Actually I wanted to sketch in Setagayapark, but it was overcrowded with visitors. So I switched to a nearby institution of the city of Vienna.
The Karl-Marx-Hof was built in 1930 as a showcase project of the social democratic housing programme, which responded to the catastrophic housing situation of the workers. There is much to tell about the longest continuous housing complex in the world. There are even separate guided tours. Unfortunately, those currently responsible for managing the housing of the City of Vienna are not obliged to participate. Otherwise they would realise abruptly how far the municipality has strayed from its role as a prudent landlord in recent decades.
Apart from its eventful historical as well as socio-political past, the complex is also architecturally interesting. My sketch shows the so-called flag towers (the flagging is not a permanent feature, but owed to 1 May, Labour Day). For the outlines I used a Sailor Fude. The peculiar colour of the façade was no problem for me, thanks to Liz Steel. Through her I got to know Potter’s Pink, with which you can create wonderfully granulating mixtures, but which is otherwise absolutely unsightly, unless you paint the Karl-Marx-Hof.
