VILLACH (AT) PROJECT SCALE — L/S – urban + architecture /
SITE PROPOSED BY — City of Villach
architecture + context
ACTORS INVOLVED — City of Villach,
LOCATION — West Railway Station, Villach, Carinthia
Austrian Railway Company (ÖBB)
POPULATION — 61,800 inhab.
POST-COMPETITION PHASE — Strategic urban concept as
STRATEGIC SITE — 7.8 ha / PROJECT SITE — 3.5 ha
a base for further development steps
Guido Mosser — Planning Director, City of Villach Christopher Kreiner — Project Manager, Austrian Federal Railway Company 1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE SITE MUTATION?
City of Villach — The goal is to establish a development that is integrated into the existing structure and interweaves with the public space. The framework for these inner-city areas is already described in the city’s urban development concept and the Europan project needs to be in-line with that. Austrian Railway Company — For the ÖBB-site, it is important that the railway station “Westbahnhof Villach” is integrated into the future planning steps. Like mentioned in the tender documents (brief), the railway station is part of the study site and an important transportation hub for pupils and students in the surrounding schools. Even if the railway station is not part of any structural changes, the urban project should not exclude these type of commuter flows, but rather benefit from it.
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2. HOW CAN THE SITE BE INTEGRATED IN THE ISSUES OF PRODUCTIVE CITIES? HOW DO YOU CONSIDER THE PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE?
Austrian Railway Company — The issues of a productive city, respectively the project in Villach, should orientate towards the inner-city needs. Which use is missing? Which products can be manufactured near the historic city centre? Developing a suitable use for the available space on the ÖBB-site should be done in close collaboration with the urban planning department of the city or other similar institutions. City of Villach — The above mentioned also applies to the city’s real estate, and it will be interesting to see which “forms of production” will develop in the future. The integration of logistic systems for online trade will also be an issue. 3. HAVE YOU ALREADY DEFINED A SPECIFIC PROCESS FOR THE URBAN AND/OR ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE AFTER EUROPAN COMPETITION?
We want to develop a masterplan with the winners. Based on this, the legal foundations for the development and the open spaces are to be defined. On January 30th 2020, a first workshop took place in Graz and further steps were discussed. It is envisaged to feed ideas from both projects into one, which then should be developed in further detail. One winning team will take the leading role to coordinate the different demands.
