Creative Urbanist at Whoosh | Austria

Teaching spatial planning at Wien Technical Uni, and watching Fellini’s films, sparked Eugene Quinn’s idea of ‘street capital’: how the presence of people and the way we play and interact provides theatre and joy on our city streets. In 2012, he co-founded Space & Place, which celebrates and animates public places. This non-profit culture group builds social capital and aims to change the political messaging in cities throughout Europe. Eight years later, he started Whoosh, leading to the emergence of diverse projects including a comedy pub quiz on Austrian citizenship, Ugly Tours in Vienna and Munich, dinners that connect refugees with locals (Magdas Social Dinners), the Oe1 radio show #HowtobeAustrian, and Jungerer Seestadt, where children in Aspern act as guides for adults. Eugene also DJs at Vienna’s funkiest parties, and his Walking Week is an attempt to rethink travel, creating #tourismforlocals. His work features in New York Times, BBC, Guardian, AFP, Zeit & USA Today.