TRUE URBAN SPIRIT

GLOSSARY
tive Group for Construction and Technology.
Its task lies in developing a basis for
political decision-making regarding the
installation of technical and social infrastructure
in connection with urban development
projects.
Intermodality
Intermodality is the use of several means
of conveyance for the transport of persons
or goods when involving trip chains.
One example might be the use of a car
or bicycle to reach a train station in order
to continue a journey from there. In goods
transport, intermodality embodies the
transport of standardised units (e. g. containers)
and their shipping via different
means of transport, e. g. rail and lorry.
Knowledge economy
The term “knowledge economy” defines
those economic activities that are particularly
dependent on a knowledge base,
from which they develop new knowledge
or innovative high-tech products in turn.
The knowledge economy is composed
of three interlinked pillars – universities,
high-tech production and knowledgeintensive
services. The importance of
knowl edge-oriented economic activities is
growing, which makes them a key driver
of the economic and spatial development
of metropolitan regions.
KÖR GmbH – Kunst
im öffentlichen Raum
In 2004, the establishment of the Fund
for Art in Public Space set the course for
high-quality artistic design of public space.
Since then, KÖR, which today is organised
as a public limited liability company, has
evolved into an interdepartmental model
instrument involving the Administrative
Groups for Housing, Housing Construction
and Urban Renewal and for Cultural
Affairs and Science. Over the past decade,
KÖR GmbH has implemented around
140 projects in Vienna’s public space.
Landscape account
A selection of priority areas is proposed
by the City of Vienna and the Federal
Province of Lower Austria as a basic
structure for compensation measures in
environmental impact assessments.
Areas from this landscape account can
then be immediately used for non-sitespecific
compensation and balancing
measures. Controlling, evaluation and
further development are carried out
by the competent municipal departments
and their designated experts.
Land use category “Housing construction
eligible for subsidisation”
In areas thus classified, it is permitted to
erect only buildings that meet certain
structural specifications based on the
housing subsidy system, e. g. thermal
insulation or maximum useful floorspace
per housing unit. This is to ensure that a
sufficient volume of affordable dwellings
can be constructed in the future as well.
Master Plan for a Viennese Urbanity
Campaign
The Vienna Economic Chamber has de -
veloped a catalogue of measures to
preserve ground-floor zones. The catalogue
contains proposals for upgrading
ground-floor zones and is to provide
suggestions for preserving the diversity
of Vienna’s small- and medium-scale economy,
which is considered a major contributor
to urban appeal.
Metropolitan region
A metropolitan region is an area comprising
at least one big city of international
importance, serving a variety of high-level
centralised functions, and the region
surrounding it. As a rule, such a region
encompasses, in addition to the urban
agglomeration, further core settlements
as well as rural zones that are closely
linked to the regional centre, e. g. by commuter
traffic flows. As central nuclei of
co-operation and competition, metropolitan
regions are hubs of international
networking. Metropolitan regions may
have up to 20 million inhabitants, may be
transboundary, are politically defined in
a variety of ways and usually lack institutions
of their own.
Mission Statement “Social Work in
(Semi-) Public Space”
The Mission Statement “Social Work
in (Semi-) Public Space” expresses the
stance of the City of Vienna regarding
social work in public and semi-public
space. Vienna thus defines itself as a
pluralistic metropolis that is characterised
by internationality and diversity and
pursues a policy of tolerance, integration,
inclusion and prevention. The tasks of
social work comprise the targeted promotion
of community and educational work,
social cohesion as well as the strengthening
of personal responsibility and the
ability for self-organisation on the part of
the actors involved.
Modal split
Distribution of traffic volumes across
several means of transport (modes). As
a rule, the modal split refers to trips
and indicates which means of transport
are used for a certain percentage of trips.
Multimodality
In simple words, multimodality applies
if more than one means of transport is or
can be used to cover a distance or to
transport goods; for travelling from and
to work, a person may e. g. use either a
bicycle or a car, or merchandise may
be brought to its destination by a combination
of navigation and railway.
Multiple use
Multiple use of available open spaces in
the city is a reaction to the scarcity of
urban open spaces as well as to current
and local demands and moreover complements
existing open space programmes.
It is the main objective of multiple
use to open potentials of municipally
owned plots to other interested parties,
e. g. the use of schoolyards and school
sports grounds in the afternoon, during
weekends or in the holidays.
NFSR − net floorspace ratio
The floorspace ratio (FSR) embodies the
ratio of a building's total floor area to the
size of the piece of land upon which it is
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