Vienna Housing Festival 2008/09

To present the achievements and the innovative power of funded housing in the city and for the discussion of the most recent developments, City Councillor Ludwig (for Housing, Housing Construction and Urban Regeneration) has initiated the Wiener Wohnbaufestwochen 2008/09 (Vienna Housing Festival). It was coordinated by the SRZ Stadt- und Regionalwissenschaftliches Zentrum (SRZ centre for urban and regional research). Arranged around two exhibitions on social housing, ten professional events were organised, five of which, with a different focus, were structured, organized and moderated by the SRZ.

The backbone of the first Wiener Wohnbaufestwochen was provided by the exhibition ‚Wohnmodelle - Experiment und Alltag' (‚Housing models - experiments and everyday life') in cooperation with Künstlerhaus and the exhibition ‚Wiener Wohnbau - Innovativ. Sozial. Ökologisch' (Vienna Housing - Innovativ. Social. Ecological.') in cooperation with the Vienna Insurance Group / Wiener Städtischen Versicherung (Architektur im Ringturm).

The five expert events were held partly in these and partly in other suitable spaces, opening up a framework ranging from ‚Leben im Gemeindebau' (living in municipal housing), ‚Avantgarde und Baupraktiker' (avantgarde and practitioners) and ‚Integrationswohnbau' (integrative housing) to ‚Soziale Nachhaltigkeit im geförderten Wohnbau' (social sustainability in publicly funded housing). The festival was rounded off by a closing party and an outlook on a continuation in the future. (The full programme can be downloaded here).

Symposium Wiener Wohnbau - Workshop 1 Im Gemeindebau

('Living in Municipal Housing'). At the end of January 2009, ideas and concepts were planned to be discussed in a small professional circle in the Ringturm exhibition centre, hopefully leading to an optimisation of cohabitation and neighbourhood, as well as an image revaluation. The status quo of current research is complemented with practical know-how. The results should form a basis for further development and policies. Unfortunately, the workshop fell victim to a flu epidemic.

Open Space - Young Architecture

During the Open Space event, possibilities for collaboration between young or newly founded architectural offices and housing providers were discussed and initiated, following the motto "Open Space - Time and Space - Avantgarde meets practitioners in construction".
Participants brought their own issues and concerns into the plenary and discussed them in work groups, subsequently bringing their results together.

Symposium Wiener Wohnbau - Tour und Workshop 2 Wohnen Integrativ

('Integrative Housing'). With so-called integration housing the city of Vienna has advocated innovative projects for the integration of migrants. The workshop offered insights into the everyday experiences of such housing projects, also taking participants on a roundtrip visiting three projects in Vienna (Wohnanlage / housing estate b.u.n.t, Wien 11, Wohnanlage ‚Integratives Wohnen, Wien 11, Wohnanlage ‚Globaler Hof', Wien 23). In the final session in the ‚Global Courtyard' project, a key note presentation by the German expert Joachim Brech was followed by a panel discussion.

Symposium Wiener Wohnbau -Workshop 4 Soziale Nachhaltigkeit

('Social Sustainability'). In spring 2009, the City of Vienna started to stress even more stronger future individual housing needs and lifestyles, by introducing a 'fourth pillar' on social sustainability in the list of criteria for decisions on winners of the so-called Wiener Bauträgerwettbewerbe (Vienna Housing Competitions).

This includes self-determined housing models for older people and a stronger attention on the social aspects in architecture. During the workshop in the AZW Architekturzentrum Wien, City Councillor Ludwig defined the frame of this "fourth pillar", followed by a discussion of these objectives on the podium and with the audience on the basis of pilot projects of the Wiener Wohnbauforschung / Vienna Housing Research. This was followed by a final event with talks, music and buffet.

All events were very well frequented and met with great interest by their audience.