Video: How to live in Vienna. Angelika Fitz, Michael Rieper.



10 Chapters

The exhibition as well as the publication follow the “Vienna Model” in its main characteristics in ten chapters:


1. Continuity and Innovation

Vienna’s social housing policy originated from a reform program started in the 1920s. In order to overcome the deplorable housing conditions inherited from the Hapsburg Empire, a socialist government built more than 65,000 low-cost apartments in large housing estates. (more…)

2. Social Mixing

Through its housing policy, the City of Vienna has always sought to contribute to social integration and the quality of urban life. (more…)

3. Developing New Urban Areas

In Vienna a citywide development plan is reviewed and adopted every ten years. Based on this plan—which is subject to broad public participation by residents, district politicians, and other stakeholders—the city organizes competitions for new subsidized estates. (more…)

4. Diversity and Integration

Like many large cities, Vienna is experiencing profound demographic changes—resulting ironically, in a higher proportion of both young people and more senior residents at the same time—whose manifestations include immigration-driven growth, an aging population, and new lifestyles. (more…)

5. Citizen Participation

In seventeen areas of the city Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung (Local Area Renewal Offices) have been com­missioned as interdisciplinary teams by the City of Vienna to integrate the local population into processes of area development. They serve as easily accessible information centers, foster new participatory approaches, organize residents’ workshops, and cooperate with schools and cultural initiatives. (more…)

6. Climate and Environmental Protection

The City of Vienna employs building codes and housing subsidies to influence both the buildings themselves and their construction process. In addition, they affect the process of planning and building itself. (more…)

7. Use and Design of Public Spaces

Access to urban space is a key consideration in the design and layout of new city-subsidized housing projects. Vienna backs (more…)

8. Developing Existing Housing Stock

Vienna’s Urban Development Plan is based on the concept of sustainability and encourages the creation of a walkable, compact city. (more…)

9. Building on the Outskirts

On the outskirts of the city—where built space transitions into unbuilt space—subsidized construction projects are confronted with very specific challenges: here, deep-rooted structures, some of them still quite village-like, encounter (more…)

10. The Role of Art

As a form of cultural expression, art has played a special role in public housing projects since the beginning of the Social Democratic era during Austria’s First Republic. (more…)