Re:vive Annenstraße

Eva Schwab
Sabine Bauer
Barbara Russo

Vacant shops and ground floor areas are the bane of urban development: changes in retail structures have a major impact on the quality of public space and public life in cities. Closed shops with billboards instead of shop windows, less activity on the streets, security concerns – this is the common spiral of thought. While it is clear that city centres have long since lost the battle for customers to retail parks, shopping centres and online retailers, the obvious is being overlooked: reconceptualising/repurposing the ground floor is a good tool for improving the quality of life of an entire neighbourhood. Vacant properties are to be seen as spaces of opportunity for new ideas for living and doing business in the city. Which uses can be successful depends not only on the structural possibilities of the ground floor premises, but just as much on the dynamics of the surrounding area and the quality of the public space in front of them. 

The Re:Space Annenstraße project, part of the Grazer municipal environmental programme ÖKOPROFIT, aims to promote the reuse of vacant properties and the renovation of existing buildings in the Annenstraße area by encouraging owners to take action and carrying out visible activities.

Together with Re:Space, we want to design, implement, document and reflect on spatial experiments and temporary actions in the vacant properties on Annenstraße as participatory practices. Seminars focus on theories and methods of participation as well as on-site analysis and conception of the participatory intervention, which will be carried out in a workshop in May. 

The in-depth seminars will take place in March and April.

Workshop at Annenstraße: 6.-8.5.26

final presentation: 23.6.26

Presentation: 26.02.2026, 14:10, HS B, Kopernikusgasse 24/3.OG

Foto: Anna Jäger / Marie-Theres Schwaighofer