The façade of the Ars Electronica Center was redesigned prior to the opening of Ars Electronica 98 and the European Month of Culture – Linz 1998. Since the existing masonry work needed to be rehabbed, a solution had to found that could be implemented quickly and would be, above all, aesthetically pleasing.


A new corrugated aluminum façade and the “media wall” on the side of the building facing the Danube appear to have accomplished this. The striking “Face the Future” motif, an artistic design of the Ars Electronica Futurelab, made a colorful programmatic statement within the cityscape of Linz. The tarpaulin imprinted with the motif was attached to a steel tube framework featuring catwalks for the backlighting; with a surface area of approximately 90 square meters, it was at the time Europe’s largest free-spanned wall.