Positions on the Production of Urbanity – The aspern Advisory Board by aspern Die Seestadt Wiens

The aspern Advisory Board PUBLISHED BY aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside A project by Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG Seestadtstraße 27/13 1220 Vienna CONTACT www.aspern-seestadt.at EDITOR Robert Temel www.temel.at TRANSLATION Otmar Lichtenwörther www.textkultur.at PROJECT COORDINATION Annemarie Müller www.letteria.at DESIGN Claudia Litschauer www.claudia-litschauer.at 1st Edition, as of April 2015

Positions on the Production of Urbanity

IMPRINT

Positions on the Production of Urbanity The aspern Advisory Board

positions on the production of urbanity

INTRODUCTION

PERIODS OF THE ADVISORY BOARD PERIOD 1: 2011–2012 Rudolf Scheuvens (chairperson) Ingrid Breckner (deputy chairperson) Alois Aigner Andrea Cejka Peter Holzer Franz Kobermaier Mario Rehulka Johannes Tovatt

PERIOD 2: 2013–2014 Rudolf Scheuvens (chairperson) Ingrid Breckner (deputy chairperson) Andrea Cejka Carl Fingerhuth Mario Rehulka Silja Tillner Bernd Vogl

PERIOD 3: 2015–2016 Angelika Fitz Christa Reicher Stefan Rotzler Oliver Schulze Silja Tillner Bernd Vogl

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

INTRODUCTION

After four years and/or two periods of work of the aspern Advisory Board, and with the realisation of the first large construction stage in the south of aspern, the publication at hand intends to show the process of becoming a city in an exemplary manner and to illustrate the procedure in the transition from planning to realisation, in quality assurance. This shall not be carried out in the form of project documentation or evalution (for which it is too early by the way) but by means of subjective perspectives on the process and its relevance for the future. The mosaic of these different positions shall give an impression of where aspern Urban Lakeside is standing today and into which direction it will develop—in addition to perceptions on site which will become possible over the coming months. The subjective positions which will be put up for discussion in the following come from two fields: First—in the section "The aspern Advisory Board about Urban Lakeside"—from (former and present) members of the Advisory Board themselves who deal with different aspects of urban construction at Urban Lakeside, and describe significant individual projects for the new urban area in short project texts. The selection of projects is also not representative but likewise subjective; yet it is also to explain the spectrum of things currently happening at Urban Lakeside. These project texts are supported by photographs by Wolfgang Thaler which were taken in early 2015, when many of the projects addressed were still construction sites. The photos were taken with a super high camera

stand from a height of six to eight metres, which creates a view on the city and the landscape that is alienated from eye level, abstracted, and in a certain sense cleared. And, secondly, they come—in the section "Professional Perspectives"—from experts in different disciplines who professionally deal with Urban Lakeside in the one or other way, and illustrate the points of view they have won in the process in a series of interviews; from employees of the development company, Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG, who explain their personal commitment in short texts; and—in the section "Perspectives on Site"—from individuals who work or live at Urban Lakeside and share their views in photo interviews. The portraits and pictures of places at Urban Lakeside created in the process have been taken by Luiza Puiu. The texts in this publication have been written by a large number of authors, they represent the pluralism of positions on aspern Urban Lakeside. To that effect, their linguistic idiosyncrasy has been preserved, as shown among other things by the fact that gender-related wordings have been used very differently. The publication is introduced and concluded with texts that are supposed to serve as a content bracket: The introductory text about the work of the aspern Advisory Board is to make clear in which context the positions of the members of the Advisory Board have been developed (further), and the final contribution,"Learning with Urban Lakeside" manifests the attempt of a first evaluation of the production of urbanity.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

ALL DESIGNATIONS RELATED TO PERSONS ARE GENDER-NEUTRAL OR HAVE TO BE UNDERSTOOD IN A GENDER-NEUTRAL WAY

CONTENTS

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 PERSPECTIVES ON SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . . 152 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD PROCESSUAL INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING ROBERT TEMEL In early 2015, the aspern Advisory Board finds itself at the end of its second period and can look back at one first realised section of Urban Lakeside which has been built with the help of its professional support. For this reason, the first four years of this advisory board’s work itself shall be thematised in the following.

NEW INSTRUMENTS It has already been discussed for a long time that the area zoning and development plan as employed in Vienna only allows for a very restricted spectrum of urban planning determinations. For this reason, forms of quality assurance going beyond this were discussed off and on in the past, and tested in the frame of pilot projects—for example, in the cooperative expert tender Aspern Airfield in the early 1990s, or with Cable Works Vienna only a few years later. At aspern Urban Lakeside, the concept of quality assurance in urban planning consists for the first time in Vienna of three elements that amend the area zoning and development plan: of the development company, Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG, which sells plots of land yet does not decide on the basis of purely economic criteria but also of criteria concerning urban planning, supports the development beyond the closing date of the sale, and employs a variety of different procedures of project selection and support; of

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

development guidelines for the individual plots of land; and of the quality assurance body called aspern Advisory Board. On the one hand, the concept of the aspern Advisory Board was guided by similar bodies in other European areas of urban development such as the "Quality Team" in Rotterdam’s city district of Kop van Zuid. On the other, it was guided by the principle of the architectural advisory board as it is common in Western Austria in many municipalities and cities—yet with the crucial difference that the aspern Advisory Board does not primarily deal with architectural design but with urban planning. According to this, the public space, the orientation of the buildings towards it, and the interaction between these two aspects are at the centre of attention. With this, the Advisory Board, which had its inaugural meeting in December 2010, continued, so to speak, the intensive debate around drafting the master plan tender procedure and developing the master plan of aspern Urban Lakeside in a broadly conceived and collaborative manner. To be sure, design is also a subject but not only; questions of usage, permeability, and operations as well. "The Advisory Board is concerned with: 1. aspects of urban planning (inclusion, free space, appearance, access to the public space, spatial & functional aspects etc), 2. contributions to the aspirations of Urban Lakeside (energy, climate protection, mobility, etc), and 3. processual aspects and aspects of implementation (financing, key figures, etc)." (Quoted from the minutes of the first meeting in 2011)

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

To that effect, the Advisory Board is not only concerned with architectural projects but a large part of the project discussions deals with designing the public space: parks, squares, streets. This is related to the fact that at aspern Urban Lakeside such great attention to the public space has been placed in an area of urban expansion like never before in Vienna. There have been smaller or larger calls for tenders for each and every park and square, and landscape architects have been specifically commissioned for the design of the primary streets. Thus the aspern Advisory Board is an advisory board for quality assurance in urban planning for aspern Urban Lakeside which previously did not exist in Austria in this form. Pursuant to its approach, the Advisory Board had to be assembled in an interdisciplinary manner. Members of the first period were Rudolf Scheuvens (urban planning/ public space), Ingrid Breckner (sociology), Andrea Cejka (landscape architecture), Mario Rehulka (commercial and international affairs), Alois Aigner (real estate industry), Peter Holzer (energy), Franz Kobermaier (architecture) and Johannes Tovatt (urban construction and architecture). After two years, half of the members left the board; the new members who replaced the four last-mentioned ones were Carl Fingerhuth (urban construction and architecture), Silja Tillner (architecture), and Bernd Vogl (energy).

SELF-CONCEPTION As this specific form of quality assurance was an innovation, it was about wording its own framework conditions when the Advisory Board set to work. What about the tasks, but above all too: What about the role and the approach of the aspern Advisory Board? The Advisory Board has been appointed by the Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG. It is responsible for the development of aspern Viennaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Lakeside and the central point of contact for potential project bidders. Wien 3420 does location marketing, acquires partners, and puts land to use. The aspern Advisory Board has the task to advise Wien 3420 and to give recommendations, whereby it decides independently from its commissioner. This perspective, which is separated from day-to-day business and is based on the fundamental concepts of the master plan as well as on the principles of the represented disciplines, was to strengthen the quality of urban planning in the development area, whereby legally binding provisions can only be established by the development company alone, based on recommendations made by the aspern Advisory Board. On the one hand, this non-binding nature entailed that the Advisory Board was not successful in all of its concerns Yet, on the other, it ensured at the same time that the discussions between project operators and the aspern Advisory Board were not so much of an evaluative nature but often turned into a joint search for possible improvements.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

The list of task of the Advisory Board is long—it has to: - review guidelines, - suggest competitive tendering procedures and help develop new ones, - coordinate tenders, - recommend participants for competitive tendering procedures - send jury members to competitive tendering procedures, - review projects - make recommendations for the allocation of real estate, - accompany the planning stage of projects and word requirements, - review measures of the mobility fund, - and advise the WIEN 3420 AG in questions of location development. This task list suggested by the commissioner was expanded by further items by the aspern Advisory Board itself in one of its first meetings: - working out models for monitoring and evaluation, - developing further the quality assurance procedure, - coordination with other boards - and a "report" to the public once a year. The results with regard to these tasks are heterogeneous. The main part of the Advisory Board’s work consisted of examining projects and discussing questions of urban planning that went beyond the project level, hence e.g. developing further the Master Plan North, or the one of the Lake Park Quarter, which had formerly been called Innovation Quarter. As there was a number of other quality assurance procedures in place at Urban Lakeside beside the Advisory Board, letting its members participate in these procedures, and thus (above all informal) coordinating between different bodies, was an important aspect of the Advisory Board’s work. Compared to this, subjects such as guidelines, drafting competitive tendering procedures, coordi-

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

nating tenders, and recommending participants for competitive tendering procedures rather receded into the background. From the self-selected tasks that the Advisory Board newly added, it has hardly been able to discharge the ones dealing with the subjects of "monitoring and evaluation", "developing further the quality assurance procedure", and "report to the public" so far. Although the emphasis of the aspern Advisory Board, similar to the one of architectural advisory boards, has been described as "project assessment and evaluation", its work does not only differ with regard to the subject—urban planning instead of architecture—but also with regard to the approach. While elaborated plans of architectural projects are usually presented to an architectural advisory board, which the respective body has to assess, the aspern Advisory Board is understood as a "co-developer", so to speak, with regard to urban planning, as a "sparring partner" as Chairman Rudolf Scheuvens once put it, i.e. as a critical helper and challenging supporter. This is why the aspern Advisory Board should also see the projects to be presented as early as possible, hence in the stage of the first design proposals and not in already elaborated form in order to be able to discuss important basic elements of the project as long as they can still be changed. This often led to misunderstandings on the part of guests of the Advisory Board who presented their projects because one is not used to this in this country, and in Vienna in particular, with its large number of advisory boards that always review extensively elaborated projects. Architects and project developers who present their projects to such a body in Vienna assume that they get a clear signal in the sense of "thumbs up" or "thumbs down", passed or failed, when they have finished the presentation. This has never been the case in the aspern Advisory Board but the Advisory Board wanted to discuss the elements of the project related to urban planning and make clear in the course of the discussion which of these elements could require further steps, and into which direction these should go.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

Accordingly, the procedure of project discussions in the Advisory Board was determined in 2011: Project documentation is available for the members of the Advisory Board in advance. During the meeting, there is an initial internal discussion of the Advisory Board with sales representatives of Wien 3420 AG, the "client managers", dealing with the subjects, questions, and specific conditions of the particular project. Then the project bidders come along, make a very short presentation of their project, and discuss questions on the part of the Advisory Board. Finally, after the project bidders have left the meeting, another internal discussion on how to formulate the recommendations on the project that the aspern Advisory Board has for Wien 3420 AG.

STRATEGY This self-conception of a "sparring partner" is also a reason why the Advisory Board often dealt with the level above the individual project, with the urban area and master plan level, in order to influence the framework conditions for the individual projects at an early stage. Thus the aspern Advisory Board did not simply assume the role of mediating between the master plan, hence the urban planning framework, and the individual projects, hence the elements supposed to follow and fill this framework but considered it its task to participate in developing this framework further. It did not question the master plan but critically discussed it, developed it further. Off and on, there have also been attempts by the aspern Advisory Board to become active on the strategic level, for example, by wording a position paper on environmental sustainability, by discussing a communication strategy for the Master Plan North, by organising a workshop on the subject of typologies of residential buildings and by suggesting discussion topics such as "Sustainability in the Open Space" or "Knowledge and the City". But due to this mode of operation of the Advisory Board

and the relatively infrequent meeting dates, this field of activity has not produced comprehensive effects so far. Energy, for example, has been a strategic subject in the Advisory Board: The energy concept for Urban Lakeside was already discussed and approved in the first meetings, yet the Advisory Board also made proposals to think one step ahead, for instance by means of introducing incentive systems, and extending the latter with monitoring. For example, the contributions of all projects, which are realised by and by, should be regularly compared with a defined roadmap; overall, this would bring forth some kind of tracking of the achievement of objectives, some kind of countdown. Yet this proved to be too complex, and over the top in the face of the geothermal energy project in EĂ&#x;ling. For this reason, the Advisory Board focused in the discussion of the subject of energy on evaluating the qualities of the presented projects concerning this matter. As illustrated by the subject of energy, the strategic self-conception, which is absolutely in line with the mission set out by Wien 3420 AG, clearly goes beyond questions only concerning urban planning. For example, the question of ground floor usage is at stake, especially in the shopping street, mobility, or the subject of the Smart City, which is represented at aspern Urban Lakeside by the research company ASCR (Aspern Smart City Research) among others. In this context, the temporal dimension of urban development was an essential subject for the Advisory Board. Practicians in urban planning and construction largely still think in urban final conditions even today, the interim phases along the way are rather necessary evil than potential. This applies for Urban Lakeside only to a limited extent but it does. Yet the development company at least focused on the subject of temporary usage right from the beginning, and was pretty successful with this, above all in the light of its peripheral location in the city then.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

In this context, the aspern Advisory Board for example dealt with the question how arrivals by metro would go off after it was put into operation in 2013; which situation the for the time being undeveloped centre, the future Lake Park Quarter, would offer after the opening of the first residential buildings; which information and communication offers would be important for the first residents of Urban Lakeside; and how a proper impression of the future of Urban Lakeside—the north—could be offered already when the southern part is finished. A concern that was sometimes expressed—that the large number of projects to be discussed could compromise the examination of the strategic level in the Advisory Board—has not proved to be justified so far. Anyway, what is more difficult than strategic discussion within the Advisory Board is to provide sufficient resources to the development company in order to further elaborate the strategic approaches discussed and make them operationally utilisable in the frame of the about four to five meetings per year. With regard to design too, the Advisory Board tries to take up a primarily strategic position. It leads itself back into a strategic position in its discussions time and again and tries to avoid statements about individual design questions. In the discussions on the occasion of project presentations, about issues of the public space for example, the Advisory Board does not want to deal with the design decisions themselves but rather with their strategic fundaments and to relate strategic concepts to the actual individual projects, which is difficult in practice but works out in the best moments of the discussions. A parallel to this difficulty is the discrepancy between the strategic level of the "Score of the Public Space" by Gehl Architects and the necessity to arrive at concrete design decisions from this level. This problem prompted the aspern Advisory Board to sucessfully demand an own internal expert for landscape architecture in order to be able to strategically

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

cover this planning area between the necessarily infrequent meetings of the Advisory Board too. The necessity for this showed itself at the moment at the latest when it became obvious while conflating housing and street planning at Urban Lakeside South that a large part of the planned trees lining the avenues would have to be omitted due to access requirements on the part of the fire department. Eventually, the planning solution for this problem, which was provided by Wien 3420 AG themselves, saved the intended planting of trees. Due to this discrepancy between strategic level and project level in the open space, Wien 3420 AG also changed its procedure for the Master Plan North and commissioned planners to work out intermediate stages between “the score” and individual plans, which e.g. dealt with street cross-sections and planting concepts.

DIALOGUE Thus the Advisory Board considers itself very conversational. This conversation takes place in the frame of discussions of projects in meetings of the Advisory Board as well as in other bodies and competition juries whenever members of the Advisory Board are delegated there. Opportunities of conversation going beyond this are rarer and more difficult to perceive. What proved favourable for communication was that the City of Vienna appointed a project manager, Christine Spiess, for aspern Urban Lakeside in 2011, who has attended the meetings of the Advisory Board since then. In its agenda, the Advisory Board set itself the target of reporting to the public on an annual basis. At the initial stage of its work, in October 2011, it organised a public event at the Architekturzentrum Wien. Now, more than three years later, the next step of the Advisory Board, which addresses the general public, is the book at hand about its activities

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

so far. Even partly public meetings of the aspern Advisory Board were a subject of discussion. Time and again, above all when the the previous work was reflected after the first period of the Advisory Board, the necessity of exchange with other bodies, the administration, and the professional public was discussed. What was probably of particular importance for the aspern Advisory Board, was the communication with the professional public, as Johannes Tovattâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s master plan got mixed reviews from the latter. Broad circles within this professional public adopted a rather negative attitude towards Urban Lakeside. This eased somewhat as the aspern Advisory Board did its job, first projects were made known, and a large number of architects and landscape architects participated in the realisation of buildings at Urban Lakeside. For this reason, the innovations at Urban Lakeside were perceived to a lesser degree than the aspects that continued the previous practice of Viennaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban development. As a lot was done differently at aspern Urban Lakeside compared to similar previous projects there would be particular need for communication with the decision-makers in the city administration and in politics. In this respect, rounds of exchange, which are not project-oriented but could become more fundamental, were often suggested in the Advisory Board too. But in practice, there was nothing but event-related und personal communication. Another essential field of dialogue is the one of quality assurance bodies: The aspern Advisory Board primarily deals with the projects that have not already been covered by other bodies. These are the property developerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competition jury, the advisory board of the housing initiative, the Advisory Board, or a competition jury. The Advisory Board often delegates individual representatives to these bodies, and there are in part overlaps in personnel anyway. But the exchange realised through this remained

rather piecemeal and event-related. In this respect, it is problematic that the aspern Advisory Board has worked out a certain position and set certain goals for several years. This similarly goes for some of the other bodies. What does not exist though, is coordination between these different positions and objectives. One example: In the case of the two construction sites for schools in the south of Uraban Lakeside, the aspern Advisory Board initially aimed for a two-stage and dialogue-oriented competition for both locations. When it became clear that this was impossible due to lack of time, master planner Johannes Tovatt was to create a preliminary urban design study for both locations instead, on which two separate competitions for the two educational buildings should then be based. The study was created but the juries of the competitions did not make them available to the participants because it was considered to be too restrictive. Thus, two different school centres next to each other have been built now instead of the planned joint educational centre in which the federal and federal state schools involved co-operate. Another area of dialogue is also discussed off and on in the Advisory board: The realisation of the high aspirations with regard to urban planning at aspern Urban Lakeside requires the developers as cooperation partners. For this reason, the communication with them related to urban plannning should not only be conducted via the discussion of projects in the Advisory Board and development guidelines alone. A "production manual" has been suggested for this in the Advisory Board, a little guideline for the way things are supposed to be produced at Urban Lakeside, which contributions to this are expected by the developers, and which procedures are employed for this. Hence, on the one hand, we were looking for new, binding, and virtually technocratic instruments apart from zoning (the development guidelines) by means of which both project partners and developers were obliged to pursue a common goal.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

Yet, on the other, the aspern Advisory Board saw this primarily as a communication and persuasion task which thus (also) required completely different, i.e. "soft" inspiring instruments, and would have to draw nearer to the messages of the branding process of aspern Urban Lakeside more decidedly. The Advisory Board has without doubt stood the test as a quality assurance instrument. As it turned out soon, the effect of the development guidelines can even be improved more by also communicating their content in hearings and personal briefings.

IDENTITY AND LEARNING PROCESS While the particularities of aspern Urban Lakeside had still only been claims at the initial stage of the Advisory Board’s activities, solely documented by the intentions of the master plan and those who believed in its qualities and wanted to realise it, a conversation about what actually makes the things realised distinctive was started with the first steps of realisation in 2013. High-quality and affordable housing, which is traditionally typical for Vienna, has also characterised Urban Lakeside to a large extent so far. What’s more, the location is considered as very periphal by many Viennese. But it has the advantage of proximity to generous green and aquatic spaces whose "representative" in the new urban area is the newly created lake. The peripheral situation is above all compensated by the excellent metro

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

connection. In addition to this, there is a large number of planning aspects that are new in Vienna and thus are specific too; for example, the focus on public spaces, on the ground floor zone, and on innovative mobility. But what would particularities of this urban area be that go beyond this? Which specific features could be encouraged and supported instead of only waiting for the overall picture that will emerge from the multitude of individual projects? For example, connections between usages that are otherwise seen as separate in present-day urban planning have been suggested as an interesting topic in the aspern Advisory Board. aspern Urban Lakeside has been specifically designed to offer housing and working places to about the same number of people from the beginning; this is also expressed in its corporate identity under "work-life balance". For this reason, the connection of these fields in new concepts of living and working could be such a topic, which would also fit together with the focus on the ground floor zone. Moreover, the aspern projects related to the design of open space, which in part emphasised civic participation, the area management, and the construction fields of the building communities could suggest a pioneering role in participatory projects and participatory housing, which would be linked with the name of aspern Urban Lakeside beyond the individual projects. What’s more, members of the Advisory Board called for water as a design subject in the open space and in the architecture time and again—a subject that the majority of the project operators considered covered with the lake.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE WORK OF THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD

The master planning of the north of aspern was a subject that the aspern Advisory Board continuously supervised right from the start. For this reason, the question was raised in the related discussions very soon which things we could learn for the north from the current development in the southern part. The question of small-scale structures, which has already been formulated as an objective for the south of Urban Lakeside but, from the point of view of the aspern Advisory Board has only occasionally been realised to a satisfactory extent, e.g. within the building communities. Therefore, we discussed how we could become more successful in this respect in the future stages of realisation. For example, "process-oriented" zones, hence areas for which only broad development regulations are specified, which would then have to be stated more precisely in a cooperative planning process, would be beneficial for small-scale structures. Yet it was also considered necessary to parcel out the land appropriately small-scale, which entails in its turn that appropriate new procedures have to be employed in the areas treated this way, which are suitable for the diverse players who can develop small plots with the appropriate features. In this discussion, the hope for diversity is also always linked to the notion of small-scale structures—diversity of usages, of typologies, of models, and of players. In this context, there is also the insight that with regard to urban planning—despite the cooperative approaches to planning, which were tested in the southern part—there is still much developmental potential for the coordination of the invidual projects. Overall, the discussions

thus revealed that the question of tendering and planning processes will not be the only one but still a key issue for improving the quality of urban planning. The discussion of "learning from" very soon touched upon the question in which ways one could, firstly, learn together with other players, and secondly, make the things learned accessible for a wider audience. And thus we returned to the subject of dialogue. Hence, procedural matters turned out to be an important success criterion for both the work of the Advisory Board itself and urban and building planning, which had been a subject of the previous work. There, where neither the aspern Advisory Board nor Wien 3420 AG had the possibility to change processes or implement them anew positive results were sparser or failed to appear at all. This goes for example for the lack of a joint definition of objectives expressed by the different bodies that have been in place at aspern Urban Lakeside. As such a broad consensus about the objectives was not there in this stage, as opposed to the development processes of the master plan prior to this, it was harder to coordinate these activities even despite personnel overlaps between these bodies. SINCE HE STARTED TO WORK FOR THE ADVISORY BOARD IN 2011, THE AUTHOR HAS KEPT THE MINUTES FOR THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

The aspern Advisory Board about Urban Lakeside

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

ON THE DESIGN OF URBAN PROCESSES OF SUCCESSION RUDOLF SCHEUVENS The European city has been a site of permanent transformation through the ages. It has always mirrored the social conditions within society and expressed cultural identity. And ultimately, the appearance of the European city is always also the "product of planning", as expressed by Walter Siebel.

THE CITY AS A DYNAMIC PROCESS Currently, cities are confronted with challenges in economic, social, and ecological fields which require specific action, new mission statements and strategies, and new partnerships. The discourse around questions of the future of the city and urban life is focusing more and more on the mission statement of the smart, intelligent, future-oriented, and opportunity-oriented city. The city is understood as a dynamic process in which the most different values and objectives, planned and unplanned things, spontaneous and designed things, regulated and self-organised things, are not considered as avoidable opposites but as mutually enriching parts of an urban system. Concomitant with this, planning itself is changing. The traditional set of tools of master plans and formalised development processes is extended by tactics and strategies. Not only plans dealing with physical changes in space are in demand but also ideas for addressing questions such as how processes can be designed, (future) residents can be encouraged to participate and contribute, and cultural processes can be initiated and supervised. The design and organisation of creative processes of planning, participation, and implementation became integral elements of urban development a long time ago.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

THE CREATIVE DESIGN OF AN URBAN PROCESS OF SUCCESSION Thus the development of Urban Lakeside, or in other words, the becoming of a new urban area, is driven by the integrated interplay of planning and processual structures which clearly stand out from the usual standards and entrenched routines in their manifestation. Beyond creating living space, Urban Lakeside is about encouraging a diversity of usages, locations and spatial atmospheres, of meeting and recreation spacesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in all, of building an area with urban qualities. Thereby, encouraging alternative forms and offers of mobility becomes the focus of attention as well as opening up creative possibilites of co-designing to the new residents in the frame of the urban process of succession.

AN INTEGRATIVE INTERPLAY OF PLAN AND PROCESSUAL QUALITIES Concomitant with this, the meaning of plans and both the role and the self-conception of the planner are subjected to change. Urban Lakeside is simply no product that can be planned, designed, and ultimately implemented, realised in line with these images. However: Open processes relying on participation and shared responsibility would come to nothing without a solid planning fundament. Johannes Tovattâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s master plan is understood as such a basis. The urban planning concept, which is guided by tried and tested patterns of the European city, gives the urban area a specific quality and is likewise sufficiently open and flexible enough in order to be able to respond to different specific requirements. Thereby, the public spaces become the constitutive basic framework of the new urban area and define its spatial structure. The construction fields are structured in a way that they can be developed with a certain degree of flexibility following simple principles of urban planning. A balanced system of instruments ensures architectural minimum quality of the buildings and the public spaces, and at the same time it allows for leeway for special manifestations and interpretations.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

URBAN LAKESIDE AS A LABORATORY OF URBAN AREA DEVELOPMENT Its laboratory feel is characteristic for Urban Lakeside. Processes and instruments are tested here which can definitely serve as models for other projects too. First and foremost, those have to be highlighted that bring social matters, economic framework conditions, ecological necessities, and technological innovations into a new context. This goes for the mobility concept at aspern Urban Lakeside as well as for the development of new collective forms of living, or the management of the ground floor and pedestal zones related to the location of trade and commerce usages. The building communities, which have become true pioneers in the early stages of the development of Urban Lakeside—on the basis of their commitment and their responsibility—definitely also deserve special mention here. More of this!

COURAGE TOWARDS THE CITY REQUIRES COURAGE TOWARDS OPEN PROCESSES

quality and processual innovation in an exciting way. The development of aspern Urban Lakeside shines a light on such ways and structures, which can be promising and exemplary. Yet, we still have a tedious task ahead at Urban Lakeside too. A more fine-grained mix of the most different forms of working and living, creating and establishing (socio-)cultural institutions and offers, and systematically supporting hybrid structures which are open for any kind of use are only three aspects that must gain in importance here. Hence: Don’t let us be content with what actually is but let us see the future development of Urban Lakeside as a permanent challenge in search of specific contributions and approaches to the development of urban qualities. Without being ready to explore new avenues thereby, this won’t work. Developing a new urban area requires openness and a certain productive unpredictability. In the sense of "courage towards the city": Let us be courageous, and let us open up space for creative approaches, processes, and projects to Urban Lakeside.

The development of aspern Urban Lakeside documents clear commitment to the urban, and to urban qualities in the growing city. The new urban development plan STEP 2025 claims the "courage towards the city". In terms of developing new urban areas, this requires readiness to tread unconventional paths which interrelate planning

RUDOLF SCHEUVENS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR FOR REGIONAL SPATIAL PLANNING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AT THE VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. HE STUDIED SPATIAL PLANNING IN DORTMUND. HE RUNS THE FIRM SCHEUVENS + WACHTEN TOGETHER WITH KUNIBERT WACHTEN, WHICH MAINLY DEALS WITH QUESTIONS OF URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS WELL AS THE MANAGEMENT AND MODERATION OF COMPLEX PROCESSES IN URBAN PLANNING.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

URBAN LAKESIDE TOPICS... JOHANNES TOVATT Both the size and the location of Urban Lakeside are one-of-a-kind. These two factors have been the fundamental challenges in the conception of urban planning and in the definition of the implementation strategies. In my opinion, size and location will remain communicating vessels, so to speak, in the discussion, evaluation, and decision-making during the entire realisation period of this new city. I realised that Urban Lakeside must legitimate itself as a vital part of the city but at the same time also as a city district on the periphery with its extensive suburban spaces. For this reason, Urban Lakeside should create an unambiguous feeling of identity. Likewise, it should have the comprehensive potential of stimulating life and inspiration within the visual and social boundaries which separate it from the centre of Vienna. One could see this approach as based on fear—that urban identity is some kind of lifeline, an absolutely necessary springboard without which this new development would not be able to survive. Not matter if this is right or wrong, structural identity has become a necessity for me which I advocate as right, and it has become a key subject in the balancing act between the specific and the general. Therefore, the urban planning concept for Urban Lakeside had its origin in the idea of the whole. What I mean with the "whole" is in part defined by the dimensions, in part by the location. Already when the project was launched in 2005, it was clear for me that Urban Lakeside cannot be planned as a patchwork of small units or settlements. Restrictions such as the protected corridors of natural areas in the east and in the west, the regional communication corridor in the north and the Opel factory in the south on the one hand required very precise links to the surrounding area and, on the other, a solid identity of Urban Lakeside. A fragmentary approach to this huge area would be too risky and

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

would shift the focus away from the actual issues of urban quality. All structural urban elements—such as the radial network of streets, the lake, and the ring road—could be seen as the direct consequence of this conviction. These elements combine things, bring them together, arrange them, and thus support the whole, in the frame of which individual contributions can easily and freely unfold. I have never seen these fundamental urban elements as something that should restrict the growth and the development of Urban Lakeside. I saw them rather as the prototypical theme of a Bach fugue which the other voices can relate to and lean on. I think the first realisation step of Urban Lakeside shows the effects of this conviction. Individual blocks, multifaceted architecture and unpredictable interpretations of the public space have created a diverse urban structure that will hopefully pass the test of time. Simply put, the urban space of Urban Lakeside consists of two opposites: grand gestures combined with unexpected spatial surprises. These two opposites create the framework for the freedom of the individual players, and the platform for planning, organisation, and networking. The grand gestures can be seen in the fundamental structure, in the lake, in the Sonnenallee, and in the interconnecting green open spaces. The spatial surprises—places where one can lose oneself—can be found in the elements that are becoming partly visible in the first stage now: secondary streets developing into meandering paths and open spaces; urban blocks turning their inside out; welcoming buildings that are at the same time emphasising their content and their meaning; parks creating shortcuts; and still undeveloped plots of land that remain open for the yet unknown elements of future requirements. The rigidity which could be seen in the master plan of 2007 is disappearing into a built city now that celebrates urban diversity—on the one hand with regard to demarcations (a street is a street) and, on the other in a modern way, in its transparency and its content.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

The lake is of course one of the great assets of Urban Lakeside. The entire structure of Urban Lakeside has its starting point in the lake and the Lake Park. The lake is visible from great distances; it collects lines of view, it gives meaning, and celebrates the intangible essence of human life. I think it is fundamentally important that the centre of Urban Lakeside symbolises the public space, equality, and openness. A built expression of political, financial, or religious power would be an opposite to this in this placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a strategy that has been employed for many centuries. In my view, the need for diverse, democratic, and high-quality space will even increase in the near future, not least because the public space is being more and more commercialised. In other words: The Lake Park represents a melting pot for both a very fundamentally human element and nature; therefor, it does not require any consumer offerings. When the sections in the north of Urban Lakeside are completed, the Lake Park will offer a rich sequence of public spaces and interlink the north and the south, the east and the west. Now we are privileged to be allowed to examine the northern areas of Urban Lakeside, and it becomes clearer and clearer what the lake and the Lake Park will achieve soon. Considering that new financial regulations have taken effect within the housing market, one can describe the architectural quality at Urban Lakeside only as high. I think housing is not the ultimate aspect of architecture. Many successful urban developments in Europe over the past 150 years have been conceived with financial restrictions and limited resources. Despite the restrictions and the new regulations for public subsidies in housing, the ground floor zone and the investment into the public space were successfully realised as planned. This means that subjects of quality such as adaptability, transformability, and flexibility have had a fair chance. The expression of an individual building is subordinate in a large area of urban development such as Urban Lakeside.

The aspern Advisory Board has been in place for four years, and I had the honour of being its member over the first period. The experience with the Advisory Board consisted of moments of enlightenment; the power of intellectual and verbal discourse revealed itself in the fields of landscape architecture, public space and architectural expression. In my view, the discussions have always kept an eye on the pragmatism that must always be connected to developments such as Urban Lakeside. As a counterpoise to financial and technical conditions, the aspern Advisory Board has always been a conversation partner that reflects things, evaluates them, and represents openness. Every project that transforms publicly owned land into something private, no matter if with residential or public usages, is obliged to cultivate such an openness. It is simple just to listen to the individual developers, the frameworks of the infrastructure, or the inevitable requirements of short-term return. The aspern Advisory Board has presented itself as an advocate of long-ranging human values in the most comprehensive sense. For this reason, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see any replacement for the Advisory Board in the near future. It may change its name, its organisation, or its members but it will always pay attention to what is really important, and it will remain the guardian and the voice of second thoughts.

JOHANNES TOVATT HEAD OF TOVATT ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS, STOCKHOLM, A FIRM THAT REALIZES ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING PROJECTS ALL OVER EUROPE. HE HAD JOINTLY RUN THE FIRM WITH WHICH HE WON THE URBAN PLANNING COMPETITION FOR ASPERN TOGETHER WITH RALPH ERSKINE UNTIL THE LATTER DECEASED IN 2005.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

THE SPECIFIC TASK OF AN ADVISORY BOARD FOR ASPERN URBAN LAKESIDE CARL FINGERHUTH The aspern Advisory Board is probably unique. Beyond the traditional task of a architectural advisory board, i.e. assessing elaborated architectural projects, it is also supposed to be useful regarding tasks of urban construction and urban planning. It criticises the banality of a business project and tries to propose ideas to the building contractor regarding the way his building could display more of the identity of his business. But as it also deals with subjects of urban planning such as the conception of the south side of the Lake Park, it is involved in the discussion of how to transform the vision for the identity of Urban Lakeside as a whole. But the traditional role of consulting in construction projects also involves a very specific positive aspect. As the development company of aspern Urban Lakeside does not only plan and project things but is also responsible for location development, it is in the most cases familiar with the building attentions of contractors before a validated project is developed. Thus the aspern Advisory Board can often conduct a creative conversation with building contractors and investors at a very early stageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;before the definitive project is elaborated. The traditional urban development of modernity suffers from a congenital defect. Obsessively dealing in depth with the rational, technical, and scientific aspects of the city, one believed to be able to handle the city with top-down processesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from urban planning to area development planning to

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

the building object. In the course of this, many essential, identity-establishing sensual and emotional markings were lost. Architectural advisory boards may only rarely deal with tasks of urban planning; and this is not the case because they are not asked to but because the urban planning concepts necessary for this do not exist. With the renaissance of interest in the public space and a re-emerging awareness of the atmosphere and identity of a city, people remember this task again in many places. Urban planning is the "missing link" for successful supervision of the transformation of the city. To close this gap between spatial/urban planning and architecture has also become so important because the planners have escaped the holonic structure of cities in the solitude of architectural projects. What I mean with this is the autonomy that spatial planning and architecture each claim for themselves and celebrate. This more and more manifest claim for autonomy has massively stepped up in architecture in recent years and is increasingly being abused by the construction industry. The ruins that have fallen from the sky, the monsters that have been randomly built into the cities somewhere, are becoming higher and higher and more and more aggressive. It becomes more and more apparent that the identity of a city is marked by the interplay of architecture, urban planning and spatial planning, of volumes and spaces, of buildings and streets, and of functions and design quality. These are no isolated disciplines and elements but they manifest themselves as a whole. The word for this is "holon", which was coined by Arthur Koestler, and comes from contemporary physics. The term derives from the Greek word "holos", which means "whole being". A system, like the city, is a holon because as a whole it is more than the sum of its parts, or as a whole a part of another larger whole.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

Among themselves, the individual elements form a rhizome, an invisible network that interconnects all parts but also establishes the connection to the deeper and to the higher level. Probably, Johannes Tovatt won the competition tendered in 2005 with his master plan because he did not restrict himself to a basic pattern of urban planning but told of his spatial vision with very detailed images in his contribution, and thus interlinked urban planning and architecture. But then this also highly urban planning-related attitude of his contribution also becomes the great challenge for the work of the aspern Advisory Board. It is not about assessing individual projects anymore but about supporting an extremely complex process for the supervision of which the development company has to make important decisions every day. As the aspern Advisory Board only comes together every few months, it is often too early to be of use, and then it is also often too late to be able to contribute something.

What is also specific for the work of the aspern Advisory Board is the strong political focus of the overall project on subsidised housing. All responsible authorities have set up very restrictive provisions for the permissible construction costs in the frame of which subsidies can be granted. What is crucial for the realisation of the project is examining if these provisions are met. For this, a different and superordinate authority is responsible. Then the aspern Advisory Board can only give cosmetical advice and regret the narrow leeway of the housing projects. At any rate, the aspern Advisory Board is a one-ofa-kind institution. To my knowledge, there is no such institution with these aspirations elsewhere. It is able to work on a level of building culture that has been buried by the economy of the construction industry in most European cities.

CARL FINGERHUTH DEALS WITH THE CITY: AT FIRST, AS ARCHAEOLOGIST IN EGYPT, THEN WITH HIS OWN URBAN AND SPATIAL PLANNING OFFICE IN ZURICH. UNTIL 1992, HE WAS THE CANTONAL MASTER BUILDER OF BASEL. SINCE THEN, HE HAS BEEN SELF-EMPLOYED AGAIN. HE WAS CHAIRMAN OF THE JURY FOR THE URBAN PLANNING COMPETITION FOR ASPERN IN 2005.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

SELECTION + TRANSFORMATION OF THE MASTER PLAN CARL FINGERHUTH The two-stage tendering procedure for the Master Plan Aspern Airfield was published in the autumn of 2004; one year later, the submissions of the ten selected bidders were assessed. The proposal for solution was weighted with 70 percent of the points, the remuneration offer with 30 percent. The concept by Erskine Tovatt scored the most points for the proposal for solution, and when the points for the remuneration offer were added, this firm still remained on top. The three top-ranked bidders were invited to negotiations, and the firm Erskine Tovatt was subsequently commissioned to elaborate the master plan. As opposed to most of the other proposals, this project was not only a structure plan but also an urban planning concept that illustrated the spatial intentions with images about the identity of the significant places. The approval of the way this proposal showed an interest in atmospherical aspects was then aggressively criticised in professional circles. The jury’s decision was said to be defined by safety instead of utopia; it was said to be self-referential and did not explode into the world. Actually, one would only need a planning score. (Christian Kühn, "Kein Funken, keine Chance", Die Presse—Spectrum, 11 March 2006)

projects. There is "no tradition of urban planning [...] that has gone beyond the Gründerzeit", the Austrian architect and urban planner Rüdiger Lainer attested in the frame of a discussion about the future of Vienna in 2013. However, Johannes Tovatt’s master plan develops a vision of urban planning which corresponds to what features on the first page of the booklet about the results of the Master Plan Aspern Airfield quoting the Viennese urban planner Wilhelm Kainrath: "A utopia is only fun if it is possible, if it remains polemically connected to reality. Things that are too far away overexert the eyes. Long-sighted people miss the details; there is not only the devil inside them but also the utopia." It is a convincing attempt to find the "missing link", the lost connection between urban planning and architectural project, with this urban planning concept. The urban planning concept is no architectural preliminary project but it corresponds to what syntax is in language, the correct way of arranging words to form sentences. The shape of the city and language share the same rules. The individual words have relatively great freedom.

The content of the concept was new. Modernity tried to develop the shape of the city by means of functional determinations from the toolbox of spatial planning and by means of architectural Ill. 2: “Images say more”, the northwestern edge of the lake of Urban Lakeside

Ill. 1: Sketch of the Master Plan, autumn 2005

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

A hamburger has become something edible. What is called Danish pastry in the United States is referred to as “Wienerbrød" (Viennese Bread) in Copenhagen. The syntax of language is a fundamentally different matter. We must be very careful with it, otherwise we don’t understand each other anymore: "Liebe ich Dich?", "Dich liebe ich!" or "Ich liebe Dich!" (“Do I love you?”, "It’s you that I love!", "I love you") are radically different statements in German. The same goes for the city. We need urban planning in order to make sure that the buildings are properly aligned and can tell the story of the place. The tradition of the way we deal with the city in modernity is marked by the destructive overvaluation of the specific and individual—the form of the architectural projects—and reckless neglect of the general and collective: the syntax

of the city, or simply urban planning. With the concepts of urban planning, we can ensure every place an identity and create good preconditions for spatial quality. This is what Johannes Tovatt’s concept promised—and it seems to be successful! No essential element of the master plan of 2006 has been fundamentally questioned so far.

Ill. 3: The urban space of superordinate importance in dark red, as of 2007

Ill. 4: Planning status of the Master Plan 2015

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

Yet, in-depth elaboration and detailing of the master plan with regard to urban planning remains of course an indispensable task. This is one of the central and permanent tasks of a development company. And the aspern Advisory Board can contribute to this now and then. The discussion of the identity of the area on the south side of the lake has been exemplary for this. The perhaps most important plan of the urban planning concept is the plan of

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

A second subject that the aspern Advisory Board deals with on the level of urban planning off and on is the search for appropriate density and the suitable typology for the development of the residential construction fields. As a basic order, the master plan assumed block perimeter development. The high density is a handicap for desirable alternatives that is hard to handle. The concept for construction field D8 illustrates these difficulties. The wish for detached building structures led to problematic conditions with regard to sunlight and closeness to the neighbours above all on the lower floors. Yet, the aspern Advisory Board’s possibilities of intervention were limited here.

the public space. On the outside of the new urban space, it shows, in bright yellow, the elements of the green belt of Vienna; then in particular, in dark red, the urban space of superordinate importance; the landmark buildings with purple dots, the important perspectivic relationships and the hard character of the shoreline in the northeast and the northwest, and the near-natural littoral zone in the south. When it was clear that the realisation of a universitary "Science Quarter", which had still been intended in the master plan of 2008, could not be implemented, one looked for functional answers regarding urban planning for a mixed-use urban quarter in a separate tendering procedure. Thus a review of the master plan was pending. The authors of the urban planning concept that was recommended for further elaboration now proposed—as opposed to the concept of the master plan—not to remain open towards the park but to build a hard closed edge, and let this be overtowered by high-rise buildings.

The aspern Advisory Board’s mission is to propagate the aspern Urban Lakeside philosophy, to understand each project as a jigsaw piece that helps to reach a greater whole and to take quality assurance seriously in this sense, to facilitate networking and cross-connections of different thematic fields and skills, to motivate and express praise, and, from time to time, if necessary, not to shy away from constructive criticism. This is a fascinating task for a one-of-a-kind project!

(Nachbar)

~30m

42m

54m

66m

100m

The aspern Advisory Board made a case for the solution that this quarter should open up towards the park and not build up a hard edge south of it too. In this sense, the original conception of the master plan for landmark buildings should be maintained. It suggested that the metro station should only be marked with two high-rise buildings in the south.

RÜDIGER

Ill. 5: View from the north on the Lake Park Quarter, as of 2013

RÜDIGER

ARCHITEKTEN ZT GMBH T +43 1 522 39 22-0 F +43 1 522 39 22-43 Bellariastraße 12/2 1010 Wien E architect@lainer.at H www.lainer.at Austria Dieses Dokument ist urheberrechtlich geschützt.

iQS_innovationsquartier Seestadt

Seite 16

Teil 01 Herleitung städtebauliches Konzept

Perspektive See Stand: 28.06.2013

ARCHITEKTEN ZT GMBH T +43 1 522 39 22-0 F +43 1 522 39 22-43 Bellariastraße 12/2 1010 Wien E architect@lainer.at H www.lainer.at Austria Dieses Dokument ist urheberrechtlich geschützt.

iQS_innovationsquartier Seestadt Seite 30

Teil 02 Bebauungsszenario Blockvielfalt

Blick von Norden Perspektive

Ill. 6: Revised conception for the district south of the lake according to the Advisory Board’s suggestions.

Stand: 06.09.2013

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE MASTER PLAN After a first attempt of development in 1992, which was cancelled soon, the project of the area of urban development aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside (originally Aspern Airfield) was launched again with the urban planning competition in 2005. This time, a larger area than in the 1990s was subject to negotiation, which was almost in its entirety in the ownership of the City of Vienna and the federal government. Johannes Tovatt’s project won the competition, not least because it featured both inner coherence and "inviting gestures" with regard to the surrounding area. Eventually, Tovatt was commissioned to develop a master plan in cooperation with the authorities of the City of Vienna concerned on the basis of the winning plan, which was resolved by the Vienna City Council in 2007. This master plan specified public spaces and the distribution of land uses in the area, defined key areas more closely, elaborated the transport system, and defined functional and creative quality criteria for the future development.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE LAKE PARK QUARTER The planning of first buildings has just started in the middle of the southern development area of aspern Urban Lakeside, between the ring road and the lake, and between the metro station and the residential quarter. As the Vienna University of Technology had turned down the offer to relocate, the master plan had to be revised in this area. For this reason, Wien 3420 AG organised a tendering procedure including a brainstorming with regard to urban planning in 2011 in the course of which an urban planning project submitted by RĂźdiger Lainer was eventually selected. After many editing steps on the part of the planners in coordination with Wien 3420 AG, the aspern Advisory Board, and the Municipal Department for Urban Development and Planning, the development plan was resolved in the Vienna City Council on 29 January 2015. In contrast to the commercial and residential areas in the south of aspern Urban Lakeside, the quarter is to feature more mixed usages, among these private housing, offices and laboratories as well as small businesses. Wien 3420 AG decided not to let one single investor develop the district but to control the use on its own by selling plots of land to different development partners with interesting realisation concepts.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

HOW IS SOCIAL QUALITY OF LIFE CREATED ON THE PERIPHERY? INGRID BRECKNER aspern Urban Lakeside is located on the northeastern periphery of Vienna, on a former airfield next to a factory of Opel Vienna. Large parts of Vienna’s population have hardly perceived this place as a part of their city. Urban peripheries are often confronted with negative associations. The larger the city is, the more they are mentally and spatially distanced from the vibrant life of the respective preferential city districts. Spatial distances can be overcome with appropriate means of transport. This is what Vienna’s Urban Lakeside achieved with its early metro connection. It transported curious people to the unknown place already before the first flats and working places were completed:

• architects who are interested in construction tasks there; • notorious critics who wanted to make sure that one definitely cannot live there; • artists who were attracted by the space between Vienna and Bratislava, or between suburban periphery and a big city coming into being; • students who watched out for new tasks; • neighbours who hoped for stimuli to development brought about by the new urban area or were worried about metropolitan harassing fire; • politicians and journalists who wanted to see in what way so much commitment for a new urban area on a surface of 240 hectares for about 20,000 people who live there and 20,000 people who work there is profitable; • and not least, courageous experts and investors who trusted in the idea that the growing city of Vienna can also be expanded on the periphery if everything is carefully and responsibly planned.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

But the temporary presence of interested visitors and city makers alone does not create social quality of life yet for such a large place of residence and work. In fact, public decision-making authority through land ownership as well as the ability to imagine a complex urban living space and appropriate smart planning, marketing, and management are in demand. The fact that the development company in charge sells the land in public ownership whilst also taking into account the possible social quality of life in the future urban area and lets these decisions be examined by an advisory board that is assembled in an interdisciplinary manner in the run-up, is an essential precondition for the objective that this and other quality standards do not get out of sight in the complex and long-term development process. Yet social quality of life manifests in realised projects. The development status in early 2015 shows that the mission of a complex and dense city with diverse social groups and functions, which was formulated in the master plan for

aspern Urban Lakeside, has a good chance of being fulfilled here at the periphery too: Differentiated living environments in the popular subsidised housing sector, and in self-organised and private housing, are being created. At the same time, large and innovative companies from Vienna and from out of the city are preparing their relocation to Urban Lakeside. They also offer jobs for the new residential population and thus make short distances between the home and the workplace possible. This convenience is even upgraded by a sustainable mobility concept. But beneficial social life is also created by sustainably and carefully planned open spaces in different parks, courtyards, and public spaces for movement. A further issue is the supply infrastructure, which is indispensible in modern urban structures, with nurseries and schools, doctors and pharmacies, multifaceted retail, cultural meeting points, and an already operating area management that has been supporting the creation of social quality of life at this periphery of Vienna as from the day the first residents moved in.

INGRID BRECKNER HAS BEEN PROFESSOR OF URBAN AND REGIONAL SOCIOLOGY AT THE HAFENCITY UNIVERSITY HAMBURG. RESEARCH FOCI AND PUBLICATIONS ON SOCIAL INEQUALITY, (SUB-) URBAN LIVING, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, MOBILITY AND MIGRATION, (IN)SECURITY, ENERGY EFFICIENCE AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AS WELL AS FOOD PRODUCTION AND FOOD CULTURE.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

URBAN LAKESIDE LAUNCH WITH THE AREA MANAGEMENT INGRID BRECKNER In due time before the first residents moved in, the area management for aspern Urban Lakeside, which was commissioned by the City of Vienna and Wien 3420 AG, had become operational in 2014. Right at the beginning, a cooperative team consisting of staff members of Caritas Vienna and the planning office PlanSinn, and subcontractors from abz*austria—apart from tuning its assignment profile and provisionally setting up its office—established first contact to interested visitors in the frame of different, and well-attended, events "on the taxiway". (Note: abz*austria operates in the field of activity of gender and diversity management, and tatwort is committed to sustainable project management.) In parallel, the "welcome package" was completed, which served to introduce the first residents to each other and to provide information as to where in the new and unfinished urban area and its surrounding area which things can be found, and

when which realisation steps are pending. The area management runs a so called infopoint and the website meine.seestadt.info, where—apart from up-to-date information—any questions can be cleared up online or offline. Besides providing advice and information, the area management interlinks players who are ready to cooperate within and in the surrounding area of Urban Lakeside. The work is structured in the form of nine projects, which are outlined in detail. The projects of the area management are as follows: Community Building; Activation and Participation; SeestadtKultur (Urban Lakeside Culture) and Community Art; Zwischendurch und Mittendrin (Here and there and right in the middle of it); Exploring, Conquering, and Appropriating Urban Lakeside; Work and Education at Urban Lakeside; SeestadtVisionen (Urban Lakeside Visions); Research Cooperation and Knowledge Lab; and public relations. The projects illustrate the complexity of the chosen practical approach, the levels of cooperation with other players involved in designing Urban Lakeside, and the interfaces to support and supervision of sustainable urban development on the periphery of Vienna.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE AREA MANAGEMENT In recent years, it has become an increasingly accepted insight that new urban areas do not only need public spaces and architectures but also players that take care of the social development of the area—which hasn’t been in place in development areas yet. So—for the first time ever in Vienna and already one year before the first residents moved in—a separate area management had been launched at aspern Urban Lakeside in early 2014, which is funded, for the time being until 2016, by the City of Vienna and Wien 3420 AG. An interdisciplinary team can be contacted in case of all issues in the context of the new urban area; its office serves as a meeting point for the Urban Lakeside pioneers, hence the new residents, and as a contact point for the surrounding area of Urban Lakeside, i.e. for the neighbours of Urban Lakeside. Thereby, it is an essential objective to activate the residents, so that they feel responsible for their surroundings and take control of activities in an empowered manner.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

OPEN SPACES CONSTITUTE URBAN LAKESIDE ANDREA CEJKA A city that is defined via the multitude of different open spaces. A city where the people do not only live in their homes but in the streets, on the squares, or in the parks. A city whose paths are green and wide and pedestrian friendly. A city with a lake in its centre where a weekend at the place of residence can turn into a relaxing short break. This will be Urban Lakeside. This can already be noticed in the first completed quarters in the south of the lake where the first section of the Sonnenallee is already taking shape. All quarters will string together along this circular inner main development. Along with the lake and the Lake Park, the Sonnenallee is the most formative and identity-establishing open space. A street in the middle of which there will be a lot of green and where the people can meet and stay unimpeded by the traffic, an urban recreation area. The urban infrastructure is also located there: social and health facilities, shops, and the City Houseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the essence of the idea of social Urban Lakeside. Starting from the lake and crossing the circular Sonnenallee run open spaces that connect to the outside; they serve commercial and cultural needs between the north, the south, and the west. North of the lake, coherent green and street spaces oriented from the east to the west are to connect the residential areas. South of the lake, continuing the Lake Park to the west, the Yella Hertzka Park is coming into existence, a ribbon-like residential quarter park that connects the centre of Urban Lakeside with the green way in the west: The best project from the realisation competition "Competition aspern Lake Park", conceived by LAVALAND, the young landscape architecture

firm from Berlin, which has also planned the Lake Park. This park is not boring! Here, the main theme of water shows itself in many facets. For children, exciting hilly landscapes, imaginative playgrounds, walk-in retention areas, meeting points here and there imbedded in a soft topography, or along the footpaths and cycling tracks inside or around the park, are being created. Elegant designs elaborated in every detail, and felicitous precise spatial positings, resting or in motion, make up the striking character of the park, and thus of the urban area. Here, residential buildings will find their new street addresses. In-between them and in their middle, further differentiated open spaces are unfolding like green veins. This difference of the public, private, and semipublic open spaces, which is so important for the readability of a city, can already be experienced in the quarter north of Hannah Arendt Park. From the wideness of this park in front of a school, a solidly elegant design by Yewo Landscapes and Rita Mettler Landschaftsarchitektur, which has been created in participatory planning processes, via Maria Trapp Square, a relaxed and open square design (also by Yewo), and via the wide green

ANDREA CEJKA STUDIED LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY AND DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND LIFE SCIENCES IN VIENNA AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. SINCE 2001, SHE HAS BEEN A PARTNER IN THE PRACTICE HUTTERREIMANN+CEJKA LANDSCHAFTSARCHITEKTUR. SHE IS PROFESSOR FOR DESIGN AT THE HSR - HOCHSCHULE FĂ&#x153;R TECHNIK, RAPPERSWIL, SWITZERLAND

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

main street, the Sonnenallee, one arrives at narrow passageways that lead to semi-public sequences of squares one can walk through. At other places, there are outside staircases that project into the interconnected yards, and are thus inviting gestures of good neighbourliness. In the southwestern residential quarter, the interconnection of street and squareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;"Hermine und Susanne" (Hermine Dasovsky Square and Susanne Schmida Lane) by DnD Landschaftsplanungâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;manifests a subtle rhythm of pedestrian directing, recreational areas, and street space. Upper crown trees support these accents, achieve spatial enlargement, and connect the quarter to a centre. Here the courage to cooperate has also been proven in the planning stages as all residents could be convinced from the consistently readable identity of design.

Ill. 7: Hannah Arendt Park 38

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

The basic idea of understanding the open spaces of a city as a composition is from Gehl Architects; consequently, their strategy was titled "Score of the Public Space". The now commissioned architects, landscape architects, sociologists, artists and, first and foremost, the project developers of Wien 3420 AG, have developed it further and adapted it to the transforming processes of a true residential and work city in a manner that is ready for implementation. Examples have been created at Urban Lakeside with a high degree of sensibility for the present-day challenges to a city worth living in, professional knowledge, endurance, courage, and empathy with the people. Examples for urban planners of tomorrow on the basis of which a lot can be learned and refined. Examples for other cities, and also a model for urban development in Vienna.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

Ill. 8: Yella Hertzka Park “Haven of Peace”, as of 2013

Ill. 9: Plan of Maria Trapp Square, as of 2014 t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

THE LAKE PARK, THE HEART OF URBAN LAKESIDE ANDREA CEJKA Urban Lakeside has a central park, a park at a lakeside, and a lake-park-landscape which is built around the city. A city which may also be dense because there is this wide beautiful park and the lake in its centre. In the autumn of 2010, Wien 3420 AG together with the Municipal Administration of Vienna tendered a realization competition titled "Competition aspern Lake Park". The most innovative and most courageous plan, because it developed the master plan further, was provided by the teams of LAVALAND and TH Treibhaus, young landscape architecture firms from Berlin. Their interpretation presented an island landscape on the lake with a promenade and different accesses to the lake, convincing ecological value, and feasibility for a distinctive open space.

into a meandering shoreline, and into a system of paths and footbridges with the greatest possible reference to the water. Contemplative places with vast vistas, imaginative playgrounds at the lakeside, and reclaimed islands are the sites of experience. The residents of Urban Lakeside can immerse themselves in a waterscape full of atmosphere. On the paths and footbridges through the reeds, hidden near the water where one believes to encounter water nymphs and fauns, a romantic yearning for nature is awakened. Dynamic ecological processes are made perceptible with river meadow-like valleys of log-sized driftwood. Here, fluctuations of the water level indeed transform the landscape time and again. A promenade runs from the edge of the city into and through the park, and to the lake. If you walk along it, the careful design becomes once more evident. A precise geometry imbedded in a topography of meadows, natural ecological valorisation as well as finely tuned materials and the colour scheme between shades of green and blue lay a distinctive harmonious aesthetics between the lake and the city.

The Lake Park will be opened in 2015. In the meantime, studies of possible variations have been created and adjustments have been made, changed wishes have been addressed and an intensive planning process has been entered. The islands have turned

Urban Lakeside has dedicated itself to strategies of open space whose central rules emanate from the design, function, and radiance of the lake and the Lake Park. This has direct consequences for urban planning and obliges us to realise high-quality and differentiated open spaces.

Ill. 10: Site plan of the draft for the competition, as of 2011

Ill. 11: Site plan of the project to be realised, as of 2013

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE LAKE PARK The central spatial element of Urban Lakeside is the groundwater lake in the middle of it. So that it can be experienced, not only its dimensions are essential, hence the length of the viewing distances that offer themselves when looking over the lake but also the immediate spatial environment, the accessibility and usability of the lake and the lakeside. Along the south bank, the Lake Park is the spatial frame for this, which is thus the central accessible open space of Urban Lakeside and of correspondingly great importance for the urban area. For this reason, an international competition was organised in 2010/11 in order to find a preliminary plan. The Berlin-based landscape architecture firm LAVALAND together with TH Treibhaus won the competition. Following the tendering decision, the planning team developed the project further and adapted it to the framework conditions in Vienna. Construction work was started in May 2014 and the park will be opened in the summer of 2015. Together with its southwestern extension, the Yella Hertzka Park, it covers a surface of about 6.5 hectares.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

HOW IS HIGH QUALITY OF URBAN PLANNING IN THE PUBLIC SPACE CREATED? SILJA TILLNER

THE IDEA—THE OBJECTIVE—THE PLAN The identity of aspern Urban Lakeside is substantially defined by an exceptional and one-ofa-kind concept of open space the centre of which is the lake, and the backbone the ring road. These comprehensible unique characteristics inspire the viewer to follow different imaginations and interpretations. Among other things, the master plan by Johannes Tovatt, Tovatt Architects and Planners AB, distinguished itself by the fact that it did not only specify construction fields, open spaces, and streets but also considered the reciprocal effect between buildings and open spaces, and described the open spaces in their qualities. This complexity

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

of the master plan, the high quality and power of innovation, should subsequently define entire Urban Lakeside, both the public space and individual projects. The public space had special importance as an identification-establishing and connecting element of different usages. Due to high design aspirations in the public space, a one-of-a-kind added value is created for the community. Given that Urban Lakeside has a strong relationship to the landscape zone due to its location, its favourable location will attract future residents, it was the planners’ and commissioners’ objective to offer the qualities of vibrant streets and squares, which can usually only be found in central urban locations at Urban Lakeside too. With this, the attractiveness of the place both during leisure time and during the working hours should be ensured, and an urban area should be created that is active at all times of the day. Thus a nexus to the usages and the design of the ground floor zones was taken into account in planning and varied according to location in the quarter.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

THE PLANNING PROCESS

REALISATION—QUALITY ASSURANCE

In order to be able to ensure the desired quality of urban planning also in the realisation, meticulous planning is required. It is not only the planners’ responsibility, who all too often have no influence on further planning anymore after an urban planning competition they have won and the subsequent area zoning and development plans and whose concepts are used as a basis for architectural competitions at a too early stage. Both commissioners and land owners must schedule a sufficient period of time for in-depth planning. In the case of Urban Lakeside, the author of the winning project, Johannes Tovatt, was commissioned with in-depth planning after the decision of the urban design competition, and not before this stage of clarifying and adaptation to local needs was finished, further planning was assigned. The planning handbook Partitur des öffentlichen Raumes (Score of the Public Space) by Gehl Architects defined timeless qualities which were based on the needs of the future residents, and should form an accompanying basic framework and structure for the later development stages and in-depth plans of the public spaces. The fundamental principles for lively high-quality urban spaces defined herein were taken into account in the planning for the ring road by the landscape planners 3:0 Landschaftsarchitektur, which was based on these. This proved the effectiveness of this process-oriented planning instrument. The guidelines for the design of the public spaces were successfully carried further into the next stage.

In order to be able to answer the question how high urban design quality can be implemented and how the quality of the public spaces can thus be improved so that bustling public life can unfold, the quality of planning must be pointed out on the one hand and, on the other, the support and supervision of the latter. A meticulously conceived master plan with an elaborate and robust strategy which does not lose its significance and lasting effect despite the intended flexibility, further development, and in-depth planning is the precondition for this. Quality criteria must be specified in the master plan. The developer, who supervises the different planning stages and pays attention to continuity and compliance with the quality criteria, has to make sure that they are met. The team of Wien 3420 AG performs this leading and coordinating role in an exemplary manner and with extraordinary commitment.

SILJA TILLNER STUDIED ARCHITECTURE AT THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS VIENNA AND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES. HAS BEEN ARCHITECT IN VIENNA SINCE 1995; IN 2007, SHE CO-FOUNDED THE ARCHITECTURE FIRM TILLNER & WILLINGER; FROM 2008 TO 2011, SHE WAS A MEMBER OF THE EXPERT ADVISORY BOARD FOR URBAN PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

FOCUS ON THE PUBLIC SPACE ALOIS AIGNER The public space is an impressive element of the urban development area aspern Urban Lakeside— this very special project run with dedication and toil by its developers, who could have contented themselves, after all, with building the infrastructure, putting the plots of land to use, and leaving the rest to take care of itself. Here, the developers were not ready to primarily think in terms of profit maximisation but rather to invest in quality; and this shows itself, among other aspects, in the public space. It was about the basic structure of the city without the buildings, about the cross-sections of the streets and the intensity with which the public space was designed so that it becomes softer and can be better used for other things than always only motor traffic.

A large part of the planning work was invested into the public space, also so that the architectural projects to be realised here have it easier and can be put into a good environment. This includes the streets, above all the Ring Road and/or Sonnenallee, the square designs but also the large open spaces such as the Lake Park and the lake itself. The open spaces extend into the blocks so that the buildings and the public space are interwoven. You feel it: aspern Urban Lakeside is about building a city, not just houses—after all, the latter is what developers do. It is an important asset of Wien 3420 AG that this company does not act as a developer itself but deals with urban planning and infrastructure. In my view, such a "separation of powers" between urban development and property development improves the quality. Of course, nobody has ever seen a child running around in the streets of Urban Lakeside so far: Only this will be the litmus test. We only know the plans so far but I am convinced that this will become a success. THIS TEXT IS BASED ON AN INTERVIEW WITH ALOIS AIGNER.

ALOIS AIGNER STUDIED SPATIAL PLANNING IN VIENNA AND INITIALLY WORKED IN ZONING PLANNING AND IN THE VIENNA BUSINESS AGENCY AND SET UP THE BUSINESS LOCATION OF THE PROJECT DEVELOPER PRISMA GMBH IN VIENNA. SINCE 2009, HE HAS BEEN WORKING FOR THE FEDERAL REAL ESTATE COMPANY (BIG); CURRENTLY, HE IS HEAD OF ARE—AUSTRIAN REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT GMBH.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

POSITIONS ON THE PRODUCTION OF URBANITY

YOU HAVE TO RELY ON CO-OPERATION IN URBAN PLANNING ALOIS AIGNER I worked in the aspern Advisory Board as a real estate economist for two years because I was professionally interested in this function and because I had been dealing with this project for many years in different functions and wanted to go on supporting it. I was invited to join the Advisory Board in order to bring in the developer’s point of view. From this perspective, I can say that at aspern Urban Lakeside developers have been reached in an excellent way, also beyond the sector of subsidised housing, although this was definitely no foregone conclusion at the time. When the development started in the early 2000s, the growth of population that we have today was by far not foreseeable yet. Insofar, it was clear that one had to offer quite a lot in order to be able to realise Urban Lakeside; this was no trivial task. For this, Wien 3420 AG found the right team: players who had the necessary urban design skills and would also fight through the claims related to it but who also were not hostile to the market and thus would not lose the badly needed buyers. You have to strongly rely on cooperation in such projects. One demands from one’s contract partner something that is often not legally recoverable. This is what Wien 3420 AG successfully managed, also in its step-by-step approach of remaining involved long enough, in quality assurance for example, building logistics, the ground floor zones and the garage compounds. One needs soft instruments for this cooperation; this cannot only be settled with contracts. For this, the procedures at Urban Lakeside are state-of-the-art. From the developers’ view, an urban structure was planned at aspern Lakeside that offered useable plots, the metro was extended to Urban Lakeside and opened in due time, and

there was a board of Wien 3420 AG that consisted of serious conversation partners who were knowledgeable about business administration. Another important aspect was the success of bringing the HOERBIGER Corporation to Urban Lakeside. We had been looking for a significant signal for a long time. At first, this was supposed to be a university. But only HOERBIGER was the driver that was missing for the sector apart from housing. With this, one could show all skeptics (there are many among the architects and urban planners) that not only a huge residential complex would come into being here. The professional structure for handling the ground floor zones for trade and commerce was of equal importance. This issue is still too little known today but it will turn out that a showcase project for the management of pedestal zones is running. And eventually, the branding process must be mentioned. In this respect, aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside is a showcase project in the context of Vienna. One has understood that the right image must be there in due time, not the date when the buildings are ready for occupancy. Urban development projects such as Urban Lakeside are about density. Urban Lakeside is an urban answer, and this a good thing. As the Green Party local councillor Christoph Chorherr says: “Vienna will grow by the factor of the population of Graz within the next 15 years." What is added to this at Urban Lakeside are by all means opulent open spaces and street cross-sections. It is impressing that so much has remained from the initially planned urban design at Urban Lakeside. The result is fresher and bolder than usual. This makes clear: One wanted to show something. It was a a stroke of luck that an urban designer was found who did not have his eye on architectural commissions but whose true passion is urban design. THIS TEXT IS BASED ON AN INTERVIEW WITH ALOIS AIGNER.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

INNOVATION IN ASPERN— THE RING ROAD SILJA TILLNER

sections. Gehl Architects described the Ring Road as "the window to the city quarters and the city edge with coherent attractive edges of buildings which turn into the face of the city".

In the following, I am going to outline the concept of the Ring Road, which is meanwhile named Sonnenallee, as one of the main elements of the urban area and its contribution to the creation of urban design quality in the public space.

For this, six different zones were created with regard to identity and main usage in the adjacent quarters: Living, research and development, mix of uses and commerce, mix of uses and offices, mix of uses and retail, living and education.

The approach of producing urban design quality via a strategy of the open space can only called innovative for Vienna. In their Score of the Public Space, Gehl Architects wrote "that the Ring Road was not only to be a transport connection but also an urban space of recreation which creates connections for the urban life and is thus interpreted in a completely new manner as a traditional urban element". The Ring Road as a connecting central artery that is directly linked to other public urban spaces is experienced in motion—no matter whether as motorist, cycler or pedestrian along the promenade —whereby priority is given to the latter.

The objective is an intermixed city of short distances whose central space for public encounters is the Ring Road. The continuous elements show themselves in the paths, the rows of trees, the lighting, and the furniture. The individual changes in each sector are expressed in the planting, the programming, and the quality. The local elements show themselves in the meeting and recreation spaces of the Ring Road—the playing zones, family areas, youth zones, and recreation areas of the promenade. They are expressed by means of special surfaces, selective planting with individual patches of trees and bushes as well as special furniture and play equipment.

In the design, this nexus is expressed by continuous linear elements that have an identity-establishing effect. The sides facing the sun are to be favoured and the development edges are to emphasise the circular shape. The differentiation occurs in the individual sequences with different qualities that express variation and local identity in the individual

The concept of different zoning with an at the same time continuous linear connection has meanwhile been successfully realised with the High Line in New York City, and has been enthusiastically embraced by its users there. Similar success is to be wished for the Ring Road at Urban Lakeside.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

SONNENALLEE The ring road, which is called Sonnenallee meanwhile because it looks similar to a stylised sun with its radially emanating streets, is a central element of Johannes Tovatt’s master plan for aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside. In the master plan, this ring road had the function of connecting the different parts of the new urban area in terms of traffic but it was definitely also a reference to Vienna’s city centre with its Gründerzeit Ring Road. At aspern Urban Lakeside, the greatest attention was turned to the design of the urban space for the first time in an area of urban expansion in Vienna. For this reason, not only the parks and squares were to be subjects of particular attention. The streets too, which are otherwise simply realised as technical constructions (which they of course always also are) according to the principles of the municipality, were worked on in a conceptual manner here and designed as important open spaces with a high quality of stay— the Sonnenallee, among others, as an element of open space connecting all parts of Urban Lakeside.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN AT URBAN LAKESIDE FRANZ KOBERMAIER To join the aspern Advisory Board was a good opportunity to participate more intensively in the project of Urban Lakeside. This has proved to be by all means effective for me. There was criticism of the urban planning conception of Urban Lakeside; I have always been skeptical of this because one is criticised very quickly on the basis of assumptions and anxieties instead of information in the public sector. For this reason, the Advisory Board was an opportunity for me to deepen my knowledge of aspern. Urban Lakeside focused on the public space from the beginning; it became its planning philosophy and it is in my opinion a very essential subject in present-day urban planning. How can the people be kept in the urban area?—in addition to classic subjects of urban planning such as short distances and mix of uses. I have recently visited Urban Lakeside to get an up-todate impression. What has been realised there so far is dense with regard to the building sites; with regard to the total area, hence including squares, parks, and streets, it is actually not very dense. The density related to blocks of buildings is unusual and impressing but this is simply Urban Lakeside; one isn’t used to something like this in Transdanubia but one will get used it, above all, when Urban Lakeside gets its atmosphere, when everyday life moves in there. This is clearly another type of urban planning than the one we have been used to since Rainer’s planning philosophy of the 1960s, which was always about large distances between the buildings with green buffers. This approach had been effective down to the 1990s; from that time too, there is still urban design of discs, for example in the district of Donaustadt. This is over now; now we are building cities; now there are relationships between the buildings—this is impressing. You can see in some buildings that they needed to be built with limited resources but it is impressing what was made with these limited resources. I noticed that there was no colour scheme—in this respect, everybody does as he pleases.

It is desirable for Urban Lakeside that Wien 3420 AG continues to work as before, with ambition and motivation. It is Urban Lakeside’s model for success that there is a development company with an interdisciplinary team. Due to it planning is no hodgepodge of things that the administration, the investors, and the district authorities want but it rather follows the concentrated synopsis of the development company. It should continue to take care of the things that are required for the production of urbanity with the same enthusiasm as before. Initially, there were also great ambitions involved in other urban development projects in Vienna in the past but this could hardly ever be kept up like here; one notices the declared intention. Already now, before the first part is completed, one notices that other urban development projects in Vienna can learn from Urban Lakeside. Meanwhile, more importance is being attached to the way we deal with the public space elsewhere too. This is a development that would have maybe happened independently from Urban Lakeside but here it was tried for the first time. Perhaps, one could criticise that one worked with very precise images at a very early stage. Today, one would do many a thing reversely, first clarify the needs and aspirations with regard to the urban space, develop the “score”, and only then the urban design images. THIS TEXT IS BASED ON AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANZ KOBERMAIER.

FRANZ KOBERMAIER HAS BEEN HEAD OF OFFICE OF MA 19, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN VIENNA, SINCE 2007. HE STUDIED ARCHITECTURE AT THE VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. BEFORE HE BECAME HEAD OF OFFICE OF MA 19, HE ALSO WORKED AT THE MA 18 (URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND URBAN PLANNING AN AT THE MA 21A (CITY DISTRICT PLANNING AND LAND USE).

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

FEDERAL SCHOOLS AT ASPERN URBAN LAKESIDE. A CONTRIBUTION TO A VIBRANT URBAN AREA SILJA TILLNER aspern Urban Lakeside, a green urban area on the lakeside—this image inspired the architects fasch&fuchs. They designed a “walk-on education hill”; with terraced green roofs, the building becomes part of the landscape. This concept could only be realised here, in the public park and square. The architects take up Tovatt’s master plan with their plan and interpret the plot of land next to Hannah Arendt Park and Maria Trapp Square as part of the public space. Thus the margins of the school property turn into open zones instead of boundaries.

stepping of the floors becomes a part of the park. The reciprocal effects and the flowing transitions between interior and exterior spaces also play a role in the configuration of the building: "All clusters of Sekundarstufe 1 (lower secondary level) and all home bases of Sekundarstufe 2 (higher secondary level) each have direct access to the green open spaces where there is a generous range of relaxation, playing, and learning offers in the open air." (design description)

In the tender, a public passageway was included in the southern third of the plot of land. The architects managed to create quality from this restriction, and to cleverly integrate the required construction volume north of the passageway.

In summer, central common areas can be opened in order to increase the reciprocal effect. Another open space was created in the centre of the compact building structure: The "school grove" contributes to the improved illumination of the inner rooms and gives the library, the dining area, and the multipurpose space an almost meditative atmosphere. Then again, the spirit of the school should be expressed by openness, transparency, networking, generosity, and friendliness suffused with light. The indoor campus with the school hall between the entrances as a hub for events, as a meeting point, and as a open space contributes to this.

Both the interior spaces and the open spaces are aligned towards the west, the park. The forecourt and the main entrance are located in the northeast of the square. The plan was inspired by the landscape and modelled into the open spaces. From the park, the school building appears like a terraced landscape. Due to the open area owned by the school in front of them, the green roofs and the

The federal school building for 1,150 pupils is the most felicitous proof for the assertion so far that a special quality of open spaces is coming into being at aspern Urban Lakeside. In immediate proximity, a school of the City of Vienna is being built, so that the symbiosis of parks, squares, and buildings of the educational quarter will also inspire future generations.

Ill. 12: The school has been conceived as a green terraced landscape, as a walk-on education hill. t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE SCHOOLS Two school structures are being built in the so far developed southern part of aspern Urban Lakeside: on the one hand, the Education Campus of the City of Vienna, which will comprise a nursery school with eleven groups, an all-day elementary school with 17 classes and eight classes for children with special motoric needs. This building is to be erected, based on the plans by Thomas Zinterl, who won the competition in 2012, on a plot of land between the Hannah Arendt Park and the premises of Opel Vienna until 2015. The building forms an urban edge towards the park and, to the south, it merges into the spacious school garden via stepped terraces. Northeast of it, also next to the Hannah Arendt Park, a federal school building with 28 AHS (grammar school) classes and 13 classes of a BHS (vocational school with higher education entrance qualification) is being built; in this case, fasch&fuchs won the EU-wide competition in 2013, the structure will be completed in 2017. Both schools are built by the Federal Real Estate Company (BIG), one is commissioned by the City of Vienna, the other by the federal government.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

HOUSING INITIATIVE: COOPERATION AND DIALOGUE RUDOLF SCHEUVENS With the Housing Initiative, the City of Vienna called to life an additional new construction programme in 2011 that supplements subsidised housing. This is a special option for privately financed housing. Due to loans on favourable terms granted by the City of Vienna, the flats offer beneficial conditions for the tenants similar to subsidised housing. aspern Urban Lakeside, where 1,600 flats will be completed and occupied shortly, is a focal point of this initiative. Unlike in subsidised housing, the building sites are not allocated via prior developers’ competitions but are already sold to developers in the run-up. Quality development and assurance was tackled in the frame of a cooperative planning procedure at Urban Lakeside. First urban design ideas were developed, concretised, and coordinated in a series of joint workshops of developers, architects and open space planners. Along with external experts,

representatives of the Municipal Department for Urban Development and Planning, and Wien 3420 AG, the members of the aspern Advisory Board were continuously involved in this workshop process. The declared objective of all parties involved was developing a comprehensive conception for all building sites; this is not only related to aspects of urban planning and open space but equally to developing and using the ground floor zones, and integrating collective establishments and special offers for alternative mobility concepts. This coordination-intensive process was then concluded by the Advisory Board’s assessment of the Housing Initiative and its recommendation to realise these projects in the frame of the Housing Initiative. This approach based on dialogue and cooperation has stood the test. It became clear which added value this comprehensive development strategy for all building sites entails for the quarter and the entire urban area. A model that acts as a precedent, also with regard to organising two-stage and dialogueoriented developers’ competitions for other projects oustside of Urban Lakeside.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE HOUSING INITIATIVE The current huge influx of population to Vienna leads amongst other things to growing shortage of subsidies for urgently needed housing projects. For this reason, the City of Vienna decided—taking advantage of the low interest rates—to raise additional financial resources by means of loans on the capital market in 2011: The municipality borrowed these resources on the capital market where it was granted particularly favourable terms due to its excellent credit standing. Then it made these resources available for consortia of financial service providers and developers at favourable terms so that they create affordable living space. The consortia were selected in the frame of a call; both quality standards and rents had already been fixed; moreover, the Advisory Board had an eye on the architectural and urban design quality of the projects. The first large tranche of buildings of the Housing Initiative has been constructed under the leadership of the non-profit developer Sozialbau at aspern Urban Lakeside.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

D13: VIA PARTICIPATION TO SHARED RESPONSIBILITY RUDOLF SCHEUVENS Construction Field D13. What only tells little to the majority via the combination of a letter and a number, is a very special construction field for Urban Lakeside. This quarter, which is located in close vicinity to the Hannah Arendt Park and the educational campus, consists of five buildings which are being or already have been planned and realised in an empowered manner in collective processes by different building communities. What is hidden behind names such B.R.O.T. Aspern, LiSA, Seestern Aspern, Pegasus and JAspern are groups of committed and creative people full of enthusiasm and verve who take control of questions of building and living themselves. More of this! I already met the building communities in the frame of the competition procedure in subsidised housing. At the time, seven communities in total competed for the five plots of land of construction field D13. It was hard to have to select and find a decision here. So I am all the happier that an own plot of land to realise their collective project could be made available for the sixth community, Que[e]rbau, on construction field D22 at a later date.

Beside 179 flats, the spectrum of uses comprises, among other things, a community kitchen and a family guesthouse. For sure, with regard to the total size of Urban Lakeside and compared with the construction volume in subsidised housing in Vienna, this is a small and almost inconpicuous project. Yet things look different if you take a look at the underlying processes. The building communities of construction field D13 did extremely important pioneer work in the field of collective building in Vienna. Their projects set standards in structuring processes of co-determination and decision-making in subsidised housing. And what is even more important: The projects create commitment and identification. A special form of (shared) responsibility, beyond oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own project, for the developing neighbourhood, and for the urban area as a whole, emerges via active participation in planning and building. The aspern building communities are turning into real pioneers in the development of Urban Lakeside. What were the words of the unfortunately much too early deceased borough mayor Norbert Scheed? "The pioneers of Urban Lakeside are ambassadors of a new cultural understanding of the city and coexistence." There is nothing left to be added anymore.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA'S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE BUILDING COMMUNITIES Almost simultaneously with a renaissance of the concept of building communities in Vienna around 2009 it was explored at aspern Urban Lakeside in which ways collective forms of living could be integrated. Eventually, it was possible to offer plots of land specifically to building communities for the first time in Viennaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in parallel to the developerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competition in 2011, a competition for building communities was organised in which seven groups bade for five plots on construction field D13. The five selected projects cooperatively conceived the development, collectively defined locations and property boundaries, and planned a joint inner courtyard next to their own buildings. These five projects cover the full spectrum of present housing projects: from autonomous building to co-operation with non-profit developers, from home to rented flat and condominium projects. The members of the building communities were among the first contact persons of the area management, and thus they are true aspern pioneers. Moreover, the building of JAspern was the very first residential building at Urban Lakeside to be occupied by its residents.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

MOBILITY AT ASPERN VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

and there are bicycle parking systems in the public space and in the residential buildings.

MARIO REHULKA

THE ASPERN RING ROAD

MOBILITY MIX: PERFECTLY CONNECTED AND DELIBERATELY SLOWED DOWN

The landscape architects have united the lake, the ring road, and the superordinate green spaces in the urban structure, and have designed them specific to different situations. The ring road is one of the most important elements of the urban area. It has been conceived as a main street where all road users can be present on an equal footing—it is a recreation area which creates the connection to urban life and gets a new interpretation as a traditional urban element. It consists of several segments of different nature and design, and has a different atmosphere in every quarter.

At Urban Lakeside, mobility means perfect connection to public transport. Moreover, we focus on short distances and deceleration. Walkers, cyclers, and public transport have right of way. This mobility mix is complemented with eMobility, carsharing, and attractive cycle tracks and footpaths. The extension of the U2 metro line as an advance for the overall development of Urban Lakeside facilitates comprehensive parking space regulations (0.7 parking spaces per flat) and the significant reduction of parking spaces in the public space for the benefit of suitability for daily use and accessibility. Underground parking is laid out as a garage compound system, which breathes life into the public space and creates equidistance between one’s private car and public transport.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT In 2013, the U2 metro line was extended to Urban Lakeside. You are in the inner city of Vienna within 25 minutes. With the stations "Aspern Nord" in the north and "Seestadt" in the centre of the new urban area, Urban Lakeside is optimally connected to the metro network. The station "Aspern Nord" will become a traffic hub with trains departing to Bratislava, local trains, municipal railway and metro, tramway and bus lines.

WALKING AND CYCLING—SAFE ON ALL ROADS Urban Lakeside is geared towards encouraging pedestrianism and bicycle traffic. Rows of trees and bustling ground floor zones are to ensure a high quality of stay. The road system is comprehensibly close meshed and ensures a high degree of road safety. The cycling tracks at aspern Urban Lakeside are being conveniently extended and lit,

THE MOBILITY FUND SUPPORTS SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE—A GREAT IDEA! At Urban Lakeside, mobility means a mix of a large number of measures. In order to implement these measures, a mobility fund has been initiated, which is financed through taxes paid on building garages and which funds diverse projects that promote modern types of mobility.

MARIO REHULKA IS PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRIAN AVIATION ASSOCIATION AND LECTURER FOR TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT AT FH KREMS—UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES. IN HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER, HE WAS BOARD DIRECTOR OF AUSTRIAN AIRLINES AND IN MANY OTHER MANAGEMENT POSITIONS IN AUSTRIAN AND INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES, ASSOCIATIONS, ALLIANCES, AND ORGANISATIONS.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE MOBILITY FUND aspern Viennaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Lakeside has set itself the objective of supporting contemporary forms of mobility, i.e. EcoMobility: walking, cyling, and using public transport. For this, it is important to combine these different types of mobility with each other (and with others). Thus future Urban Lakeside is not only based on its excellent connection by metro, tramways, and buses, and on infrastructure such as cycling tracks and footpaths. In addition to this, Wien 3420 AG supports offers by means of a separate mobility fund that make it easier for the residents and users of Urban Lakeside to do without their own cars. For each obligatory parking space created at Urban Lakeside, the respective developer bound to create it has to pay 1,000 euros into the fund. For example, a bicycle rental system, a delivery service, a combined shopping cart/bicycle trailer, a bicycle depot, carsharing, the mobility pass "Seestadt Card", and a bicycle repair service are funded with these resources. Funding of further mobility projects is to follow.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

THE APPEARANCE OF URBAN LAKESIDE

A PERFECT MATCH: NATURE, ENVIRONMENT AND CITY LIFE

MARIO REHULKA

Unlike other urban development projects of the past, the planning of aspern Urban Lakeside placed particular emphasis on the present and future living standard. At the same time, an urban and vibrant environment worth living in is to be created by means of deliberate concentration. The landscape architects relied on a comprehensive open space system consisting of development, tree clusters of varying density, and topography, and structured the central open spaces of Urban Lakeside in this framework.

On 25 May 2007, the Vienna City Council unanimously resolved on the Master Plan Aspern Airfield. This forms the basis for the urban development in the area of the former airfield. aspern Viennaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Lakeside was named after an artificial lake in the centre of the development area. The people will live and work there right on the waterfront. 240 hectares will be developed; 50 percent of the surface area are reserved for the public space, for squares, green spaces und recreational areas.

FEATURE: THE LAKE The former Aspern Airfield is one of the largest European areas of urban development. Its central eponymous feature is a lake of a surface of 5 hectares and a depth of 10 metres which also marks the central point of Urban Lakeside. It is to be the landmark, centre, recreation space, and identity feature for 40,000 people who will live and work there. 15,000 people are to work in the offices and service facilities, 5,000 will work in the fields of commerce, science, research, and education. In parallel to this, infrastructure is developed and the lakeside is designed as well as the northern part of Urban Lakeside. This involves green spaces, parks, the public space, children's playgrounds etc which are planned around the groundwater lake. In the future, local recreation and leisure facilities as well as gastronomy will be established there, along the lakeside.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

URBAN LAKESIDE: A NEW CITY IN VIENNA Whereby a high ecological standard applies for aspern Urban Lakeside. A new urban area is emerging which underscores sustainability in its design. This is above all ensured by low energy houses but also some passive-energy houses that also meet the highest standard. The public spaces are the sources of inspiration for the new city. Advised by sociologists, spatial planners, architects, the Municipal Department for Urban Development and Planning, and energy and infrastructure experts, Wien 3420 AG has set standards for the solid and eco-friendly coexistence of citizens whereby it continuously assesses if the plans are successfully realised in order to intervene and improve things if necessary.

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

LIFE REQUIRES WATER Water belongs to the principal fundamentals of life on our planet. Water brings life, water is life! This is why the architects have been very careful in their planning to take into account the "Urban Lakeside"-character with regard to the influence of wind, sun, and weather. In the public space too, particular attention has been paid to water supply and disposal.

URBAN LAKESIDE IS FEMALE Maria Trapp Square, Ella Lingens Street, or Josefine Hawelka Lane—the new streets of Urban Lakeside are named after great women. With this, Urban Lakeside has set an important example. Around thirty experts from the city district, the City of Vienna, and from the fields of sociology, culture, architecture, and spatial planning were involved in the process—six "worlds of names" were worked out as the result of this.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE Work-life balance stands for our timeless wishful thinking of bringing family, leisure, and work into harmony and is, in addition to this, one of the guiding themes for the development of Urban Lakeside.

INTELLIGENT AND PLANNED IN A DIALOGUE aspern Urban Lakeside invites investors, developers, architects, and engineers to reconsider old things and discover new things. It offers the opportunity to realise projects that would never be possible in a mere gap between buildings. The public space, buildings, traffic routes and other infrastructure are networked and developed in a dialogue with partners, users, and local residents—always with the aspirations of an "intelligent" city—or simply a new city. Urban Lakeside will meet the requirements of the lifestyle of the 21st century as well as the ambitious energy and climate control goals of the City of Vienna. It is sustainable—in the planning of buildings and open space as well as in mobility and energy supply. The people are always central. Wien 3420 AG is the quality assurance manager of Urban Lakeside. It has codified binding values in its promise of quality and is supported by the aspern Advisory Board in their implementation.

I AM EXCITED ABOUT FUTURE ISSUES— A CITY TO LIVE IN This open-mindedness for future aspects in the most varied forms of urban development has inspired my four years of work for Urban Lakeside in the aspern Advisory Board. The team of experts in the Advisory Board contributed through openmindedness, expertise, and perseverance to the fact that aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside becomes a "city to live in". I am delighted that I was on board in the development stage.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

HOERBIGER: INDUSTRY + INNOVATION AT ASPERN VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE FRANZ KOBERMAIER The competition project by querkraft Architekten for the new business location of HOERBIGER was outstanding because it was the only project that formulated the corporate philosophy of HOERBIGER, which is to be translated from research and development into production there, in terms of space. The project directly connects the showrooms, the offices, and research and development with the factory hall. The architects have fully understood the owner’s aspirations and the way this company develops and manufactures its products, and boiled it down to an essence in their project. Of course, in terms of urban planning, the layout by querkraft need not fit in anywhere; there is no surrounding development yet which one could respond to: This

is an emerging commercial area with a lot of open space. Instead, the facility with its bars forms a positing towards which future buildings will have to orientate themselves. The urban design orientates itself above all towards an aligment of the plot of land and towards the company’s operational necessities, which are optimally implemented here in the "no man’s land" between green space and the aspern IQ. Moreover, the building acts as the entrance gate to Urban Lakeside from the south, so to speak. If one approaches it by car or by bike here, one sees the window panes arranged in a staggered manner which form a smooth transition into the city; at the same time, one feels immediately that this is a company building and no urban residential building. If one looks at Urban Lakeside from the east, it becomes clear that the city begins here—yet it does not do so abruptly like by means of a city wall but an area of transition is formed instead. THIS TEXT IS BASED ON AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANZ KOBERMAIER.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

HOERBIGER HOLDING It was an extremely important signal for aspern Urban Lakeside that the global player HOERBIGER decided in 2013 to build up a company location with up to 500 employees at aspern Urban Lakeside. HOERBIGER is a world leader in compression technology, automation technology and drive technology, and is an old-established company from Vienna which is meanwhile headquartered in Switzerland. Along with administration and production units, the company’s research and devolopment centre will be relocated to Urban Lakeside. With this, the second large enterprise in the field of technology beside Opel is located at aspern Urban Lakeside, which makes the location interesting for other companies from related industries. querkraft Architekten won the competion for the HOERBIGER facility in 2013, and the company will move into the new buildings in 2016. A central idea of the plan is, according to HOERBIGER’s corporate philosophy, the organic interconnection of research, development, production, and administration.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

WIEN WORK: URBAN COMPLEXITY + SOCIAL QUALITY INGRID BRECKNER This non-profit social economy company will concentrate its around 600 employees, 70 percent of whom are people with disabilities or former long-term unemployed from currently four locations in Vienna on several construction fields at aspern Urban Lakeside. D14 will host the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administration within a mixed-use building with barrier-free housing for senior citizens and supervised flat-sharing communities for young adults and/or senior citizens. In addition to this, Wien Work will realise barrierfree training facilities for the gastronomy, with a large kitchen that will supply the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own staff and residents but at the same time will also offer lunches for the schools of Urban Lakeside or other companies. Production halls of the company are planned on the second construction field, D21, which will host a large laundry service, cleaning

technology and green area maintenance, workshops for painters, carpenters, and bicycle mechanics, as well as training, administrative, and staff rooms. As the company wants to promote quality of life at Urban Lakeside along with promoting work and training for audiences who are disadvantaged on the labour market, different service offerings for Urban Lakesiders who live or work here and for visitors are planned, which are to be accommodated in ground floor premises in central streets. Their spectrum will range from a copy shop with additional offers in the field of digital media to a laundry collection point, an infoshop for all services of Wien Work, and a creative workshop for furniture upholstery work and sewing. Moreover, delivery services and a bicycle rental with bicycle repair are planned in the frame of the sustainable mobility concept of Urban Lakeside. Wien Work contributes to the urban complexity and social quality of Urban Lakeside by means of providing training opportunities and jobs for disadvantaged people as well as by its innovative services, which are all the more indispensable in a new urban area.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

WIEN WORK Wien Work is a non-profit social economy company which creates jobs for disabled, chronically sick, or long-term unemployed people. The company is in the ownership of KOBV (Kriegsopfer- und Behindertenverband, i.e. Association for War Victims and People with Disabilities) and Volkshilfe Vienna. At aspern Urban Lakeside, Wien Work initally planned a central company building on Maria Trapp Square in cooperation with the nonprofit developer Gesiba. Now, Wien Work will set up premises for catering industry training with a training kitchen as well as its administration here while supervised housing and subsidised rental flats are offered on the upper floors. Further facilities at Urban Lakeside make Wien Work one of the most important employers and service providers in the new urban area: The company will also build a production hall in the commercial area which will host different workshops and a large laundry. Finally, various customer-oriented services will be accommodated in ground floor premises directly in the residental area.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

THE BUILT BUSINESS CARD: ASPERN IQ BERND VOGL How does the city of Vienna launch its largest development project in the more recent history in a structurally visible manner? You may ask yourself this question when you think and write about this special building. The technology centre aspern IQ is the first building that was realised at Urban Lakeside and—among other things—also the place of business of the development company Wien 3420 AG right in the midst of the construction activities. Thus the aspern IQ ist the built business card but at the same time also the mind and the heart of the urban area. It is nice when the mind and the heart are based directly in the city, isn’t it? Is this one of the building blocks for Vienna’s success as a city, the continuation of an up to now unspoken success story? Throughout history, Vienna has brought forth outstanding urban construction time and again, and also exported it above all to the parts of Europe that belonged to the Hapsburg Empire in the times before the First World War. Vienna subsists on these creative peak performances in architecture and planning that run like a golden thread through the city’s history. They are also the fundament for the

city’s attractiveness, for both residents and visitors alike. By creating and connecting creative spaces for the city, for the mind, and for the heart, Vienna creates a one-of-a-kind biotope for the production of sustainable urban structures. At the aspern IQ, you can grasp an important part of new, of modern urban construction in Vienna in the truest sense of the word. The building meets the highest requirements of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies on site. Through the mix of different energy systems combined with a highly thermally insulated and airtight facade, this office building, which was erected as a plus energy house, sets a benchmark for all building constructions to follow at aspern Urban Lakeside and beyond. In the commercial area too, the aspern IQ offers a ground floor zone which is orientated towards the public (gastronomy, seminar rooms) as well as a mix of uses of commerce, offices, and production. In my opinion, the signals sent out by the aspern IQ can be clearly felt. They want to tell us that we need not be afraid of living in the sense of the city’s Smart City—low use of resources with simultaneous maximum quality of life. Life in the Smart City will become creative, communicative, thoughtful and full of enjoyment of life—simply everything that makes up Vienna.

BERND VOGL STUDIED AT THE VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS. HE WORKED AS AN ENERGY EXPERT AT THE AUSTRIAN FEDERAL MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT; AS FROM 2004, HE WAS PROJECT LEADER FOR THE FEDERAL CLIMATE PROTECTION PROGRAMME “KLIMA:AKTIV” AND DEPUTY HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND ENERGY. SINCE 2011, BERND VOGL HEADS THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PLANNING OF THE CITY OF VIENNA, MA 20.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE

THE ASPERN IQ The aspern IQ, which was opened in the autumn of 2012, was the first building at aspern Urban Lakeside. Thus it was the first building ready to move in two years before the first residential buildings and also before the opening of the metro connection. From the beginning, this technology centre was an important anchor for companies at Urban Lakeside and a signal that aspern Urban Lakeside simply was not a "bedroom suburb" as it had been the case with some of the previous areas of urban expansion but that trade and commerce, innovation and technology, are seen as vital elements of urban development here. Moreover, built as a plus energy house, the aspern IQ set new standards in sustainability at Urban Lakeside—and throughout Vienna. The building was raised by the Vienna Business Agency. Its tenants are—beside Wien 3420 AG—research companies such as researchTUb and ASCR (Aspern Smart City Research) as well as Urban Lakeside’s first gastronomic business.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

ENERGY AT ASPERN VIENNA’S URBAN LAKESIDE BERND VOGL, PETER HOLZER Climate protection and the transformations of our energy system have become a recurrent issue of the social discourse and have significantly gained importance over the past twenty years. Against the backdrop of the worldwide trend of growing cities and the associated increasing energy demand in the metropolitan areas around the globe it is of crucial importance—also in the international context—how the Smart City flagship project aspern Urban Lakeside deals with this issue. In this respect, we, as responsible members of the aspern Advisory Board have a particularly strong commitment to focusing our attention to the ways how urban design influences the energy needs of the future residents. In the beginning, a considerable amount of energy is invested into the development of the city. This process is just in full swing at Urban Lakeside. How did one deal with the subject of construction energy at Urban Lakeside? It was seen to it that constructions materials such as gravel and sand were won and processed into concrete directly on site. Through

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

this, a lot of energy for the transport of these heavy materials could be saved. A model that should be taken up in other areas of urban expansion. What is interesting is the fact that this intelligent model was not common in the past, e.g. in the Gründerzeit, because transport was expensive or even impossible. For example, loam was mined in the vicinity of the construction sites, burnt to form clay bricks, and transported to the construction sites over short distances. In addition to this, further unnecessary transports can be avoided through well-planned construction site logistics. This is another good example that illustrates how brainpower can avoid and/or reduce the use of actual energy. With the construction activities, the city slowly comes to life, and the new urban area produces traffic. In urban life too a lot of energy is used for mobility. The better an urban area is planned with regard to cycling an walking and the better it is connected to public transport, the more energysaving the people move within, to, and way from the urban area. This aspect was emphasised very much at Urban Lakeside from the beginning. The connection to the U2 before the first houses were occupied was a very important and exceptional measure. At Urban Lakeside, one can optimally move through the city by public transport, by bike

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

or on foot; and if this is convenient, the people gladly accept this offer. Here is a relation with respect to this: In Vienna, the means of public transport achieve more passenger kilometres than motorised private transport with only five percent of the energy used in overall transport. Finally, let us take a look at the areas that are called "energy use" in common language too. The most energy is required for heating the buildings and preparing hot water. Thereby, we are observing that a larger and larger share is required for hot water. With buildings with very low heating energy needs it is more and more often the case that the hot water consumption requires the same amount of or even more energy than the heating. Buildings at Urban Lakeside will also have this feature. From an energy perspective, optimising hot water preparation will definitely be an important issue in the future construction of the northern part. In the south of Urban Lakeside, the heat is provided by district heating. In Vienna, the heat is eco-friendly and consists of waste incineration heat, waste heat from power-heat coupling facilities and the refinery in Schwechat. In the north, it is planned to integrate the existing regional resources of ambient heat, solar energy, and waste heat into the energy supply concept.

As the basis of all sustainable energy supply, the buildings at Urban Lakeside show an economical level of energy consumption being at the same time of high quality in their other functional characteristics. Every building from the developers’ competition and the building communities’ competition is rated according to Total Quality Building (TQB) and reaches at least 750 of 1,000 possible points. Along with high levels of efficient energy use and supply, equally high levels with regard to location and features, economy and technical quality as well as health and convenience are assured. There is also space at Urban Lakeside for three innovative buildings of the future which are supervised in the frame of a large research programme within the ASCR, a company specifically established for this. A school, a students’ hostel, and a residential building will be supplied with a mix of ecological technologies such as ambient heat, hybrid solar collectors for heating and electricity, concrete core activation, storage and smart home technologies—and explored.

PETER HOLZER FOUNDED THE INSTITUTE OF BUILDING RESEARCH & INNOVATION, WHICH DEVELOPS POTENTIALS AND SOLUTIONS IN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING, TOGETHER WITH RENATE HAMMER IN 2013, WHICH ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO THE DUALITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING. UNTIL 2013, HE WAS HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT AT THE DANUBE UNIVERSITY KREMS.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

BEFORE URBAN LAKESIDE IS BUILT ANDREA CEJKA Intermediate uses, temporary uses of the urban space, activation of forgotten urban spaces known from Berlin, Rotterdam, Brussels, Chicago, New York, Sydney... But there has only rarely been a strategic concept that sketches out urban development. For Urban Lakeside, the office zwoPK developed a master plan for temporary usage with meticulous methods based on best-practice research and workshops with the people involved. From this, realisations were to follow according to development stage and need. What all measures had in common was the intention to make the future urban spaces visible. The pier at the northern lakeside and the event location "Urban Field" next to the metro station Aspern Nord are probably the most formative experiments from this series of tests. The pier was built with the help of a social project for young adults called "greenlab", the materials: plain construction timber but all the more painstakingly crafted, beautiful. The shape of this pier follows the provisonally heaped up soil ridges along the northern side of the central lake.

These soil ridges too are to prepare us for the volume of the city. The pier is suspended only slightly above the soil body, becomes wider turning into platforms, tilts sideways off and on, becomes a ramp, a path, a square; and there is always a view. From here, one can see the almost completed south of Urban Lakeside, the city edge and the Lake Park, and look into the north where the city can still only be anticipated. Via the central north axis, the eyes are turned to a large square next to the metro station. This northern entrance to Urban Lakeside is characterised by an "Urban Field", a field of action, as a stage or market place, to be used according to fantasy of use. The surrounding soil sculptures remind of Charles Jencks’ "Garden of Cosmic Speculation". Here, differently from Jencks’ garden, not the universe but—in a tangible and conceivable manner—the city is the metaphor. The edges and walls of these soil sculptures are rigid yet they appear transformable in their interplay; already now, one can sense the buildings that will take their place one day. Precisely cut-in meadow paths or narrow wooden footbridges are leading high up. What is coming into being is a conversation with the horizon, poetry for the future Urban Lakeside.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

THE ASPERN ADVISORY BOARD ABOUT URBAN LAKESIDE

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

ABOUT VIENNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S URBAN LAKESIDE

URBAN LAKESIDE PIER AND URBAN FIELD Projects for temporary uses have played an important role in the development of aspern Urban Lakeside from the beginning. Thereby, the focus was initially placed, based on a "Master Plan for Temporary Uses" (2009), on the south where the first developments were launched. In 2010, the landscape architects of zwoPK examined possibilities for the extension of temporary uses to the north in a strategic study. From the large number of proposed projects, the so called "SeestadtPIER" was realised first, a dam heaped up east of the lake over which a wooden footbridge with viewing platforms is running. The dam is a staged footpath and a viewpoint all in one. The routes of the ring road (Sonnenallee) and the "Red String" in the north of Urban Lakeside were also already made visible by means of earth fills at an early stage. Eventually, after an extensive stage of research and participation, the so called "Urban Field" was established as a possible location for events next to the metro station Aspern Nord in 2012 and 2013.

As of 2014

POINT OF VIEW + LINE OF VISION t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

Headline Professional Perspectives â&#x20AC;˘ Subline

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

A JOINT COMPANY WAS THE CRUCIAL CRITERION FOR SUCCESS Interview with Christine Spiess, municipal project manager for aspern Urban Lakeside, and Bernd Rießland, chairman of Sozialbau AG, 12 December 2014

What would be the most important current subjects for an urban development project such as aspern Urban Lakeside if such a project was launched today? Bernd Rießland: Everybody asks himself: What do the houses look like? But it is above all about the following: How did the basic idea come about? We were lucky at that time, the project happened out of the blue. It was triggered off by General Motors’ wish to leave the area, which we reversed into an enlargement plus Urban Lakeside. Around 2000, population growth and need for housing were no issues but there has been this growth since then. On the occasion of my inaugural visit to the construction director, aspern was considered a land reserve for maybe 2050. Then came General Motors, for whom we conceived a solution without any budgetary effort for the municipality, and at the same time the opportunity arose to use the areas north of it. We talked with the federal government and the City of Vienna and wanted a development company, in the frame of which all owners cooperated, with shared risk and shared opportunities—cooperation instead of competition. Perhaps, this sounds romantic but the joint company was the crucial criterion for success. Through this, we created the legal

basis. At the same time, we discussed the metro, which had not yet been fixed at the time, with the finance department. The next step was the necessary zoning; there was an old master plan by Rüdiger Lainer for a part of the area which did not yet include the metro though and started from the assumption of very low-density development. For this reason, the development concept had to be changed; there was a competition for this, and fortunately we could win over Lainer as a juror. Christine Spiess: It was a stroke of luck that there was this large space reserve here in the form of a connected area with two owners from the public sector. Now we have the chance to develop this area convincingly, based on the outstanding master plan by Johannes Tovatt, with a central eponymous lake and a high share of green and open spaces. We also carefully considered how the area can be connected, how it can be linked to its surrounding area in the best possible way. High-quality planning alone does not make a new vibrant urban area yet. The intensive cooperation of all relevant players is essential for this. Bernd Rießland: City Councillor Schicker pressed for involving the population around aspern. We conducted surveys; the local residents elected three representatives who then participated in the competition jury. This transparent approach created trust and it was clear that we did not decide on anything behind closed doors; so the area could be included. There were definitely other voices too at the time, which claimed for total sealing-off.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Christine Spiess: For us, sealing-off is only an issue with regard to site logistics; for example, when it is about protecting the surroundings from noise, dust, and traffic. Otherwise, the opposite is the case: Urban Lakeside itself is to become a vibrant local centre. This requires the best possible integration of the new area into the city district and its merging with the surrounding area. Bernd Rießland: The discussions with the population showed that the local residents also saw the benefits; they demanded connections so that they could also use the metro, the schools, the local supply, and the open spaces. What kind of urban space will aspern Urban Lakeside become, what will be its atmosphere? Christine Spiess: I still remember the first model, which was based on the master plan, and the first renderings in the Land Advisory Board. Already in those days, I was walking through the new urban area in my imagination. Now I’m happy that reality will come very close to what I imagined then. For example, I’ve been on the sixth floor of a residential building directly on the lakeside only recently. The vista over the lake towards the metro is fantastic. One can oversee the Lake Park and the water surface, which is bright blue on some days, and beyond the metro route. This will also remain the same when the northern lakeside has been developed. Bernd Rießland: It was no coincidence that a planner from Scandinavia was selected for the master plan. There is a culture of dialogue in place which is essential for this. We learnt a lot when we developed the projects; you see this approach in the cityscape of Urban Lakeside. There are clear boundaries between the open space, buildings, streets, and

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

axes of view—but within the construction fields very much has been left open. For this reason, it was also important that we did not develop things in a competition in the Housing Initiative but in a dialogue. 14 architects and different developers conducted a joint planning process which was about how the buildings fitted together so that it would not turn into monoculture—after all, this was definitely something we worried about; terms like "Disneyland" came up. At any rate, the result shows an amazing diversity of architectural approaches. I think the word "home" can be used; one can identify oneself, the buildings are extremely different. With regard to the conversational approach, we and the architects had a lot to learn; there was absolutely resistance when Tovatt commented on the preliminary plans. To be sure, he is no dominant architect but very concrete in his statements. Christine Spiess: This collective planning did not exist yet in this form in Vienna, and this was very inspiring for me. At Urban Lakeside, there are still many other innovations around housing: the focus on high-quality and at the same time affordable living, the comprehensive planning of open space across all construction fields, the building communities that enormously contributed to the mix and the diversity, or also the meticulously planned local supply. Bernd Rießland: What I see a little different today are the small-scale structures. These were partly forced, for example the point blocks; but apart from this, there are not so many small-scale structures. The only really small-scale project is the Slim City on construction field D8, which is now disliked by many people. Today, I think that small-scale structures would be wrong as a general standard. If there were only small-scale structures in this density, a patchwork rug would be the result.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

s not “High-quality planning alone doe yet. ict tr s di y it c t an br vi w ne a e ak m l The intensive cooperation of al.” r this fo al ti en s es is s er ay pl nt va le re Christine Spiess

Christine Spiess: But the small-scale structures of the building communities are a very positive example. These people have established a form of cooperation and work together intensively. At any rate, this model is also to be considered for the future development of Urban Lakeside. It is absolutely essential to encourage the interplay of the players and diversity on the spot.

Christine Spiess: That’s true. There are some people who never wanted to go to aspern but are nevertheless here now! On weekends, sometimes hundreds of people take a walk out here, already our "intelligent large construction site" is an attraction. What do you wish for Urban Lakeside?

Christine Spiess: I am a fan of the metro route. How the U2 trains, supported by the bearing structure, are gliding through future Urban Lakeside—this is simple and powerful. And I am in general a friend of Tovatt’s master plan. It is impressing how many brilliant ideas it contains. And with the realisation, these qualities will also become visible.

Christine Spiess: I wish that the dynamics of development here is maintained to the end, that further interesting projects are realised in the north of the area, and that the transport connection works out and is of high quality. I also wish that we create a good mix of living and working so that it becomes a vibrant part of the city. I would be incredibly happy if the people from the district, but also from the areas south of the Danube, sometimes come here to go to a restaurant, or to visit friends and spend their leisure time together.

Bernd Rießland: That there will be, beside General Motors, a large international industrial company is an important incentive for the future. Of course, it is also remarkable that the metro goes there now; nobody believed in that at the time.

Bernd Rießland: I wish that we can achieve the 1:1 ratio between residents and people who work here, despite the difficult times. There are significant initial investments as signals but it is important that more companies relocate here. After all, the ratio

What are you impressed of at aspern Urban Lakeside?

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„

In aspern, the planners have ors calculated, and the calculat have planned, all together.” nd Rießland Ber

of residents and workplaces is 4:1 in the district of Donaustadt instead of 2:1 in Vienna as a whole; for this reason, Urban Lakeside is needed here! What else should be achieved for Urban Lakeside? Christine Spiess: Ideally, we manage to convince another international company to relocate their headquarters to the northern part. The location is still young but has enormous potential together with the infrastructure projects in the surrounding area. Bernd Rießland: From my point of view, there are above all two things that we still have to achieve: Firstly, we would need a superordinate educational institution in aspern and own cultural activities on an international level. And secondly, more interculturality is need, especially the transport connection to Bratislava has been lost out of sight of a little. Now one knows that this is achieved here; now one would need to build up networks with the neighbours. And as a consequence thereof, we must attract art. Something like that cannot fall from the sky in the first step but when the density comes, the potential for this will be higher too.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

What can future urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? Christine Spiess: A separate development company is very important. I am an advocate of this model. Here, the City of Vienna and Wien 3420 AG operate in the frame of an integrated management of programmes that involves all essential players. Forward-thinking planning of local supply and consistently activating the ground floor zone is also very important. That an area management is in place here right from the beginning of settlement is also a step in the right direction. And of course, the public transport connection is indispensible as a driver of urban development and precondition for the promotion of eco-friendly forms of mobility on the spot. Bernd Rießland: What we have successfully done here: We have always linked planning to an economic concept, with city and location economy, how strategic investors can be involved. And we have supervised the question of infrastructure and investment together with the municipality from the beginning. This cannot be taken for granted; planning and economy are very often separated.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

When planning, one is used to be imaginative but to look at the pennies and calculate everything right away—this is rather undesirable. Then again, many economists think planning is romantic; both sides tend to have mental misgivings in this matter. In aspern, the planners have calculated, and the calculators have planned, all together. We have taken the effort of mixing the cultures, the funds of the investors, of the public authorities, of planning. How does aspern Urban Lakeside compare to other European urban development projects from your perspective? Bernd Rießland: If one compares aspern with Scandinavia, for example, with Copenhagen, Ørestad: There, the federal level was more committed; for this reason, they have a university and a hospital there. Here, the federal government was a partner in the school project and in the transport infrastructure but it was not on board in the highest league of infrastructure. I would say that, compared to many European projects, the mix has turned out better at Urban Lakeside; elsewhere, there is more emphasis on housing, and the architecture is for the most part not as diverse. I think, with aspern we are playing in the same league like the important European projects. Stockholm, Rotterdam for example; here we are at eye level. But we also had to learn the openness to learn from other projects —and have even become better than the examples in this learning process. What is your favourite project at Urban Lakeside? Christine Spiess: I am particularly happy that we managed to bring Wien Work to Urban Lakeside. This company has operated all over Vienna so far. 70% of the Wien Work staff are persons with disabilities. They will offer diverse services in aspern. It is also encouraging that one already notices that the businesses are networking here.

CHRISTINE SPIESS HAS BEEN PROJECT MANAGER OF THE CITY OF VIENNA FOR ASPERN URBAN LAKESIDE SINCE 2011 AND THUS WORKS AT AN INTERFACE BETWEEN THE CITY ADMINISTRATION AND THE LARGE NUMBER OF STAKEHOLDERS FROM THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY RELEVANT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN LAKESIDE. BERND RIESSLAND AS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE VIENNA ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE FUND (NOW VIENNA BUSINESS AGENCY) HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BASIC CONCEPTION OF URBAN LAKESIDE AND IS NOW ACTIVE AS AN “IMPLEMENTER” AT URBAN LAKESIDE AS CHAIRMAN OF SOZIALBAU AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF EGW.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

100

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

THINGS ARE PUSHED TO THE LIMITS THERE AND DEVELOPED FURTHER Interview with Anna Detzlhofer, DnD Landschaftsplanung, and Peter Sapp, querkraft Architekten, 12 November 2014

What are the sujects one would have to deal with if one launched an urban development project like aspern Urban Lakeside again today? And how much are these subjects present at Urban Lakeside? Peter Sapp: The big issues, which have also been important here, are mobility, public space, energy—but in my opinion, it is also fundamentally about the way we build, down to the individual flat. At the moment, the flats are shrinking more and more in order to make them affordable. I ask myself if it is really so economical and sustainable if one adapts flats skin-tight to current needs and the people have to move out immediately in case of the first change in their life situation. I think we should rather build cost-efficient than as small as possible. I would put it like Erich Raith: Let’s put an end to residential construction; we need the intermixed city, buildings that can host several functions at the same time or one after the other as this was the case with the Gründerzeit houses.

Anna Detzlhofer: Two or three weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle in aspern on a sunny Sunday afternoon; there was incredible excursionist traffic! Of course, some streets appear relatively dense but a city also needs a certain density—this is no settlement as we know them all around in Donaustadt but a condensed city, and rightly so! Moreover, there are open spaces for different uses, from one’s own building site to the park; this is a big difference to the dense inner city. At Urban Lakeside, the open space has been consistently employed as a basic framework for urban planning. Movement is an absolutely essential element of the open space; insofar, mobility also has a strong determining influence on the open space. But what I also consider very important: When I was out with other women lately, there was a friend of mine who is member of a building community in aspern. She is totally euphoric when it comes to her future home. aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside has already become an address beforehand; this is really a phenomenon. Peter Sapp: That’s true. At the same time, one feels the ambition behind the overall project on many levels as a planner, a lot of people invest a lot of energy in this. It is also great that there are building communities. And I think the development company, which supervises the area in the long term and is a contact point for everything, is very important—this is a good model that should be employed more often! Due to this, it is also much easier to learn for the later stages from little shortcomings in the beginning.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

101

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

What are you impressed of at aspern Urban Lakeside? What do you particularly like? Anna Detzlhofer: For me, the consistency with which the development company pursues its urban planning goals is impressing; much of this is not easy to push through but this happened here—in intensive cooperation with the Vienna Municipal Department for Urban Development and Planning. I like the free-standing metro route, above all over the lake; and I like the debris cones, which will disappear as we know. But it’s bad that there is no library yet at Urban Lakeside, no music school, no cultural institution. Peter Sapp: What is impressing is the ambition involved; everybody here really makes an effort to deliver high quality although the pressure on costs is enormous in the case of the buildings of the developers’ competition. I think the metro is great, and the view when the city with the many cranes appears on the horizon, and the Flederhaus as a very special entrance gate. The lake is not as impressing as I imagined it. And the missing culture also bothers me; this is such a pessimistic approach. We don’t know if it works, so we don’t risk any cultural use from the beginning. Anna Detzlhofer: Now there is all residential building—I ask myself how gaps could be left there for creativity, for noncommercial things. Something like your office [in an area of the old stock exchange which has previsously been used as utility room] would not be possible there! Something is missing that makes a city interesting: the everyday spaces that can be used in a cultural context.

102

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

Peter Sapp: Now there are the cafeterias for the construction workers in containers in aspern, which are already atmospheric today. But they will disappear although this is almost a model scenario for urbanity now. One would need to find a seamless transition in order to preserve the small improvised things. There have been some innovations in the development of Urban Lakeside—development company, advisory board, investment into the public space, ground floor surfaces, mobility projects. Can the results up to now be perceived? Peter Sapp: Yes, you can feel the difference that an exciting urban conglomerate is coming into existence her—we’ll see if it works. The preconditions are good but: It must also be used! Anna Detzlhofer: There is the Flederhaus, the temporary terraces in the north, the cafeterias, the small cultural temporary uses—it would be a pity if all this disappeared. That's what gives it that extra something. The preparation through small interventions makes up a lot; this is also illustrated by the many Viennese citizens who come here to “take a look at the city”. Peter Sapp: This is also an interesting aspect for the mass media, where building culture virtually does not exist, after all. The people are flocking here; and they aren’t doing this only because they are looking for a flat. This is the same as with the new campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Obviously, building culture is nevertheless a mainstream subject.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

As you know, there has been a Smart City framework strategy in place in Vienna as of recently, in the context of STEP, where the city sets sustainability goals for itself. What does Urban Lakeside contribute to this from your point of view? Peter Sapp: For example, in the subject of mobility aspern demonstrates the approach that it is not as utopian as many people claim not only to bank on total supply with motorised individual transport. We will see that this works here, and then we can go much further in the future. This is a first approach but we must become more radical. In the subject of energy efficiency, my views are divided: Of course, it makes sense to optimise flats but on such a high level this entails high extra costs with only little additional effect. Ultimately, this brings about that the people get somewhat smaller flats for the same money. It was extremely work-intensive to make the residential buildings affordable; dozens of people have puzzled over this for months—this cannot be the standard. Extremely high standards are set up for housing but none at all for transportation! For flats, there is a legal upper limit for energy consumption; for cars, this doesn’t matter at all. I can also drive a 400-horsepower car.

Anna Detzlhofer: Energy efficiency is quantifiable but the positive effect of a larger children’s room is not! In my experience, there has not been any exceptionally high pressure on costs in the planning of the open space; at any rate, not in the production— here, the challenge is rather maintenance. And it was difficult to coordinate the underground and above-ground elements—the standardised distances of the trees to the houses and installations almost brought about that the planting of trees became impossible. Did you have expectations regarding Urban Lakeside that have not been met yet? Peter Sapp: I expected more from the lake. But I think this question is wrong: If one tries to implement something with ambition and some detail does not work perfectly, then it isn’t about this question. What has gone wrong? But one must first take possession of the area without haste, take one’s time, things need not always be optimal! When I remember the developers’ competition: I appreciate the ambition but this was definitely extremely predetermined; one could tackle the one or other matter in a somewhat more relaxed manner.

„ At Urban Lakeside , the open space has been consiste as a basic framew ntly employed ork for urban planning.” Anna Detzlhofer

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

103

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Anna Detzlhofer: It is too early to ask for expectations now. I think it is a pity that the water landscape in the Yella Hertzka Park has been cancelled. I would like to have somewhat wider streets in the quarters and more space for trees. At any rate, one must provide space for individual initiative, something like the open bookcase in the 7th District. How can the liveliness be expressed? Peter Sapp: I also see it that way. Who is moving there now, is a pioneer; these people have to be given a plot of land where they can take the initiative themselves. Creative potential is thereby emerging; one should allow them to establish a semi-legal venue and things like that. What can future urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? Anna Detzlhofer: They can learn that the open space is to be realised early so that the trees are big enough when utilisation starts.

Peter Sapp: The development company is very important: it owns all the land and can control the development, brings things together, is ambitious, and consists of people willing to achieve something. This would also be positive for other areas where there are more owners. Anna Detzlhofer: And an area management that goes on supervising the development also after its completion. What one might question is the introversion of this urban area but this is due to the circumstances. Peter Sapp: And this is above all a question of time, I think! How does Urban Lakeside compare to other European urban development projects from your perspective? Anna Detzlhofer: Compared to the HafenCity Hamburg it is particularly impressing here that there

ant: rt po im ry ve is ny pa om c t en pm lo â&#x20AC;&#x153;The deve trol on c an c d an nd la e th l al ns it ow the development, is ambitious, to and consists of people willing g.â&#x20AC;? achieve somethin Peter Sapp

104

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

is affordable and high-performance housing; this goes to the dogs in other places; elsewhere, there is only prestigious architecture. Peter Sapp: It is good, of course, that we do not have the luxury housing line here but the public buildings are also missing! Anna Detzlhofer: More radical parks were planned in Zurich; there was more material for the contemporary planning of the open space. Here, this is rather solid and good. And there are primarily parks in aspern—one doesn’t see that well yet how things are with the urban open spaces and squares.

Anna Detzlhofer: I think we need special places to celebrate there. Just like the House of One in Berlin. In the south part, there is this lopsidedness in the direction of housing. Peter Sapp: Now there is above all residential construction, there is no exemplary public institution so far—exactly for this reason, the Flederhaus is so fantastic after all; this is a “useless house", something like this is necessary!

Peter Sapp: The urban planning is definitely rather traditional, one might have acted more radically in this respect. Is there something you want to tell the players involved for the further development? Peter Sapp: Basically, I want to endorse the development: Things are pushed to the limits there and developed further. I think one needn’t fixate too much on what might have turned out differently. There are so many interests and matters present, this is extremely complex. Very many things in aspern run very well, a number of things not yet—but one should look at the things that work!

ANNA DETZLHOFER, DND LANDSCHAFTSPLANUNG, PLANNED THE OPEN SPACE ON THE CONSTRUCTION FIELDS OF THE HOUSING INITIATIVE (J2, J8, J9) AS WELL AS TWO SPACES IN THE RESIDENTIAL QUARTER, HERMINE DASOVSKY SQUARE AND SUSANNE SCHMIDA LANE. PETER SAPP PLANNED A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING TOGETHER WITH QUERKRAFT, WHICH WAS SELECTED IN THE FRAME OF THE DEVELOPERS’ COMPETITION (D12, TOGETHER WITH BERGER+PARKKINEN) AS WELL AS THE AUSTRIAN BUSINESS LOCATION OF THE HOERBIGER GROUP.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

105

positions on the production of urbanity

106

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

ASPERN AS A PROJECT, AN IDEA, AND A PROMISE Interview with Angelika Fitz, curator and cultural theorist, and Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Director of MAK—Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, 21 November 2014

What is the challenge when one launches a project like aspern Urban Lakeside? Which opportunities does such a situation offer? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: In such a new urban area, one has the chance to think one step further into the future. How can future elements of the city be analysed with regard to their functions? How can solutions that are exemplary, also for the existing condensed city, be pointed out? Angelika Fitz: What I find particularly exciting in a project such as aspern is that it creates a state of exception. It is rare that such a large area is available for urban development, and what’s more, everything in one hand, with a municipal development company. This is a prime example of a laboratory situation where new ways of planning can be tested out. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: We are preparing a project for the VIENNA BIENNALE 2015: IDEAS FOR CHANGE, 2051. Smart Life in the City. So we become aware of the following: What is missing in such urban planning is the interconnection of urban planning/architecture and a new design thinking: One suddenly notices that the thinking is based on the people; for instance, how the subject of streets must be addressed. This is an important addition to the things architecture and urban planning bring in.

Angelika Fitz: As I perceive this, architecture and urban planning are very open-minded, their work must be seen as social design. It is also about social and cultural intelligence, about appropriation, about the things citizens can do. In aspern, one rightly started to privilege the public space but, after all, the public space is no container, it cannot only be built. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: This emphasises exactly my point: How can I think in terms of design from the human perspective? This is important for a project like aspern. Angelika Fitz: There is the development company, which is the perfect scapegoat, and, in a typically Viennese manner, people slander on the quiet but only very few cultural institutions deal with aspern. It would be a task for cultural institutions to critically supervise something like this. aspern is also a good opportunity for public art. I see this as an archive of the future art can collaborate in. Not that art is responsible for working on the identity of Urban Lakeside but: What does citymaking mean? What does placemaking mean? What does it mean when so many different people move there? Both the examination of the place and of the planning and design methods is exciting. The opportunity will be wasted soon unless a larger art programme is initiated for aspern. It fits into artistic approaches that new urban areas are almost more written than built meanwhile. It is about rhetorics and scripts performed by new urban areas, to make them flagships for the city. What used to be competition between cities, also exists within one and the same city now. New urban areas are to outstrip the already existing city and to carry along the entire city. In this, I’m also interested in the images. There are two iconic renderings of aspern. These are in part set pieces from other projects in Vienna, a bus of Wiener Linien (Vienna’s public transport operator), a few new things, something higher, more green, but something familiar.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

107

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

How can becoming a city be designed as an open process, as done by the Advisory Board, if one needs at the same time such images which again determine a lot, and thus close it? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: On the one hand, people are still ranting about the master plan, on the other, important architects are building there; after all, this is a certain declared belief in aspern. This isn’t consistent for me. Angelika Fitz: The citizens who move in there, for example the six building communities in the south, show even more declared belief than the architects who are building there. They are committed. This is an unbelievable collective effort; people work there for years in their leisure time to help design a little piece of the city. When people want to do

„

this there, this says something about it. There is something to do there that you can do nowhere else in the city. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: It is nice that there are building communities there; after all, this hasn’t been so widespread in Vienna so far. Angelika Fitz: There are also resolutions to keep the urban area small-scale, including a pedestal zone that works small-scale. This raises the question of implementation again. Are there also niches, spaces that can be bought at a reasonable price? Otherwise, one won’t be able to create the intermixing that one dreams of. How can there be temporary uses and niches? This is a dilemma if everything is exposed to the pressure of economic exploitation.

It is also about social and cultural intelligence, about appropriation, about the things citizens can do.”

Angelika Fitz

108

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

At Urban Lakeside, great attention was turned in the planning to the design of the urban space. What should the public space offer in such an urban area from your point of view? Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: I appreciate architects very, very much but nobody can do everything; completely different approaches are needed too, by designers and artists. A different thinking emerges which then, when it connects with the skills of the architects and urban planners, arrives at new results. "Tactical urbanisms" are an important issue here. Angelika Fitz: The performative must be given much more room. Vienna has a tradition of area management which is about the appropriation of the city and public space. But there is a very paternalistic tradition in Vienna. Urban gardening doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thrive wildly but it happens where it is allowed. Graffiti only there where they are allowed. The city administration has difficulties with dealing with individual initiative and thus kills it. If people want to conquer the public space themselves, it suddenly becomes difficult. The municipal representatives should rather rub their hands instead. If it could be managed in aspern to be more open-minded, to create new interfaces, then the administration would have to change, and this would be good for the entire city.

Have you been there over the past few months? What is your impression? What is the atmosphere of the almost completed part? Angelika Fitz: It is still a very open field for me. I think theâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;still emptyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;centre is important, with the temporary uses and the events. And I also consider the temporary infrastructures important, from the cafeteria to the grocer, so that a feeling of perhaps not urbanity but of collectiveness develops. There is a risk that housing prevails over urban design, just like in other places in Vienna. The intention is there, to create the intermixed city but... Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: The atmosphere is still hard to judge at the moment. Is there a favourite project? Angelika Fitz: In my view, the question of favourite projects is difficult as a city does not consist of favourite projects, and least of all of my favourite projects. There is always a range of absolutely mediocre things that happen in a city, that are guided by diverse interests and pervaded by different wishes. This is urbanity, this partly crude mix, and hopefully it is like this in aspern too.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

109

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: Spectacular buildings, flagships, are also needed but how a city works in everyday life is only to a little extent influenced by this. Is there a market place anywhere? How do the streets work? In which ways can art and culture be present? Only the synergy of these elements creates urban identity. Angelika Fitz: When I think of the new campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, which also does not subsist on the architectural solitaries—some you like more, others less—but the fact that the master plan has been defended by the owner to the end, that money has been reserved for the open space—this is the quality that makes up the project. We need such institutions, functions, developers. What does Urban Lakeside mean for Vienna and the cultural offerings of Vienna? Angelika Fitz: Firstly, it should be a field of experimentation for artistic strategies, for public art in the broadest sense. And then there is the question if cultural institutions move in there. At any rate, existing institutions should deal with it, and connect with the new urban area. It is, absolutely dramatically speaking, about the promise of a better life. The city has always promised a better life; this is in the air in a project like this. Something like this can also be critically supervised. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: For me, aspern is the most beautiful small-scale model for the way Vienna can work as a city on the waterfront. What does that mean, deduced for the Danube? And then it is about the question how intermixing can be conceived in an intelligent way. How can it be lived? Which corrections are required? Perhaps, one should build a larger loft studio building in the northern part, something like the Anker Brotfabrik has become for many, but affordable.

110

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

Angelika Fitz: What is interesting in a project like aspern is that it stands in a genealogy of city foundations and failure in modernity. Huge efforts are made in aspern for learning about becoming a city in order to finally have a normal stretch of city because one wants that it becomes as urban as the 7th District. This cannot be planned just like that. Thus we must develop an intelligent machinery in order to get closer to this. This is a strange paradox. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: We must say goodbye to such objectives. I think there are new forms of an intermixed city that can be tested. Angelika Fitz: For example, for the issue of greening the city, this means that the green spaces are not arranged around constructions anymore, or concentrated in parks but that that there are continuous green spaces instead. This does not exist in the 7th District. It is pointless to argue about the master plan once again. But there is the risk again and again that the figure of the ring road brings in nostalgia here. Not by chance have there been counter-movements against the Gründerzeit city in Vienna. Insofar, one must take care that one remains courageous and open-minded enough for a different, a new city. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: Neither the Vienna Ring Road nor the 7th District can be replicated. What it comes down to: to achieve qualities in close contact to those who live and work there. And: One can say we want to have a cultural flagship but this won’t be easy. Then again, it is at any rate necessary that aspern is interwoven into the cultural events in Vienna. The Vienna Festival will also have to address the following question: How do I deal with aspern? Angelika Fitz: For example, the Wien Museum will have no home for several years when the new building is under contruction. For this period, one might consider dealing with and in aspern.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„ Spectacular buildings are also needed but how a city works in everyday life is only to a little extent influenced by this.” Christoph Thun-Hohenstein

What can other, future urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? Angelika Fitz: Actively approach building communities, create possibilities for the commitment of individuals—this is exemplary. And that quality criteria are held in high esteem. One does not hastily yield to pressure from investors and instrumental rationality but there are environmental, processoriented, social, and design standards. Something like that cannot be seen everywhere. Christoph Thun-Hohenstein: What one can also learn: That a master plan comes down to leaving openness with regard to content and not elaborating everything so that it cannot be developed further anymore. Angelika Fitz: What is central for me is that state of exception that is partly created there, is tied back to everything else that happens in the city so that the entire city learns from it: the administration, the civil society; so that aspern as a project, idea, and promise intermeshes with the city as a whole. And with the surrrounding area in Transdanubia too: What can aspern do for Transdanubia?

ANGELIKA FITZ HAS FOLLOWED THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN LAKESIDE FROM THE OUTSIDE FOR SOME TIME. IN 2010, SHE CURATED THE PROJECT “ASPERN PARLAMENT” AT THE REAL ESTATE AND INVESTMENT FAIR REAL VIENNA FOR WIEN 3420 AG. CHRISTOPH THUN-HOHENSTEIN INITIATED THE VIENNA BIENNALE 2015. ONE OF THE LOCATIONS OF THE BIENNALE WILL BE URBAN LAKESIDE.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

111

positions on the production of urbanity

112

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

URBAN LAKESIDE AS AN ACCELERATOR OF IDEAS Interview with Cornelia Schindler, S&S Architekten, and Wojciech Czaja, Der Standard, 1 December 2014 How do you see aspern in the context of urban development projects in Vienna in the more recent past? Cornelia Schindler: When I compare Urban Lakeside to the Vienna North Railway Station development area, the Vienna Main Station, or Eurogate, the comparison turns out positive for aspern. Usually there is an urban planning tendering procedure, zoning, and possibly quality criteria but then the plots are passed over to the developers regardless of the urban structure, atmospheres, uses, and public space—and this often leads to sad results. In aspern too, not everything that has been thought up will become a reality but the approach is positive. The approach in aspern should not be the exception as one can learn something for inner-city development areas too. Wojciech Czaja: I can only agree to this: As regards transparency and involvement of the public, Urban Lakeside is exemplary. One racked one’s brain what Urban Lakeside shall offer. There are very ambitious objectives but a lot of things that one wants cannot be implemented. One needs crowd pullers if one develops an area like this! Whether this is commerce, housing, completely new things, innovative things, universities and research institutions, cultural institutions—this is what I miss; ideas for temporary use, spatial occupation, and use are required.

Cornelia Schindler: I ask myself why more things have happened at Urban Lakeside than in other places. I think, Urban Lakeside is simply so far out there on the periphery; so there was the pressure of wanting to offer something special. So one had to reflect: What do we want to have there so that it is attractive for investors? Why are simple subjects of urban planning left to coincidence, or the investor, in other places? In aspern, there is the development company, the Advisory Board, the Score of the Public Space; this is all imposed on the buyers, you buy land there knowing that there are conditions. Wojciech Czaja: aspern is a satellite city, and for this reason it needs self-sufficiency in order to work. This is also my strongest criticism, that Urban Lakeside is oriented too little towards existing structures. One would have had to adapt the project to the surrounding area, in its structure, in its scale, and in its dimensions. Cornelia Schindler: This is true for today but the surrounding area will also develop dramatically. One day, the satellite city will merge with the surrounding area. It won’t remain an island. Wojciech Czaja: In the period of 15 to 20 years in which Urban Lakeside is realised, it will remain like this but in the face of Vienna’s growth, plus 300,000 people, Urban Lakeside will merge with the surrounding area some day.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

113

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„

ed by A soul can only be creats things, means of spontaneou by means of providing affordable space.” Cornelia Schindler

Cornelia Schindler: It’s a pity that the subject of energy has been cut down to such an extent there. There was talk of energy-plus-houses, of geothermal energy; at the same time, there was enormous pressure on costs in residential construction. So it turned out that one could only afford low energy houses. And what has not worked out yet: That one brings a high-level educational institution to aspern. None of the universities wanted to relocate there and the City of Vienna also kept the hands off it.

Wojciech Czaja:You need soul catalysts for the soul, otherwise life won’t show up in aspern for years in the way presented in the renderings.

Wojciech Czaja: The city would have to lead the way in an exemplary manner; political commitment is needed here. After all, we have crowd pullers there —the smart city subject, innovative mobility—but why do we have it out there, and not in the inner city? Artist-run spaces would have to be invited to relocate to aspern as temporary uses; affordable or free offers would have to be made to artists. Something like this creates a soul.

What at Urban Lakeside is impressing, outstanding, for you?

Cornelia Schindler: A soul can only be created by means of spontaneous things, by means of providing affordable space; it cannot be regulated. Why is something happening in the inner city? Because there you have the opportunity to appropriate space. One must let the people do something on their own, one must place something at their disposal.

114

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

Cornelia Schindler: Here, I also miss the transparency a little that was there in the beginning. Is something like this considered at the moment? A soul, to provide space, to leave space for critical things? I also miss information about ideas for the north! Where are we going now?

Wojciech Czaja: The experiments in housing in aspern—different typologies of housing, the building communities, new construction methods, the garage compounds, the qualities of open space, affordable housing, the temporary students’ hostel. Cornelia Schindler: I can only partly agree to the statement that we have particular innovations in housing here. Residential buildings like here can also be seen elsewhere. But this way of dealing with the public space does not exist elsewhere— nor does the cooperative planning in residential construction. There were workshops in order to connect the public space to the open space of the

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

building sites; it was about the atmosphere of the streets, the interfaces were defined. Even though some architects thought that they didn’t need this, it was successful. Here, building sites and the public space have been jointly created. But one would have also needed more privately financed housing, for a greater degree of intermixing.

a quality that anybody can still come in with any idea anywhere. In general, I’d wish that an open discusssion is launched on the basis of what we see now in order to learn something for the next steps. Wojciech Czaja: I think more socio-cultural intermixing, more courage towards gaps, more chaos, more leaving things open are needed.

What is missing in the new urban area? Wojciech Czaja: An urban mix, more intermixing of social and privately financed housing, more offices, and that the uses are not divided up into different quarters but are intermixed like in a city that has evolved naturally. Cornelia Schindler: In think we have to make progress not only with regard to urban design but also with regard to a typology of buildings. People fought for the ground floor zone in aspern. But now we need to go one step further and develop hybrid buildings. Special developers and users are needed for this. It can be quickly designed but the crucial point is the use. And the legal structures for change are missing. Once the people live there, nothing else is possible anymore. Is there something you wish from Urban Lakeside? Wojciech Czaja: I see Urban Lakeside as a catalyzer, an acceleration of certain ideas. I don’t wish so much from Urban Lakeside but from Vienna that everything that one tries out there—mobility concepts, how to deal with parking spaces, ground floor zones—will be used in inner-city areas. If this is successful, Urban Lakeside has achieved a lot as an accelerator of ideas. Cornelia Schindler: Something complete is created at Urban Lakeside. But: Where is the leeway so that something else can develop apart from the things planned on the drawing board? The first part is designed right down to the last detail. Where is the space for parasitic intervention inbetween? This is

What can future new urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? Cornelia Schindler: They can learn from the completely different procedure. Things are discussed across building plots at Urban Lakeside: Where do I enter a building? I want that the building entrances face the street and nobody enters the house from the yard. This is a small but highly effective measure. The architect instinctively plans the entrance on the north side because the building faces the south but this is not deliberated with the city in mind. It can’t be that building planning follows zoning immediately; intermediate steps are needed here that allow for considerations based on a comprehensive conception for all building sites. We have a wide gap between the ideas of urban planning and building planning; there would have to be so much inbetween! Wojciech Czaja: Others could learn from the way things were conceived with the city in mind, for example with regard to the size of a block. In other areas, the blocks are two or three times the size of those of the surrounding Gründerzeit quarters. So you suddenly don’t need one minute to the next crossing but five minutes. This basic structure of urban planning is different in aspern. Cornelia Schindler: There was an outcry in the competition that the winning project was so conventional. We urban planners live in a helpless time. At any rate, I think that the so called conventional in aspern is breathable. In other places, there are arbitrary patterns of Ls, lines, and meanderings, and fervent discussions why this must be like this. Initially, I

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

115

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

was also startled by the ring structure but we are living in a time that has no own set of tools for urban planning—so we resort to old ways. The corollary is: Here, we have at least good block dimensions. At the first sight you feel, well, this is not the 21st century but what I know from the 20th and 21st century is not done in a way that it convinces me. Wojciech Czaja: Lampugnani said that a city emerges where rivers and roads are bundled, where there are nodal points more frequently; spots of encounter, intersections, contacts. I can most likely imagine this at Urban Lakeside but at the Vienna North Railway Station and the Vienna Main Station, where there are free-standing blocks in the middle of green areas, nothing is bundled... Cornelia Schindler: Everything is dimensioned in the same way, the street space only depends on the daylighting surface, everything in the same construction class and with the same spacings. Wojciech Czaja: And this doesn’t work, one would need four times the number of residents so that

„

encounters are possible. At Vienna Main Station, one has already started to make the plots smaller but has still not arrived at the functioning Gründerzeit street grid. How does aspern Urban Lakeside compare to other European urban development projects from your perspective? Wojciech Czaja: aspern can most likely be compared with Ørestad in Copenhagen. To be sure, they have a head start of ten years there but there too the metro was built first and then the plots of land were developed—and it was delayed. In Ørestad, one has let off more steam architecturally. What is your conclusion on the subject of aspern Urban Lakeside? Wojciech Czaja: Learning from Urban Lakeside, in the sense of critical examination. What were the first steps, what can the second steps be, and above all: How can one apply what one has learnt here beyond aspern?

I don’t wish so much from a Urban Lakeside but from Vienn s out that everything that one trieity areas.” there will be used in inner-c Wojciech Czaja

116

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Cornelia Schindler: I would wish Wien 3420 and the Advisory Board that there is cultivated knowledge transfer. In this city, you are always afraid that mistakes are the greatest disaster but the mistakes are most vital for keeping up doing your work. Once in a while, you have to pause for a moment and ask: What has happened so far? Like with the subject of the passive house. There was a run on the subject but I thought: Let us take a breath and say openly what works and what doesn’t, and then let us draw conclusions from this. Wojciech Czaja: Would you move in there? Cornelia Schindler: I have also said that I can only imagine living within the Vienna Beltway but now I am not a hundred percent sure anymore! I trust this city to develop into something that provides an identity. I would never say to my children: "What kind of neighbourhood is this...!" Actually, I welcome it. Wojciech Czaja: I can’t imagine this. I am a story addict, a building stock junkie; I need the substance. But I am optimistically thrilled to hear this. The following question indicates whether planners and developers would use a project themselves: Is this thing authentic? Cornelia Schindler: There is a lot of criticism as to what hasn’t happened or could happen but I think that Urban Lakeside has more quality of life, in the urban spaces, than what we know of other areas of urban expansion in Vienna.

CORNELIA SCHINDLER PLANNED RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN THE FRAME OF THE RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION INITIATIVE AT URBAN LAKESIDE (D7, D11) AND WAS A MEMBER OF THE PROPERTY ADVISORY BOARD OF THE VIENNA LAND PROCUREMENT AND URBAN RENEWAL FUND (WBSF) UNTIL 2014. WOJCIECH CZAJA FOLLOWS THE DEVELOPMENT AT URBAN LAKESIDE AS AN ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALIST.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

117

positions on the production of urbanity

118

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

LARGE-SCALE URBAN PLANNING COMBINED WITH SMALL-SCALE STRUCTURES Interview with Susanna Zapreva, Wien Energie GmbH, and Friedrich Bleicher, Vienna University of Technology, 14 January 2015 Please, tell me first about your relationship to aspern! Susanna Zapreva: The company I represent is Vienna’s energy supplier. We want to meet the requirements of aspern—this is why we invest in research and hold a share in a research company which invests 40 million euros there. Smart energy supply is the research objective. It is explored in selected buildings, a residential building with 300 residents, a students’ hostel and a large school with a nursery school. This is of course linked to the City of Vienna’s smart city strategy; along with energy, it is also about smart communication technology and mobility. Friedrich Bleicher: I came to aspern as a pioneer; at that time, not even the first building, aspern IQ, was completed. At that time, we, the Vienna University of Technology , founded the research company research TUb together with the Vienna Business Agency and were looking for a location, and in doing so we came across aspern—and we were among the first tenants there.

What do you think is central for an urban development project like aspern Urban Lakeside? Susanna Zapreva: The people must be paramount in such a project. Everything must be laid out in a way that the people feel comfortable. There are three central issues for urban development with regard to energy supply: efficient construction, that is smart buildings; energy supply with renewable energy; and the interconnection of energy supply and information technology. The focus is on usability for the people. Friedrich Bleicher: researchTUb’s task is to bring together innovations and best practices from the Vienna University of Technology and the industry and to show companies new innovative technologies, to provide related training, and to adapt them in an application-specific way. This is also connected to a global trend in urban development. Production facilities have been located in the surrounding areas of cities so far, or have moved there from the urban agglomerations. Today, with the trend towards urbanisation, urban manufacturing gains significance so that jobs for people living in the city can be offered if only to avoid the traffic flows associated with commuting. For this, the right framework conditions are needed, technologies that can be used in urban areas, and economically and ecologically compatible production in the city.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

119

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

What attracts research and technology companies such as researchTUb or ASCR to Urban Lakeside? Susanna Zapreva: aspern stands for the massively growing city of Vienna of the present, for Vienna’s claim to being a city of the future. For this reason, aspern is to be a modern urban area where future technology is tested, where energy supply that is only in the conception stage elsewhere can already be implemented in new ways. And it is about investing in future models of supply, new products and business models, and making them tangible for our customers. Friedrich Bleicher: For researchTUb, the smart city approach is interesting: that living, recreation, work, and innovation are integrated into an urban planning project. Austria has too little self-confidence in this respect. Here in aspern, we are talking of investment of the order of five billion euros; this is a project of international calibre! We want to be on board here and actively participate, and try out the vision of the production of urbanity. For example, HOERBIGER is building its new business location in aspern. Thereby, new concepts of production are implemented, with IT integration and resource efficiency. This is an exciting environment and we want to carry these developments outside. What would be needed to be done in order to increasingly attract other companies in this field but also educational and research institutions? Susanna Zapreva: The framework conditions, and here above all the subject of costs, are essential for companies. There is a focus on plots of land, infrastructure, and appropriate workforce. Friedrich Bleicher: I think the same things apply for companies and universities: It is about transport connection, infrastructure, this influences the decisions. I think one would need to think in a more conceptual manner and emphasise synergies in order to attract the interest of even more companies and institutions. Of course, the infrastructure is essential for a university on the periphery but one 120

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

would need to think about this in scenarios. Are there students’ hostels, is there hotel infrastructure apart from the campus? How does the public perceive Urban Lakeside from your perspective? Susanna Zapreva: As far as I know, the general opinion is that something new is being created here. The expectations are high: What will this be, what will it look like? Yet the perceptions are still vague. To make the subject more tangible for the population will remain a challenge. Friedrich Bleicher: I got to know aspern as a very strategic development. The generic process that is running now is thus intentional; one involves tenants, owners, and developers, develops a new approach from their activities and wishes from which an image of future Urban Lakeside can emerge. It is useful for the public effectiveness of such a project to bundle the diversity of ideas and to create a collective picture. After all, there are many approaches of combining technology, culture, and living—for example, the Ballet of Cranes or the Long Night of Research. We were surprised how popular this was. What are you impressed of in aspern? Susanna Zapreva: It is exciting to see how an urban area of the size of Mödling is being created here, in fact starting from the green meadow, and within no time at all. This entails completely new problems and interactions. After all, the cities of the past have grown over a long period of time. Here, it is possible to play through a hundred years of history within a few years. Friedrich Bleicher: When you were flying the route over aspern towards Schwechat Airport and looked down, this was extremely impressing—within the short time of flying over it, it was hardly possible to overview the vastness of the construction project and the number of cranes! This intensity, the speed at which structures come into existence, this is spectacular—and this isn’t happening by coincidence but follows a meaning; this city works.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„

aspern stands for the massively growing city of Vienna of the present, for Vienna’s claim to being a city of the future.” Susanna Zapreva

Do you have a favourite project? Friedrich Bleicher: There are allotment gardens for private individuals at aspern Urban Lakeside. I think it is particularly important to combine large-scale urban planning with small-scale structures, that there are creative cells for ideas, for example the beehives on the roof of the aspern IQ too. One has to supervise such small plots while the bulldozers are flattening the land! Susanna Zapreva: I like that nature is created here too, that there is the artificial lake, that the urban area is made a place to live. There won’t be endless anonymous blocks of flats but the urban space is made appealing. The main idea is that one can feel comfortable here. What do you wish for Urban Lakeside? Friedrich Bleicher: As a motorist, you wish for a reasonable transport connection so that business partners who come from the west can come here easily. Susanna Zapreva: I wish that it can be managed in the city of Vienna, which is full of tradition and

history in its centre, to make aspern a city of the future. Such an approach can offer a lot, a new future second centre for Vienna! Friedrich Bleicher: Here, I have Paris in mind; there too, there is a traditional city centre and an innovative area. People haven’t realised sufficiently yet that the future of housing, of the city, is created here. But this would also have to manifest itself in buildings and projects, and this is also an opportunity to make statements—like the old Arc de Triomphe and the new Grande Arche in Paris. aspern would need something like that, a knowledge tower where culture and technology meet, for example. Which expectations regarding Urban Lakeside have not been met in the present realisation? Susanna Zapreva: You have to be ready to try things and make mistakes whenever something new is created. You must manage to hang on despite mistakes that happen. Those are successful who stand up one more time than the competitors when they have fallen down! Geothermal energy was our future issue in aspern but the first drilling was not successful. This is a future-oriented issue and we will hang on until we are as successful as we intend to be. If you are afraid of new things and t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

121

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„

People haven’t perceived sufficiently yet that the future of housing, of the city, is created here.” Friedrich Bleicher

denounce failures, nothing new can ever be created. You have to take the courage and the freedom for such failures. Fear only results in stagnation. People haven’t perceived sufficiently yet that the future of housing, of the city, is created here. Friedrich Bleicher: The Viennese tend to grouch and complain. The courage to embrace new things, which also includes failure, is missing here. The positive things should be foregrounded when new things are tried out. Failure is part of it. One tries to invent a new city but by applying old methods and structures. One wants to encourage companies to participate in this large innovation project but to stick to the old structures on the operational level. If a company is interested in aspern, it should be adequately motivated to grant economic and contextual leeways.

122

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

What can future urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? Susanna Zapreva: New parts of the city are to be adapted to their surrounding area. For this reason, the approach of aspern cannot be transferred everywhere else; this is a completely new urban area—if it is built in the middle of Vienna, it is different. Of course, it is important for us to transfer the technologies, the business models, and the products to other locations too. But in each and every case, you have to start from the respective framework conditions on site. Friedrich Bleicher: Because aspern is so large, all work is based on a holistic approach to planning that integrates transport, infrastructure, and architecture; and which is also about the interaction with the transport systems where infrastructure for electric mobility and bicycles is established. Of course, planning is situation-related but this holism is something that ought to be pursued in other places too.

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

How does Urban Lakeside compare to other European urban development projects with regard to sustainability? Susanna Zapreva: The subjects of energy efficiency and renewable energy are focused on in aspern; there are very strict provisions for CO2 and other environmental indicators in Vienna, which have to be observed by the energy suppliers. Moreover, the share of renewable energy in aspern is ambitious and sporty by international comparison. Do you have one more suggestion for the near future of Urban Lakeside? Susanna Zapreva: This is what I want to tell all parties involved: Even though new things are irritating and apparently strange, on should absorb them and have a close look at them because only unknown things guide the way to new things! As Kafka put it: A new way is not there, it comes into being when you go it. Friedrich Bleicher: Vienna is classified as a city with a high quality of life. When you are not born in Vienna you learn to appreciate Vienna. This is a fantastic city but there are opportunities it ought to take more extensively. For this, one would have to consider the experiences from technology-oriented regions of the world. For a country like Austria, innovation and technology expertise are key factors for prosperity. One should bring together innovationoriented companies, create the right spirit: This can only be managed with a critical mass and then a subject is pursued in a way like bio-technology in Vienna several years ago. Somebody has to take on this and say: I want to do this! I want to take the chance and bring innovators to this place.

SUSANNA ZAPREVA IS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF WIEN ENERGIE GMBH, WHICH HOLDS A SHARE IN THE RESEARCH COMPANY ASPERN SMART CITY RESEARCH GMBH & CO KG (ASCR). FRIEDRICH BLEICHER IS HEAD OF THE INSTITUTE FOR PRODUCTION ENGINEERING AND LASER TECHNOLOGY AT TU WIENâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE RESEARCH COMPANY RESEARCH TUB AT ASPERN URBAN LAKESIDE.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

123

positions on the production of urbanity

124

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

URBAN CONSTRUCTION HAS A FUTURE IN EUROPE WHEN IT BECOMES USAGE-NEUTRAL Interview with Dietmar Steiner, Director of the Architekturzentrum Wien, 18 December 2014

What would be the most important current subjects for a project like aspern Urban Lakeside? Dietmar Steiner: In general, more theoretical and analytical lead time is required for developing such areas than it has been the case with aspern. You cannot participate in a competition right away but you first have to know what is intended there, you have to analyse the relationships with the surrounding area, develop ideas, and work out studies. To my knowledge, this hasn’t happened but it started quite abruptly. This is the accusation with regard to urban planning, the critique of the process. There is a critical analy sis of the result by Hermann Czech, which deals with the ring design. In terms of urban planning, this design entails that the urban area appears rather closed than open. But these are rather analytical, theoretical questions. But I’m not worried that Urban Lakeside won’t work. This urban area is included in the city’s infrastructure, there is the tried and tested system of Viennese housing. For this reason, nothing will go wrong but it also doesn’t warm one’s heart. If you compare this to Ørestad, for example, where they started with two, three "anchor buildings": A centre of attraction also for city tourism was created right away. How would you describe the framework conditions for the urban space of Urban Lakeside? I was part of every housing jury, of the Housing Initiative call as well as of the developers’ competition. In my opinion, there were very narrow framework conditions, a pretty uninspired master plan without any set of rules in terms of urban

planning beyond the ineffectual zoning and the constructions costs were subject to serious limitations. So the implementation was no smooth affair, every project was realised by the smallest margin. But it was without doubt a good decision to begin with the entire planning of the open space prior to this. This element of building has not been cultivated in Vienna so far. But the result is specified somewhat too conventionally and has exaggerated aesthetic standards. Apart from this, there is nothing that we do not already know anyway; after all, there has also been no fundamental change in the sets of rules. With a few exceptions, we have the exterior insulation finishing systems, which create a specific appearance. The main problem in housing is the explosion of regulations. I think, after four years of this advisory board on quality, one would have to pull the plug and reinstall it. Today’s residential construction is inefficient, cost-intensive, and the high costs do not benefit the tenants, and prevent architectural innovation. It is also completely impossible to explain to someone who is not part of this system how this works. The implementation of urban planning in Vienna is essentially determined by two parties: the fire department and the waste collection service. And in this respect, there is no special zone in aspern too where sustainable developments could have been tested. This would need to be conceived in a much more international context, and other experiences would need to be made fruitful here. Is there something that impresses you at Urban Lakeside? Yes, indeed. This is a colossal project which is implemented simultaneously with several other also not so small urban development projects on top of that. Such an effort usually causes a sudden increase of construction costs but this hasn’t happened.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

125

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

This has been balanced out without conflicts by the persons responsible, which is an achievement. And aspern has not attracted attention through any crude scandal so far; this too is an achievement if you look at the majority of large European construction projects. But I am still sceptical with regard to the obscure ownership structure. You don’t know who is responsible for what. Do you wish something for aspern Urban Lakeside? I would wish for aspern that it gets involved in the European debate on comparable areas of urban development. There have been at least a dozen comparable projects in Europe, and here one pretends to be completely left on one’s own. One could make use of the experiences gained during the IBAs (International Building Exhibitions). This aspiration is missing; this cannot be done with the aspern Advisory Board alone. The big opportunity for aspern would have been to make monofunctional residential construction more sustainable in terms of typologies and concepts. For me, the ceiling height is decisive for this. This is no issue of cost but a social and cultural agreement. For example, I would demand 3.40 metres on all floors. Only Dietmar Eberle’s Project 2226 has given us an idea again of how important the room volume is for the energy balance. We have to build houses in which we are living now but could also host schools or offices in twenty years. Urban construction has only then a future in Europe when it becomes usage-neutral. Which expectations regarding Urban Lakeside have not been met yet? Of course, one would have expected higher aspirations, more courage, and seriousness in the preparation of documents, more research, and more preparation. But there is no European showcase project where everything has been done correctly. Moreover, we don’t have any typological and morphological diversity at the moment but a pretty conventional "historicist modernity" with purely formal arguments. I would have wished for one research step further—that there is a conceptual 126

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

difference to previous developers’ competitions. In order to build an urban area, binding rules for all parties involved are required, for the typology, for the appearance. But not many join in here, they consider this conservative, restrictive. After all, this is an old question: Where do we feel comfortable, where do we go with pleasure? This is not the city where one eruption of individualism stands beside the other. Usable, tangible, and modifiable normality is what the European city consists of. Nobody wants to be excited all the time. Until the 20th century, the term "Städtebau" (urban construction) had been common in the German-speaking professional world; "Stadtplanung" (urban planning) emerged in the postwar period, then "Raumplanung" (spatial planning); and now we have arrived at "Smart City". Let’s talk about "Städtebau" (urban construction) again! If one had done urban construction, one would have had to establish a differentiation between normality and highlights, singularity and uniformity. This could have been developed typologically. But there was no ground plan debate, no typology debate. Why not build for once an entire quarter with urban houses with front gardens, basements, and mezzanines, without shops? What can future urban development projects learn from aspern Urban Lakeside? At any rate, the conception of the outdoor space. With regard to managing the quarter and agreements between the developers and architects that looked beyond individual construction sites—in these respects, aspern has been better than other projects in Vienna. But the fundamental problem of landscape planning is that it is much too smallscale and related to individual plots of land. Too many landscape planners tinker around without any concepts and there are only a few reasonable solutions. Here, we have to arrive at larger coherent spaces. And what is in place to a much too small extent: that subsidised housing in Vienna and in aspern implements disperse types of housing for the future. There are developments in the direction of community-oriented living, living in groups, right down the building communities—here, subsidised housing follows a societal trend that is unknown

positions on the production of urbanity

PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

„ Here, the identity is social housing, just as there is love in Paris, and pop music in London.” Dietmar Steiner

in privately financed housing. But all this has still too little impact on the ground plan typology. How does aspern Urban Lakeside compare to other European urban development projects from your perspective? When you take a look at Lyon, or the harbours of Oslo, Helsinki, or Hamburg—everything looks the same. This is caffè latte urbanism. The only difference in Vienna is that we have the housing expertise of the past one hundred years here. There is affordable housing and less social conflict than in other places, gentrification is more moderate. It is unimaginable in Vienna’s housing system that a residential building does not work, apart from the one by Zaha Hadid. You can rely on the set of tools of moderated housing, which is important for the city administration. Here, the identity is social housing, just as there is love in Paris, and pop music in London. What are the fundamental open questions with regard to urban planning at Urban Lakeside?

altogether a disaster of town planning. Just take a look at how awkwardly and tiredly one corner after the other is dealt with. But this probably corresponds to the political and social situation. The big question is which effects the completion of Urban Lakeside will have on the surrounding areas in Donaustadt. After all, the Donaustadt’s identity is absolutely a mystery to me. Even Floridsdorf is clearer; Am Spitz is the centre there. Is there a place in Donaustadt that one voluntarily visits with pleasure? This could be achieved with aspern despite the little pond in the middle.

DIETMAR STEINER WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE FIRST DEVELOPMENT STAGE OF URBAN LAKESIDE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE PROPERTY ADVISORY BOARD OF THE VIENNA LAND PROCUREMENT AND URBAN RENEWAL FUND (WBSF) AND THE HOUSING INITIATIVE.

How will aspern be successfully linked with its surrounding area? After all, the peripheral districts of Vienna, the 21st, 22nd, and the 23rd district are t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

127

Wien Headline 3420 AG Face-to-face â&#x20AC;˘ Subline

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

Some of the staff members of the development company of Urban Lakeside, Wien 3420 AG, describe their connection to Urban Lakeside and their work for the creation of this new urban area.

CLAUDIA NUTZ Management board Planning Product development Technical infrastructure Internal organisation

130

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

After many years of development, I consider the notions of courage, responsibility, and persistence most significant for the vocabulary of urban development. It is important to want things. You must have the courage to advocate them. But it also takes courage to strike out in new directions and sometimes—let us not deceive ourselves—it is also more courageous to acknowledge your mistakes than to carry on blindly. Urban development is multifaceted and very complex. Exactly this makes it fascinating but also difficult. We have always been aware of this and have always made the effort to network with the world. The Advisory Board, but also the format of the Citylab, are well-known references for this. But all this is nothing without the people who are ready to assume responsibility in the end of the day. For me, they seem to be the fundament of society, and thus of the city. I firmly believe that responsibility is nothing given but you have to take it. Thus, this has nothing to do with one’s professional or social position but with one’s readiness to contribute something, to advocate one’s ideals and/or to change something. We, Wien 3420 AG, are trying to make this possible by understanding ourselves as a platform and not as the initiator of urban development in aspern. Nevertheless, we persistently adhere to our qualities such as the vibrant ground floor zone, diversity and small-scale structures or good old sustainability and try to establish them step by step. Because we too feel reponsible!

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

GERHARD SCHUSTER Chairman of the management board Sales Marketing Communication HR

ALEXANDER KOPECEK Management board Finances Legal participations Property administration

The development of Urban Lakeside makes the plus perceptibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and it offers the rare opportunity to add a very future-oriented attraction as an asset for Vienna. A city within the city which wants to meet the highest standards in all aspects of sustainability. In this respect, the plus stands for the connection of the most diverse skills, qualities, and functions that a "city for the full life" needs. Wien 3420 AG connects people who help build aspern Urban Lakeside with a great deal of commitment and enthusiasm, and it is a great pleasure to contribute oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s share in this life task. What is particularly exciting in this are the subjects and projects where technological, economic and social innovations are combined: the mobility concept, the design of the ground floor zone and the open space, energy efficiency and establishing diverse educational and cultural offerings.

aspern Urban Lakeside is a space of possibility for new things. Everybody is cordially invited to fill it. As soon as the idea or the new way is economically viable, we support its implementation for all we are worth. The aspern Advisory Board and Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG are to take care that the promised quality standards are met. This is a question of credibility. Project partners that have already implemented the things they promised are invited to develop aspern Urban Lakeside together with us further on. My experiences gained with the aspern Advisory Board so far have shown that it has a realistic approach to the quality requirements and implementation possibilities of the individual investors. For this reason, I would consider to be important that all future project bidders down to the last construction field of aspern Urban Lakeside present their new projects in the aspern Advisory Board and deal with its recommendations.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

131

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

On the Pulse of Time + Designing the Future The future is built at Urban Lakeside. This means responsibility and precision. It is based on a master plan, a brand concept, and an armada of thinkers and implementers. And people who feel at ease at this place. And appropriate the place. Fill the city with life.

Living + Working

CORNELIA BREDT Marketing

Vegetable Patch + Choral Singing The first experience with Urban Lakeside—a cold November afternoon, fog-shrouded. A no man’s land. And right in the middle of it a green flag defying the storm—the infopoint, at once a feeling of arriving. Then, in 2011, the first project at Urban Lakeside. Commencement of work with Wien 3420 AG in 2012. In 2013, a vegetable patch in the Urban Lakeside garden. In 2014, member of the Seestimmen (Lake Voices)—the choir of Urban Lakeside.

Great Team + A Convincing Project The Urban Lakeside spirit is not merely an empty phrase. You can feel it at every corner. You know that you are personally involved on the spot in a special event: The becoming of a city with high aspirations, commitment to the 21st century, the courage to break new ground, and the ability to captivate people. This inspires and helps create special things.

132

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

The life-work balance concept behind the brand of aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside charges the place symbolically and confers a new identity to it. Thus an urban development of our time is emerging on 240 hectares on the edge of the Danube River meadows after a multifaceted history. Zero boredom. The development period may be long. Living and working at Urban Lakeside is interesting and convincing.

aspern Uncovered + Crane Lake 30 pupils embark on a search of the forest of commemoration on the edge of Urban Lakeside—a forest that was planted in the 1980s to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The "Ballet of Cranes" that puts the workers on stage and turns their craft into a theatrical performance. Representative for their about 1,000 colleagues, 15 crane operators attract the masses. Two events and a clear message. The full life!

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

What makes my work so rewarding is that one is confronted with a large number of questions of up-to-date urban planning immediately and on a barely tangible scale like with a burning lens—both spatially and temporally—and must literally plan these. It is permanent learning and applying the things learnt, and this at very short notice for urban planning circumstances. International developments and trends, current issues from sociology to climate protection are to be matched with the respective development stage of Urban Lakeside and examined for their feasibility on different scale levels.

PETER HINTERKÖRNER Urban planning

It is unbelievably rewarding to interlink very pragmatic details in the implementation of the new urban area with the big trends of the discourse on urban planning in quick interplay. How can the current tenet enter the detail? How can visions suffer shipwreck through bad implementation? It is a permanent challenge—which is all the greater now as the first buildings are completed and the first Urban Lakesiders live and work here—not to want too much: to find a good balance between clear specifications, recommendations, and projectspecific freedoms, which give the "grand narrative" of Urban Lakeside a personal note. How can the contingencies of later planning be anticipated? "The full life" is what we want to bring to Urban Lakeside, as promised in our tagline. Can we plan life? This is what we asked ourselves in a panel event on the public space a few years ago. The spontaneous answer to this can probably only be no. Yet further reflection shows that planning can indeed create at least favourable or not favourable framework conditions for life in a newly developed urban area. I also work precisely between the poles of "planning intention", the lack of planning capability, and leaving things open—and this makes it so multifaceted and rewarding.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

133

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

KURT HOFSTETTER Urban construction and planning

As an urban planner, I of course did not want to miss the chance of substantially contributing to the development of an entire urban area. Everything that moves people is lying on the table: living, working, mobility, suitability for daily use, public spaces, supply, education, a sense of neighbourhood, recreation, wellbeingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the full life: the motto of Urban Lakeside. What is particularly exciting is dealing with challenges that are partly not new at all or simply require always new answers: the development of a managed ground floor zone as a response to the usual vacant space in new settlements; the metro as an advance in order to restrict the motorised individual transport in return, which is a burden for the entire district; a mobility fund to support alternative mobility offers which accompanies the cost-saving parking space regulations; offers for temporary use and cultural offers to make the not yet developed urban area attractive; branding at an early stage as a strong backbone for comprehensible and transparent overall development, and many things more. What is remarkable for me is how much comprehensive overall development relies on the powerful visions of individuals, and how contagious and viral these visions can be. Meanwhile, social media networks of future residents who caught fire are formed. They will bear the success or failure in this urban area full of experiments, innovations, and first steps. The plus that is still left to be added by the developers is probably based on the virtues that have marked the development of aspern Urban Lakeside from the beginning: the consistent pursuit of objectives, audacity, and the confidence in a good society.

134

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

In my work at Urban Lakeside, I am motivated by the one-of-a-kind opportunity to do urban development in a holistic manner as a member of a compact team. Daily learning from other fields of expertise and the different points of view of the individual experts lead to new solutions in internal discussions.

ROMAN KOSELSKY Technical infrastructure

The experience of the metamorphosis of undeveloped land into a place to live for people of different age and social background creates a permanent tension and leads to the continuous examination of the overall project. Oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own "getting older" brings forth parallels in the way one deals with changes and personally adapts to them. Urban Lakeside will become a place for people with different needs. This already becomes evident when the first residents move in. What seems to be important for Urban Lakeside is permanent orientation of all planning and decision-making processes towards this heterogeneity. The opening of the site fences in the area of the Opel industrial siding will remain a lasting memory. With this, we opened Urban Lakeside and established a connection between Aspern and EĂ&#x;ling. My personal favourite project has been greenlab because this project reflects many aspirations that we have with regard to the project and is a quite emotional matter for our team.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

135

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

As I was born in Vienna I know the 22nd District under the name of Transdanubia from my childhood, whereby this had no negative connotations but it was "in the countryside" so to speak, not in Vienna anymore. Then the construction of the large housing projects in the 21st and 22nd District started—not necessarily glorious projects—"bedroom suburbs". I can remember very well the first building of the housing estate of the Großfeldsiedlung, which was standing in the middle of an open field. In my opinion, the Vienna International Centre was the first project that made the step of urban expansion beyond the Danube popular.

INGE LÖWY Sales

Then Urban Lakeside emerged in the 1990s for the first time—the old airfield—I used to know it as a Formula 1 test track and/or location of driving courses. A completely new concept was to be implemented here. And I am a member of the team of Wien 3420, and I think it is very exciting to work here because Urban Lakeside is a one-of-a-kind project. What is particularly outstanding for me at Urban Lakeside is that a project with a balanced mix of uses is emerging that makes a sensible work-life balance possible. For me, this is the most important quality of Urban Lakeside because it makes it so one-of-a-kind. It isn’t simply another housing development but a separate city quarter which revives the structure of the Gründerzeit quarters of the past and will offer a similar degree of quality of life. For this reason, I wish the project in particular that this mix can also be implemented. In my opinion, the most important project to date is the metro, the basis for the alternative mobility behaviour of the Urban Lakesiders. My wish: the realisation of the wooden high-rise building by Kerbler Holding GmbH—I think this is another milestone in the development of Urban Lakeside.

136

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

WIEN 3420 AG FACE-TO-FACE

MARVIN MITTERWALLNER Visitor management

DIETER SPATH Urban planning/architecture (maternity leave cover)

I grew up in the vicinity and I perceived and followed the transformation of a more rural district where one still saw the remnants of the old villages built around a village green into a district with urban flair with great interest already in my childhood. If you can be part of this transformation in the 22nd District you should show great interest in Urban Lakeside as a responsible citizen with an urban planning background. Thus I wanted by all means to get involved in the implementation, no matter in which role. A resource-saving urban area is being created where all up-to-date planning practices are employed. In the frame of ecological and social sustainability and both communicative and participatory processes a best-practice example of urban planning is provided here which shapes the new urban area. When will there ever be the opportunity again to participate in urban development of this scale and quality?

My connection to Urban Lakeside is that I temporarily work in the urban planning team of Wien 3420â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and I would be ready to become a pioneer/ resident of the first stage. I feel connected to this project because it remains visionary despite all real-life parameters. That a different cityscape of Vienna emerges where the public space is not mainly blocked by cars and in which cyclers define the modal breakdown at a different percentage than in other parts of Vienna, and that Urban Lakeside thus corresponds to a modern European urban area worth living inâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all this is of particular importance with regard to Urban Lakeside. A new city is simulated on the old airfield. What I connect to this is the feeling of having attended the ground-breaking of a new city and thus conceiving my own journey through life in relation to the emergence of a city. Projects that must be mentioned in particular are the mobility fund, the shopping street management, the housing project D8 (residential building Slim City, PPAG, EGW HeimstĂ¤tte), and both the size and the quality of the open space.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

137

Headline Perspectives on Site â&#x20AC;˘ Subline

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

140

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

How do people see Urban Lakeside—and above all its qualities in terms of urban planning and urban space—who are not professionally involved in the development of a new urban area but live or work there? What do they like? What annoys them? What importance do they attach to the new urban area? Ten people who have already dealt with aspern Urban Lakeside professionally or as residents for quite some time now, or since only recently, provide information.

"I mainly operate U2 and U3 trains and come to Urban Lakeside almost every day. The U2 is my favourite line because it is more varied than the other lines. At the moment, only every second U2 train goes to Urban Lakeside, sometimes the trains are empty until Donauspital. But this will be different soon. For me, Urban Lakeside is a beautiful patch; I’m happy every time I come here, every time I drive here, the route is nice to operate, it is fast. You see the peak of the Schneeberg in the far distance if the weather is fine. And I see the progress every day; it’s gigantic what happens here, above all at this speed. 40 cranes were there and now there is only one, almost everything is completed. Everything has been permanently in motion; there has always been something new when one returned here. I’ve driven here the workers in their work clothes every day. We, my girlfriend, my daughter and I, have also considered to move in here, we are looking for a home. But I know what I want. I only move in here if everything suits my requirements; I don’t let myself in for any experiments: It must be a flat to the south, with recessed balcony, preferably with a view that is unobstructed by other buildings. I like the location with the lake in the middle, the beautiful green areas that are planned. There will be a lot of things at Urban Lakeside—flats, venues, companies. What is also needed are entertainment possibilities, a centre like the Cineplexx in Kagran so that the people cannot only live and work here but can also have entertainment—and need not go to other places for this. This is above all important for the young people so that they are not bored. And I hope that there will be a lot of open areas, that not everything is developed; after all, there is enough space, it’s not as narrow as in the 1st District."

“I’M HAPPY EVERY TIME I COME HERE!” Bohuslav Olsavsky,

METRO TRAIN DRIVER

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

141

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

142

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

"Here in aspern we fulfil tasks for the greenlab project, for example, we make raised beds and flower boxes, we have built the walkway near the pier at the lakeside, and so on. We’ve been here for four and three months, respectively. At the moment, in winter, this is rather carpentry work but in the summer we work outdoors, maintain the green areas and things like that. And we have crafted a table and benches for the construction workers at a cafeteria. The residential buildings here, this is really a lot of concrete. But I think it’s pretty cool actually. After all, this creates jobs. What I like best is the bathing lake. My girlfriend and I live nearby. We went swimming here in the summer. I grew up in the 22nd District and I feel connected to this area, and I can very well imagine moving in here—after all, everything you need will be built here, schools, supermarkets, and this on the periphery. And the countryside is not far from here too. The only question is what it looks like when it is completed, and whether even more buildings are added."

“I THINK IT’S GOOD THAT THERE ARE SO MANY CONSTRUCTION SITES HERE.” Florian Führer and Aziz Durak,

GREENLAB

"I am used to a different environment; I grew up in the 2nd District, it is completely different there. I think it’s good that there are so many construction sites here. I have never seen so many at once. I cannot imagine moving in here. I’m street-smart in the 2nd District, my friends are there, my family. There I am at the metro station or the supermarket within a few minutes. There is not much left that we would wish for here. There should be playgrounds—and above all enough shops nearby, this is important. We would love to work more in parks, and do more creative things, in the open space. The best thing at Urban Lakeside is the walkway along the lake, near the pier; when you walk up there, it is quiet; you can sit down there and relax."

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

143

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

144

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

"It is pure coincidence that my partner and I run the cafeteria. I used to be a real estate broker and would have had to sell the cafeteria, but we just took it over ourselves. We are successful with it but it is also a lot of work. We are not only looking for the profit; we are happy, if our guests are happy. In the beginning, there were 48 cranes and only holes, the ironworkers were here. Meanwhile, there are other workers, above all interior construction workers. I’m proud that we can offer the guys something; satisfied workers perform better. And we also have a social function: we bring all the people together, the construction workers, foremen, site managers, secretaries, foreigners and Austrians, and meanwhile residents too. We have been on board from the beginning and we have seen how the city is growing. It's easy for you to talk, that a city is built here, so what? But cities evolve over decades or centuries, and this here happens within such a short time—respect! I’m happy and proud of being a part of it. This is a great achievement, that it works so smoothly. Many curious visitors come with the metro. The people say that it is so beautiful and fine here but it is so far away. Then I say, from here it is a long way to another place; you can also see this reversely! When you move in here, everything is new; this doesn’t have any history yet. History is only waiting to be written here. I would move in here any time. Now the first residents are already here, a sense of shared identity is emerging. Humans are social beings that want to share good things and bad things, beings that have to talk to each other. I hope this remains like this. I like to spend time with the people who are here now—this is something I miss in the city.

“HISTORY IS ONLY WAITING TO BE WRITTEN HERE!” Mile Savic and Sladjana Dokmanovic

URBAN LAKESIDE CAFETERIA

It’s important that also jobs are created here, and that there are also craftspeople. I’m tired of the large shopping centres, everything only repeats itself there. Small shops with personal customer service, where you can chat, are much better."

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

145

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

146

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

"We install banisters for the pergolas of a residential building at Urban Lakeside. We have been work-ing on this construction site for two weeks but we have been in aspern for more than one year. Prior to this site we worked on another residential construction more towards the lake. aspern will become a real city; That’s super what is being built here. The construction sites here; there are fifty, sixty buildings at once—this is one-of-a-kind! I come here by car every day because I live in Wiener Neustadt. But if I moved to Vienna, aspern would be good for this. At any rate, I want to live in a new building. Here, the buildings are different, larger, more modern than elsewhere in Vienna. We used to live in old tenements in Vienna in the past. What we don’t like there: Every patch is filled with buildings in Vienna. The buildings are all interconnected, they are stuck together, everything is cramped. Here at Urban Lakeside, there is more open space; that’s much better. And there is this new lake, that’s great when you can go swimming straight away near your home. It is also important that there are enough shops, in the residential buildings or in a shopping centre. You don’t have this so often in these development areas. What I like in particular is the residential building with the blue glass front. It is beautiful and completely different from the houses we know. I have seen something like this for the first time here. The house with the wooden front, in which we are working now, is also unusual. Otherwise we only have plaster or glass at the outside.

“THERE IS MORE OPEN SPACE AT URBAN LAKESIDE, THIS IS MUCH BETTER.” Blero Ahmeti and Dardano Hyseni,

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

At the moment, it’s rather ardous to work here because the weather is always so bad. But at least the sun is shining today. Four days ago, there was a snowstorm."

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

147

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

148

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

"I’ve been working with Wien Work for 25 years now. We are currently distributed over several districts. For this reason, we move to aspern in order to have everything in one place. I am responsible for the technical infrastructure. We will have about 600 employees in two main buildings and several venues. aspern is growing incredibly fast; it is partly startling how fast this is being raised. The plans are promising but there is still little to see; there is not so much happening right at the moment, the first residents ar just moving in with all the problems you have when you live on a construction site. For me, moving to Urban Lakeside is no issue because I live in the 23rd District, in my own single-family-house. But if I had to look for a flat, I’d possibly look for one on the edges of Urban Lakeside. But I would not move in here before the streets and the infrastructure are completed, when the transport connection is comp leted. I also always think of the local residents. I know a few people in the surrounding area who have looked at open fields for tens of years and now there is the metro route; the area is connected to the big city now. But this has of course benefits too, one also hears positive things from the people: the bus, the infrastructure, the local supply.

“YOU LIVE IN A BIG CITY HERE!” Christian Brodner,

IT STAFF MEMBER AT WIEN WORK

I think you have to listen to the locals and make them clear why things are as they are here. Then they will see the benefits. I like that the buildings are not outstandingly high. One doesn’t live here surrounded by skyscrapers. After all, there were other residential areas in Vienna in the 1980s and 1990s. The building style has improved since then. But one must be aware of the fact that one lives in a big city here. What isn’t working well yet is the connection for motorists..."

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

149

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

150

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

PERSPECTIVES ON SITE

"We were looking for an affordable freehold flat in the city for one year but it was impossible to find one. So we broadened our horizon in 2012 and found aspern , where there was a building community into the bargain. We decided to move here within one month because the people were so nice. The solidarity within this group is very special, we know us for more than two years already and it feels like we have been going through thick and thin with each other. We have bought the promise of Urban Lakeside and now we support it. We hope that the concept works out—that an urban area close to nature is emerging here which offers the appropriate infrastructure. At the moment, the frequency of the bus service is too low and there are only a few shops. We are still living at a non-autonomous Urban Lakeside because we have to go somewhere else for everything we need. But it is great that one can help design so many things. It is exciting to be part of a development process here. We feel like pioneers. And you have to imagine: When our children move out in about 17 years, Urban Lakeside will just be completed. What is not so good: The cultural programme here and in the 22nd District in general, was definitely not the reason for moving here. We have friends in the vicinity; they are happy about the Flederhaus and the FABRIK because these are almost the only cultural offerings in the district. But we hope that Urban Lakeside will offer more in the future. We come from the dense city and we are used to choose from a large number of attractive offers. We hope that there will be enough people here due to Urban Lakeside who share our mentality so that something like this pays off. We wish that a lot of things take place in the public space: farmer’s markets, street festivals are things that we can of course partly organise ourselves.

“IT IS EXCITING TO BE PART OF A DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.” Fabian, Luisa, Oskar and Silja Topfstedt,

RESIDENTS IN THE BUILDING COMMUNITY JASPERN

And we wish for more life in the ground floor zones. This is not urban yet; for this we also need shops with charm that make an urban area worth living in."

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

151

Innovation Headlinein Urban Planning â&#x20AC;˘ Subline

positions on the production of urbanity

INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING

LEARNING WITH URBAN LAKESIDE ROBERT TEMEL Innovations in urban planning require long periods of time in order to prevail. Years, or mostly even tens of years, go by until the success of an idea can be shown in practice. Every new area of urban development learns from the things that have been done in others before. What has been taken over from the usual practice? What has been done differently? Where has one tried out new ideas? Thereby, also innovations that have not yet passed the practical test will be employed in future planningsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;above all if their success seems to be foreseeable. Beyond a city or a country, this also applies for the international context. In comparisons with examples in other countries, the different framework conditions have of course more significance than within one and the same planning culture so that taking over other models becomes even more difficult. Moreover, there is also always learning within the development cycle of an individual new urban quarter itself. This is also the case with Urban Lakeside with its development period of about 25 years, which will also continue beyond this period when all buildings

154

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

are completed. This means that the parties involved, whether planners or politicians, learn from the experience gained, learn from the success or failure of the first steps of realisation, and learn from the feedback of the public. If the planning process is laid out reflexively, this learning can be continuously translated into planning decisions. The situation of an area of urban expansion is always so specific, spatially and temporally, that formulas for success cannot simply be taken over from others but have to be adapted to a certain extent. At aspern Urban Lakeside, an intermediate step is taken with the completion of a first large section in the south of the area in 2015, which is to be used for a critical reflection of what has been achieved so far. What has been successful? Where are corrections required? How can we learn for the future with the experiences gained in the first stage? Such reflection of the things achieved has been a subject in the aspern Advisory Board from the beginning. It will take a long time until it becomes clear if Urban Lakeside and all its elements with regard to urban planning is accepted by the residents, or is even spread and appropriated. At any rate, the responsible parties involved in Urban Lakeside try to communicate with these residents, to involve

positions on the production of urbanity

INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING

them, and to react to their feedback already at an early stage by means of appropriate measuresâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for example, the area management. To aim for an equal number of residents and jobs and not to primarily plan residential buildings, as is often the case in Vienna, was an essential starting point for Urban Lakeside which entailed consequences for urban planning and design. This objective is reflected in the meaning of the concept of work-life balance for aspern Urban Lakeside. A founded assessment of this subject is not yet possible today. Similarly, this also goes for many central innovations, which have been tested at Urban Lakeside for the first time in Vienna but of which can already be said that their implementation within the existing framework conditions for urban planning and housing in Vienna was possible even though this involved considerable effort in many cases. Without a development company like Wien 3420 AG with its team and resources for the planning and implementation work this would have been impossible to realise. There has been investment in the quality of the public space at Urban Lakeside, there has been more planning effort than usual in order to make the urban space to the same extent usable as a space

to live for the residents as the homes and private open spaces. Above all in the light of the high densities being realised in residential construction in Vienna today, a compensation in the form of high-quality open spaces is required. At aspern Urban Lakeside, this seems to have been achieved with the public space. In semi-public areas, for instance there where different construction fields adjoin each other, more effort needs to be made in this respect. In general, the coordination between the design and the use of different building sites can be regarded as an important subject which needs further elaboration. In the context of the subject of open space, the focus is placed on the ground floor zone, as the lateral demarcation of the public space: In this respect, cooperation with a developer of shopping centres has been ventured for the first time in Vienna in order to market the ground floor areas in the central streets as an open air shopping centre, so to speak, with an appropriate mix, and to thus avoid a privatised indoor shopping centre and to breathe life into the street space. The precondition for this was the specification of appropriate ceiling heights as well as the assurance of floor space in these sectors. And ultimately, mobility is as crucial for the quality of the open space, and the streets in particular.

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

155

positions on the production of urbanity

INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING

A garage compound system has been realised for the first time in Vienna, supplemented by trafficcalmed streets, focus on means of transport of EcoMobility, and a mobility fund which purposefully supports systems that simplify and improve the use of EcoMobility. The garage compounds are to grant public transport "equal opportunities", so to speak, to the private car because they make sure that the distances to the respective means of transport are about equal. The following also applies for the ground floor zones and the mobility concept: The realisation is possible and we will see if it is successful. What has been aimed at in the master plan but could have only been realised to some extent is smallscale structures, a mix of uses, and the intermixing of residents. There are initial attempts to realise this in the south part of aspern, for example with the building communities and the joint project of Wien Work and Gesiba. In part, there has been the attempt to reach a certain degree of small-scale structures at least with regard to access (entrances and stairs) and the outline of the building struc-

156

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

tures. Appropriately more small-scale parcelling should be tested in future stages. Thereby, a key will be interlinking the requirements of affordable housing with those of diversity. The aim of diversity of urban design as well as diversity of uses and residents requires a diversity of instruments and procedures by means of which a large number of players can be involvedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;along with the tried and tested players, the "pioneers of space", who can realise particularly innovative projects, are needed too. The building communities on the construction field D13 in the south of aspern are a promising step in this direction. The thus emerging projects should not be zoned too homogeneously but mixed as small-scale as possible. The questions of openness and flexibility are a fundamental problem of all present-day areas of urban expansion. Development areas are strongly defined by construction methods, legal forms of use, and different types of project developers so that changes of use at a later time must almost completely be ruled out. But as the immediate use of all areas is an economic necessity there

positions on the production of urbanity

INNOVATION IN URBAN PLANNING

remains hardly any openness for changes of the utilisation needs. The focus on participation in aspern also requires undefined areas which can then be defined by the future residents, above all in the open spaces. Yet it is difficult to reconcile such vagueness with the planning culture in Vienna. This problem has not been solved so far at aspern Lakeside too. The specification of greater ceiling heights in parts of the ground floor zone offers a certain degree of flexibility. Concerning this matter, there is a need to discuss with which architectural, organisational, and economic means more flexibility and openness could be achieved. After all, the question of diversity is also one of architecture. Basically, the aspern Advisory Board appreciated the architectural diversity in the new urban area; nevertheless, the building heights and housing typologies were perceived as too uniform. More accentuated differentiation is one of the Advisory Boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives.

be found for projects that could not be realised yet? Apart from the above-mentioned new procedures and instruments, apart from the task of evaluation that the Advisory Board already set itself when it became operative, the royal road there is probably the (professional) dialogueâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the municipal administration, with politicians, with planners, developers, and project developers, with residents and users. The aspern Advisory Board has thematised reinforced effort to conduct this dialogue already for a long time. The publication at hand is to be a step into this direction.

Thus, how can we achieve now that the objectives to be achieved with regard to urban planning can be implemented and new solution approaches can

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

157

positions on the production of urbanity

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

ILLUSTRATIONS COPYRIGHTS

14–15

62–63

COPYRIGHTS

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 1

Tovatt Architects & Planners

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 2

Tovatt Architects & Planners

66–67

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 3

Tovatt Architects & Planners /

Ludwig Schedl

Wien 3420 AG

70–71

Ludwig Schedl

Ill. 4

Wien 3420 AG

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 5

Rüdiger Lainer + Partner

76–77

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 6

Rüdiger Lainer + Partner

Wolfgang Thaler

80–81

Wolfgang Thaler

28–29

Wolfgang Thaler

Kurt Kuball/message

Wolfgang Thaler

84–85

Ludwig Schedl

34–35

Wolfgang Thaler

26–27

Wolfgang Thaler

90–91

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 7

Wolfgang Thaler

92–93

Anderwald + Grond

Ill. 8

LAVALAND

Luftbild Redl

Ill. 9

YEWO landscapes

100

Wolfgang Thaler

106

dadaX

Ill. 10

LAVALAND

112

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 11

LAVALAND

118

Stefan Draschan

Wolfgang Thaler

124

David Bohmann

42–43

158

PAGE

Wolfgang Thaler

128–129

Ludwig Schedl

Amélie Chapalain /

138–139

Luiza Puiu

Area Managem. Urban Lakeside aspern

140–141

Luiza Puiu

Wolfgang Thaler

142–143

Luiza Puiu

52–53

Wolfgang Thaler

144–145

Luiza Puiu

Wolfgang Thaler

146–147

Luiza Puiu

fasch&fuchs.architekten

148–149

Luiza Puiu

ZT Hinterleitner

150–151

Luiza Puiu

58–59

Wolfgang Thaler

152–153

Ludwig Schedl

Wolfgang Thaler

Ill. 12

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

positions on the production of urbanity

NOTES

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d

159

positions on the production of urbanity

NOTES

160

t h e a s p e r n a d v i s o ry b o a r d