7/8 – 2013

Vienna

Vienna may seem to be familiar, but Vienna is changing. The city is growing, largely as the result of immigration from the rest of Austria and from the EU. Statisticians reckon that by 2030 around 250'000 more people will live within the city boundaries than today. This figure, approximately the population of Graz, will need housing. Vienna’s growth is not taking place in the inner city, a Unesco protected zone, nor in the 19th century suburbs, it is happening almost exclusively in those areas where, thanks to the city’s enormous land reserves, Vienna can expand, in the districts of Floridsdorf and Donaustadt. What is known as Transdanubia – the term is a reference to the border regions of the Roman Empire beyond the river — has only moved closer to the centre since the regulation of the Danube in the 1970s and for many old established Viennese it still remains uncharted territory. The antagonism of both parts of the city will continue to intensify, as the strong growth is changing both the identity of Transdanubia and the way in which it is perceived from outside. A city in the making can be discovered there, at places somewhat wild, culturally still rather neglected, and characterized by the juxtaposition of buildings from different eras, but at the same time it is also an expansive area where numerous housing experiments can be conducted for which room cannot be found in the block perimeter city.