Eugene Quinn

Creative Urbanist at Whoosh | Austria
Teaching spatial planning at the Vienna Technical University, and the less conventional influence of the films of Federico Fellini, sparked Eugene Quinn’s idea of ‘street capital’: how the presence of people and how we play and interact provides “theatre and joy” on our cities’ streets. In 2012, he co-founded Space and Place to celebrate and animate public places. This non-profit culture group builds social capital and aims to change the political messaging in cities throughout Europe. Also started Whoosh in 2020 has led to the emergence of diverse projects that include a comedy pub quiz on Austrian citizenship, Ugly Tours in Vienna and Munich, dinners that connect refugees and locals (Magdas Social Dinners), the Oe1 radio show #HowtobeAustrian, and Jungerer Seestadt, where children in Aspern are the tour guides. He also DJs at Vienna’s funkiest parties.