High on Shopping.

SCS Shopping City Süd
2331 Vösendorf
Coordinates: 48°6'36.35"N, 16°19'4.34"E  

Donauzentrum
1220 Vienna, 81 Wagramer Straße
Coordinates: 48°14'32.31"N, 16°26'6.00"E  

Shopping Center Nord
1210 Wien, 1. Ignaz Köck Straße
Coordinates: 48°16'0.81"N, 16°23'58.70"E  

Shopping centres, our container style architecture on the outskirts of the city, aren't very easy to get to for pedestrians, if you don't count people who feel like hacking their way through dusty motorway side undergrowth, and even the public transport to these places is far from ideal. These new temples of consumerism are overflowing with every-day useless things.

They are built for absolutely losing yourself in the consumerist religion of shopping. Shopping to fill the empty space within with possessions, the only route to happiness, if you believe the ads. But we urbs aren't teachers, gurus or naysayers. Sure there are places that are more exciting but, even in these ‘hallowed halls’ and under these difficult conditions, we know how to move.

We simply switch the actual function of such structures around, so that, wanting is relegated to the background and experience comes to the fore. An urbie thing to do is to imagine you're at a museum of modern art. Andy Warhol predicted way back in the 60s that shopping centres could take over this role. Well, he seems to have been right, because the most bizarre, unusual and fascinating things that the creative spirit can vomit forth are definitely to be found there.

Shapes, colours, materials, an optical and tactile manifesto, lots of synapses are created here no question ;-) although none that are addictive. Urbie stuff. Simply wander around and soak up the expressive power of the pieces in the exhibition. You can even touch some!  

The second way to spend an entertaining day in the shopping centre is to imagine it as a constantly changing obstacle course. Saturday afternoon is the ideal time for this. You wouldn't believe how challenging it is, to manoeuvre through the hectic, uncoordinated human mass. You need to be alert, have quick reflexes, be good at sizing things up, and judging people, to get to the other end without crashing into someone. This is particularly enjoyable as a team sport!  

Go to Google Maps  

SCS SHOPPING CITY SÜD
In the early 70s, the first Austrian shopping centre was built among the fields. Over the years, these consumerist structures have expanded to cover almost 225,800m2 of pure sales space, even without including the surrounding home improvement stores. In other words, an enormous museum, visited by 25 million people annually,  who arrive in their thousands at peak times and make the city a real indoor obstacle course. 

This container city can also be reached via the Badner Bahn local train, as the 150,000 cars that visit the Shopping City every day are more than enough. A tip for victims of shopping stress is the nearby Blaue Lagune show homes, where a long walk is very relaxing!  

DONAUZENTRUM
Here the exhibition area is around 130,000m? and it also sets new standards for shopping centre architecture for the visitor to enjoy. Whether these are really restful, or just encourage even more shopping is open to discussion.  

SHOPPING CENTER NORD
“It's all I need to be happy,” is the slogan for this 32,000m2 centre. You won't find any elite stores, and the stream of visitors is declining. But the centre has something, there are few places better for studying the proletariat.  

LOCAL TIPS  
SCS Shopping City Süd
2331 Vösendorf
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 9:30am to 7pm
Thursday: 9:30am to 9pm
Saturday: 9am to 6pm
http://www.scs.at

Donauzentrum
1220 Wien, Wagramer Straße 81
Monday Friday: 9:30am to 8pm
Saturday 9am to 6pm
http://www.donauzentrum.at  

Shopping Center Nord
1210 Wien, Ignaz Köck Straße 1
Monday Wednesday: 9am to 7pm
Thursday and Friday: 9am to 8pm
Saturday: 9am to 6pm
http://www.scn.at