5 – 2016

Interim review

Generally speaking, architectural criticism does not deal with half-completed buildings. But in the case of urban planning and development areas that will only be finished in several years’ time it seems reasonable to make an interim critique: what is developing? How successful is the plan itself and how do the processes used to implement it in individual projects actually function? Therefore in this issue we visit incomplete projects, focussing our attention less on the architecture and more on its outline conditions. In Switzerland — in contrast to Vienna —planned districts are the exception rather than the rule. However, market forces and zoning alone cannot generally produce satisfactory settlement structures. Instead in most cases, especially in the edge city, develops a coexistence of functions and density classes that are unrelated to each other, and a lack of public places. Land owners, developers and architects are overtaxed by the challenge involved in creating superordinate quality, as their focus lies on optimising their individual projects: qualities such as generous outdoor spaces or meaningful hierarchies can only be ensured by public intervention — i.e. planning. In Switzerland for planning to achieve its goals special situations, that is to say exceptional political pressure, are generally necessary. Urban planning is a highly sensitive process involving innumerable stakeholders and conflicting interests. If a new district is to establish a connection to the existing fabric and to have attractive ground floor uses control remains the means of choice. This explains how in a newbuild district such as Europaallee at Zurich Main Train Station a rigorous control regime is dominant, which extends as far as ensuring that the “right” shops occupy the ground floors. For this issue we restrict ourselves to two cities that in recent years have grown continuously and that regularly top the quality of life rankings for the world’s cities. In both Vienna and Zurich we visit an inner city transformation area (Sonnwendviertel and Europaallee) and a planning area on a “greenfield site” (Seestadt Aspern and Glattpark).