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. Today more than a third of the city’s population is foreign-born. As a consequence, one of the declared objectives for housing construction in Vienna is the targeted integration of “different” and new lifestyles in subsidized housing projects. These changes require new forms of multigenerational housing and provision of social services in the immediate vicinity. In addition, new residential construction must accommodate the needs of people with special needs and actively pursue new ways of dealing with social disadvantage, “new” poverty, and homelessness. The policy of the City of Vienna is to prevent the exclusion or stigmatization of any segment of the population and to promote integration instead. To provide for these rapid changes, the city supports architecturally flexible projects.
Text: Wolfgang Förster