei in 1840, the palace preserved a labyrinth of hidden tunnels, massive defensive walls and a cavernous barrel-vaulted hall, vital clues in a biography covered by the make-up of the Ringstrasse. The subterranean DNA combines with digital and analogue installations to articulate a mental map of the entire defensive system for the visitors’ discovery of Invisible Vienna.

The 2 faced mirror depicts "wall" as a border and bridge, an import-export interface, and simultaneous window and filter of "otherness". Consisting of a row of back-to-back touchscreens, the extractions from the biographies of "inside" and "outside" personalities contextualizes the confrontation of cultures, religions and politics that occurred at the walls in history. A GIS-mapping terminal developed by the MA7 city archaeologists delineates the overlapping layers of defensive fortifications, from the Roman settlement Vindabona to Hitler's decentralized network of Flaktürm.

In the 12 m high Wallhall, the opposing big-screen 3D visualisations recreate two revealing periods in the Braunbastei’s history: the Turkish Siege of 1683 and Life on the Promenade in 1845. Complimenting a sensitive restoration of the great barrel-vaulted hall, the 17th-c city plan is recessed into the new floor construction to relating the former walls to the existing streets and monuments. Bastionets, interactive islands extruded from the floorplan, describe in more detail the visualisations and other stories related to the bastions. A city wall infopoint at the exit offers further information encouraging independent pursuit of the Invisible Vienna.

Reseach, dramaturgy and design of concept book for the Vienna Stadtarchaeologie Dept. (MA7)
Commissioned by Nofrontiere Design

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