Location: Spittelau, Vienna, Austria

Date: 1992

Architect: Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Purpose: Heating plant

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More info: Hundertwasser at first declined a commission to redesign the exterior of the Spittelau district heating plant. Only after being convinced that that a city as large as Vienna would always have some garbage to burn, and that fitting the plant with the most modern emission-scrubbing technology and using it to provide central heat for some 60,000 neighboring apartments would actually reduce emissions overall, did he finally agree.

(Image credits: 1: josylein, 2: mayatsai)

Location: Viena, Austria

Date: 2006

Architect: Erwin Wurm

Purpose: Outdoor sculpture at the Museum Moderner Kunst (MuMoK)

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More info: Wurm says, that anything can become sculpture: actions, written or drawn instructions, or even a thought. Since the late 1980s he has developed an ongoing series of “One Minute Sculptures,” in which he poses himself or his models in unexpected relationships with everyday objects close at hand, prompting the viewer to question the very definition of sculpture. He seeks to use the “shortest path” in creating a sculpture – a clear and fast, sometimes humorous, form of expression. As the sculptures are fleeting and meant to be spontaneous and temporary, the images are only captured in photos or on film.

(Image credits: 1: Quick, like a mule, 2:metaphorge)