Visit to Sandleitenhof — XsentrikArts

Visiting the historical public housing project

The “Cultural and Historical Awareness for Active Citizenship” (CHAC) project aims to initiate a community engagement process of active citizenship. The project will be introducing public and oral history methodologies to the local youth through training and workshops.

The youth will then use their learned skill-set to engage with local community members and conduce local history research. They will interview community members, collect stories, visual materials, historical documents etc. on their neighborhoods, cities or areas.

The gathered material will then be curated and exhibited as part of an exhibition.

We decided to focus the project and oral history workshop on Vienna’s 16. district (Ottakring) and more notably, on the Sandleitenhof.

History in the making

Sandleiten (16th district of Ottakring), is a municipal housing complex with originally 1,587 apartments, built in five stages between 1924 and 1928 as part of the housing policy of “Red Vienna”

Today, it houses a vibrant and diverse community, with residents from all backgrounds – which is why we selected the location for our field research. We believe the unique stories and perspectives to come out of the area will help us visualize history and citizens perceptions from a multitude of different angles.

Scouting the terrain

Together with our trainers Frida Robles & Martina Gimplinger, we visited the site and accompanying buildings, including an impressive local library, local shops and ateliers, and the Kunstschule Wien as well as the offices of SOHO Ottakring.

We’re looking forward to our workshops in September, and the displaying the results in the form of an exhibition in 2025!