Austrians protest government spending with concrete model city
A team of Austrian students installed a model city in the centre of Vienna to show how much housing and infrastructure could be built with the €19 billion (£15 billion) that the government is paying to bail out a local bank (+ slideshow).
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_15.jpg)
Students from architecture, civil engineering, spatial planning and computer science courses at the Technical University of Vienna initiated the Milliardenstadt project to illustrate the Austrian government's spending of taxpayers' money.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_4.jpg)
The government bought the Hypo Alpe Adria bank in 2009 following a series of financial scandals that led to its bankruptcy, and has already spent over €5 billion (£3.9 billion) paying off its debts. Further spending to rescue the bank was projected to amount up to €14 billion (£11.1 billion) at the time the Milliardenstadt project began.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_6.jpg)
Two students, Lukas Zeilbauer and Diana Contiu, decided that the public weren't doing enough to voice concerns over the government's spending.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
"Me and my girlfriend Diana were shocked, that there was no big demonstrations or many signatures on the petition," Zeilbauer told Dezeen. "We wanted to create a comprehensive scale for such an inconceivable amount of money."
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_3.jpg)
Their team calculated how many single-family houses could be built with the money, then planned and built a 1:100-scale city in Vienna's Karlsplatz square, to help members of the public visualise the government's spending.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
"You can build over 70,000 houses with €19 billion," said Zeilbauer. "So the main idea was born: to build an entire city with housing and infrastructure for over 100,000 people!"
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
Called Hypotopia – a combination of the bank's name and the idea of a utopian urban centre – the city was set out by its designers as an energy-efficient, car-free society.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_14.jpg)
Imagined as a home for 102,574 residents, the city would be Austria's sixth largest – containing shops, power plants, and garbage disposal facilities, but no banks.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_2.jpg)
Buildings were represented by concrete blocks, laid out onto an urban grid of roads and green spaces painted onto a base made from wooden boards.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
"We just got materials from companies and a place to build the model out of wood and concrete for free," said Zeilbauer, who enlisted family, friends, students and volunteers to help with construction.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_11.jpg)
The installation remained in place for 19 days, before protesters marched the concrete blocks – by carrying or transporting them in wheelbarrows and shopping trolleys – to the city's parliament building, where they deposited more than 25 tonnes of concrete.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
"Our main goal with the Milliardenstadt project is to make this incredibly big amount of money understandable, tangible and visible for everyone," Zeilbauer explained.
![Hypotopia project in Austria](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/Hypotopia_dezeen_468_10.jpg)
Photography is by Armin Walcher.