This morning we got an early start to drive to the edge of the city and look at some public housing projects. The first one we stopped at was an early Coop Himmelblau project. We walked past it and then got back in the car. Gotta love that public housing. Next we drove out to see some Herzog housing, and then we went out to see some “garden plot” housing that Jeff and Catherine had recommended. Next we drove past a really pretty little church, but they were in the middle of Sunday services so we didn’t really get to go inside. Next stop was a beautiful free-form concrete church by the cubist sculptor Fritz Wotruba. I really enjoyed getting to see it. Since it was designed by an artist rather than an architect, it demonstrated a very different form of spatial organization than what we’re used to seeing. After sitting at the church for a little while, we headed out into the Austrian countryside– which is entirely lovely and desolate in a beautiful green expansive way– to see the Grafenegg auditorium and outdoor ampitheater complex. We had a tour of the grounds, which we were about 30 minutes late for, but I’m really glad we got to see it. The two tehaters were both done by competition by small Austrian firms. The indoor theater was really nice in the way that it connected with the adjoining historic stables, but the actual auditorium had a very awkward scale. The room was light and massive, and the seats were very small and a dark red. Also, the stage was elevated in a sort of strange manner. The outdoor ampitheater– known as the Tower to the Sky– however, was stunning. It was a concrete form that crawled up out of the grassy hill as a Jimmy-style geologic mass. The wooden panels at the base of the stage were stained a gorgeous maroon red. I love that space. I’d love to return in the summer at some point to see a concert there. After that we had a quick lunch (French onion soup!) at a really small restaurant in the town and then we headed to the Steven Holl winery for our wine tasting. Yay for my first ever Steven Holl experience! It wasn’t a disappointment. We watched the Austrian sunset while drinking delicious wines, my favorite being the Riesling, and then returned to the hostel for the night.