Spanning two capitals, the programme investigated how political ideologies, social utopias, and architectural experimentation shaped the urban landscape of Central Europe.

In Bratislava, participants visited the iconic UFO Bridge and its sculptural pylons, the monumental Pyramida radio and broadcasting complex, and the vast prefabricated housing estate of Petržalka — one of the largest socialist residential developments in Europe — offering a striking case study in utopian urban planning at scale.

In Vienna, the excursion explored the expressive transformer station in Favoriten, Harry Glück's pioneering terrace housing estate in Alterlaa — a landmark in humane social housing design — and the rugged, sculptural Wotruba Church, a late brutalist monument on the city's southern edge.

Throughout both days, students engaged with questions of urban semiotics, collective identity, and the enduring tension between architectural idealism and everyday lived experience, and the eternal struggle between form and function.

The excursion was organized by Hartmut Dumke from the research unit regional planning and regional development and Milan Húsar from the STU Bratislava, opens an external URL in a new window.