TRUE URBAN SPIRIT

2 VIENNA: BUILDING THE FUTURE
2.1
THE BUILT CITY
In the past 10 years, the “core city” – i. e. excluding
urban expansion zones and large-scale projects
– absorbed a substantial share of Vienna’s
population growth. The number of inhabitants
in inner-city and Gründerzeit quarters has gone
up by approx. 75,000 persons as compared to
2001 – a respectable increase by 10 percent. The
city has benefited from this growth – many districts
and neighbourhoods today are more colourful
and vibrant and offer better income possibilities
than in the 1990s. Gentle urban renewal
positively reinforced this process; at the same
time, this approach largely prevented undesirable
gentrification phenomena .
In coming years, too, the Gründerzeit city, the
“interwar city”, but also urban structures from the
1950s to 1970s will change and evolve ( Fig. 8:
Mission Statement for Urban Development). The
attractiveness of the Gründerzeit city as a place
to live and work in remains unabated; for this
reason, the influx of residents, the conversion of
brownfields and the refurbishment of attic storeys
are very likely to continue. Analogously to the
recent trend in interwar municipal housing projects,
the housing estates from the 1950s to 1960s
are characterised by a change of generations with
many more young families, while the large-scale
1970s housing developments are often confronted
with new challenges due to demographic aging.
The management of these processes of change
calls for different instruments and strategies and
must in particular focus on three aspects:
40