We have recently returned from our annual office study trip to Vienna, looking in particular at exemplary educational, residential and healthcare building types within the city.

Vienna has recently been named the world’s best city for quality of life, and we were assessing from our perspective, how contemporary architecture and urban design are influencing and contributing to this very positive development for the city’s social and economic fabric.

Taking guided architectural tours of the University of Vienna, social housing at Aspernstrabe, assisted living facilities at Donauspital and touring city centre landmarks, we examined buildings in terms of their materiality, quality of finish, siting and arrangement, and where possible, their procurement processes and execution methods, to truly understand how the construction industry is operating at such a commendable capacity in Austria.