Soho in Ottakring

SOHO in Ottakring is an urban art project initiated 1999 around a market in the Brunnen quarter of Ottakring, a worker's district in Vienna, Austria. After an ongoing 12-year process of annual art festivals in the public sphere and in local spaces, SOHO in Ottakring moved on and set a new focus on Sandleitenhof and the area around it (2013).

With around 5.000 residents, Sandleitenhof is the largest community housing complex built in the era of social democratic Red Vienna. It was built 1924-1928 on the western edge of Ottakring and designed as a “city within the city”, which also included an infrastructure for all areas of life and age groups: work, living, shopping, education, cultural entertainment, play, rest - all within walking distance.

This built vision of the past is again a vision for the future: a city of short distances with affordable housing and high-quality living with places for art, culture and education in the immediate vicinity.

After restructuring a former cinema and museum, SOHO in Ottakring established a new permanent space called SOHO STUDIOS (2021), that now offer a space of 660 square meters to the public as well as six studio spaces to artists for rent. In close collaboration with SOHO, the Vienna Art School uses an additional 160 sqm for art classes.

Today, SOHO STUDIOS are an open space for art, culture and social exchange. They are above all a place of cultural proximity and a place where all kinds of creative ideas that serve neighborhood and communities may be developed.