Vienna’s Alterlaa is often considered one of the most successful public housing projects to have come from the last century. Built in the 1970s, this series of sky-reaching apartments, shaped in gently sloping pyramids, is a kind of city within the city that manifested a once-thought-to-be-utopic idea of affordable housing, where residents could swim, shop, go to school, live, and achieve what many recognize as the utilitarian ideal, ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.’ In her documentary, 27 Storeys, director Bianca Gleissinger returns to her childhood home in Alterlaa to explore its nooks and crannies, memories, and infrastructure, to understand what made this urban miracle a reality.
Alterlaa, the social housing unit in Vienna, documented in 27 Storeys by director Bianca Gleissinger | all images ©Mischief Films_ETP_Klemens Koscher
director Bianca Gleissinger returns to her childhood
Her investigation into the building complex, which was designed by architect Harry Glück and contains over 3,000 units, largely starts from archival footage of Gleissinger and her family living in one of the very units. In this grainy footage from decades gone by, we see a young family eating, playing, and enjoying the promises of the building. Looking back on her younger self, the director reflects on all the versions of herself she was supposed to become. As she makes her way through pools, club rooms, apartments, and amenities, she discovers that these promises of a life well lived that she was given as a child are not so different from what Alterlaa promises its residents.
trailer for 27 Storeys (2023)
Meeting the Residents in 27 Storeys
To create 27 Storeys, Gleissinger follows a typical documentary format—she brings the camera to the site of inquiry, carefully arranging interviews, B-roll, and panoramic shots to give the viewer an idea of what it’s like to live in Alterlaa. Yet what makes her footage different is the long-sustained shots that almost bore the viewer with how banal they are: an elevator lobby, wallpaper, a woman waiting at a pickup stop in an underground parking lot. In these slow-moving scenes through the buildings, she makes the viewer feel as if they themselves have been living in the building for decades, much like many of its residents.
in these slow-moving scenes through the buildings, 27 Storeys makes the viewer feel as if they themselves have been living in the building for decades
Decades of Life in Alterlaa
Gleissinger begins by bringing us into the homes of some of Alterlaa’s most long-standing residents. She goes into the apartment of a man named Peter, who has lived in the building since it opened in the seventies and whose home is, quite aptly, an aesthetic relic of the decade in which he moved into the building. There’s a breakfast nook in dark laminate wood that he had built into the space, decorated with a model of an old ship. The wall coverings are a mix of large patterns reminiscent of the mid-20th century. Together, Gleissinger and Peter sit on a couch, the camera pointed at them as they watch video footage Peter has been collecting for decades. Captured on analog film stock, we see the resident and his wife looking at an Alterlaa that’s still in progress. They visit the pyramids as they stand half-built on barren land. In speaking about the wonderful life he has lived in the building, he says of his home, ‘I will only really leave when I’m dead. Not Voluntarily.’
one of Alterlaa’s defining features is its rooftop pools for its residents
Critique of Alterlaa’s aging population
As Gleissinger takes us through the social network of the building, it becomes evident how old the population of Alterlaa has become. There is a definite sense of comfort and community that is sometimes equated with stubbornness and complacency. She brings up the hyperbolic critique waged against the complex as one of Austria’s most successful retirement homes. Nevertheless, she frames this not as a downside, but as one of the many facets of a complex social structure.
Gleissinger in the ‘museum’ for Freddy Quinn operated by the parents of her friends in Alterlaa
Clubs, Pools, and Activities Abound
One of the things that the elderly population of Alterlaa has kept alive and rocking is their abundance of social clubs. There’s one for model making, card games, photo and video, stamps, shooting range, and pottery. Gleissinger even goes into the vast collection of paraphernalia from the musical artist Freddy Quinn that is maintained in a ‘museum,’ looked over by the parents of her childhood friend. When interviewing younger residents at Alterlaa’s infamous rooftop pools as to why they don’t join the clubs, they remark that they are mostly for old people. Meanwhile, the older population finds that the youth are too attached to technology, implying that perhaps they are isolating themselves.
there’s clubs for for model making, card games, photo and video, stamps, shooting range, and pottery
What Alterlaa Means for the Future of Housing
In the tunnels, parking structures, green spaces, malls, and other amenities Gleissinger captures in 27 Storeys, there’s a real sense of how well-oiled the machine of Alterlaa is. They have a tenant advisory board. They are a corporation but a charitable one where the residents hold shares, so they have the power to veto changes to the community. There are board meetings and newsletters. Yet for all the happiness the building has provided, Gleissinger reflects that it’s not all perfect. Sometimes the way life plays out is not as beautiful as the promises of the future, but perhaps that is not the fault of infrastructure or urban planning, but an unavoidable part of the human experience.
poster for 27 Storeys – Alterlaa Forever (2023)
portrait of director Bianca Gleissinger
project info:
name: 27 Storeys
director: Bianca Gleissinger | @b_bjonkers
language spoken: German
production year: 2023
production: Mischief Films & Co KG
Cinematography: Klemens Koscher
Editing: Kai Eiermann, Antje Lass
Producers: Jens Meurer, Ralph Wieser, Judy Tossell
Premiere: January 24, 2023
This article is part of designboom’s MODES OF HABITATION chapter, exploring how the spaces we inhabit can reshape the ways we live together. Discover more stories rethinking domesticity, shared living, and the many forms a home can take here.
The post 27 storeys revisits vienna’s alterlaa and its utopian promise of collective living appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.