TRUE URBAN SPIRIT

WHERE FROM? WHERE TO? VIENNA ON THE MOVE
Continuing to build the city
To this day, Vienna enjoys the privilege of being
able to draw on fundamental systems of good
urbanism and infrastructure that were designed
for a metropolis with more than 2 million inhabitants
already over a century ago. In periods of
stagnation or slow growth, this basic fabric was
partly modernised and complemented with farsighted
infrastructure projects such as Danube
Island, making it possible to “absorb” growth relatively
easily despite rising quality standards. A
wide range of measures, e. g. the modernisation
and upgrading of Vienna’s Underground network,
the construction of new campuses and the planning
of new urban quarters, moreover provide for
the immediate future.
However, as a result of continued growth and
changing needs of the modern economy and
urban society, some urban planning issues –
ranging from the siting of future settlement structures,
production facilities and open spaces to
the co-operative shaping of the metropolitan
region – are posed anew or acquire novel importance
and urgency and demand rapid solutions.
STEP 2025 focuses on these long-term requirements,
prepares strategic decisions and guidelines
and initiates the necessary spatial, financial
and technical planning work. The European financial
crisis, which is also leaving its mark at the
national and municipal levels, certainly does not
render the project of successful urban and metropolitan
regional development any easier. This
calls all the more for close co-operation between
the Federal Republic of Austria and the City of
Vienna as well as for the Republic’s willingness
to provide the necessary funds for further development
of the metropolitan region. After all,
strong metropolitan regions are guarantors of the
competitiveness of national economies, especially
under difficult macroeconomic frame conditions.
Until 2025 or thereabouts, inner-city urban development
(by completing existing neighbourhoods
and utilising large-scale inner-city zones suit -
able for development, e. g. the former Northern
and Northwestern Railway Stations, etc.) as
well as existing urban expansion potentials comprise
sufficient space to meet the demand for
new building land. However, in order to ensure
high-quality and affordable devel opment of a city
be yond this scope, structural measures must
already be taken today. For this reason, urban
development planning is focusing on issues of
long-term design of potential settlement areas,
the upgrading and networking of green spaces,
the creation of strong urban sub-centres, the
agreement of measures with neighbouring municipalities
as well as municipal land and infrastructure
policy.
The predicted development dynamics of coming
years open up the possibility of shaping the city
according to the general principles of a futureoriented
urban development plan, thereby en -
suring its high-quality evolution. On the one hand,
this means further developing existing urban
quarters sensitively and in accordance with the
needs and interests of their inhabitants, eliminating
deficits and creating new qualities. On the
other hand, urban development zones – such as
aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside, the area formerly
occupied by the Northern and Northwestern
Railway Stations or the new Quartier Belvedere
and Sonnwendviertel – are to become fully-fledged
parts of the city with urban, mixed-use structures.
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