This gradually leads to the formation of entire entire city districts, their architectural style (hopefully) attuned to the historic centres, where the needs of modern living are in perfect harmony with the energy requirements of the future. Examples of partly completed projects can be found in London, Boston, Glasgow, Hamburg, or Oslo. The completion of a comprehensive flood control system in the late 1980s gave Vienna the chance to follow this trend. The structures built on the left Danube riverbank were the “UNO City” to which two new outstanding high-rises by Dominique Perrault will add a special note.

Because of the many hazards that have struck Europe’s second-longest river throughout the centuries – floods, drift ice, etc. –, the historical part of Vienna on the right riverbank developed at a fair distance from the water. Contrary to the description of old city guides, Vienna was for a long time not really situated “on the Danube”. Only in the wake of the city boom in 1900 did industrial and commercial businesses slowly begin to settle on the right riverbanks.

Marshalling yards, railway tracks, highways and cheap but unattractive residential areas were to follow. At the International City Conference “Waterfront Development” held at TechGate Vienna in early June, Rudolf Schicker (Executive City Councillor for Urban Development, Traffic and Transport in Vienna) said the current Urban Development Plan 2005 was now focusing on these fallow areas on the right Danube banks, which city planners had defined as the target area for building a “waterfront”.

After in 2006 a group of students from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design presented their ideas which were published as a book this year, the conference organisers decided to draw on experience from other major cities for developing a “waterfront” for Vienna. After all, it is not only a matter of finding the perfect mix of different uses for these areas. Just as important is it to secure the funding (e. g. through PPPs) and to keep speculators at a distance.

Particular attention was therefore attributed to a paper presentation on the “HafenCity” in Hamburg. The project is carried out by HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, a 100 % subsidiary of the Hanseatic City. According to CEO Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, a new city district will emerge on 1.5 km2 of space, which will assume all functions of a “Central Business District” and thereby complement the city centre. By the year 2025, public expenditures of € 1.2 billion shall be paralleled by private investments of € 4.5 to 5 billion.

“What we need here in Vienna is a type of ‘HafenCity’ that reciprocates the existing Donau- City”, says architect Peter Klopf, who is in charge of planning the right Danube embankment on behalf of the City of Vienna. “This way we could offer also the guests coming to Vienna by boat a decent welcome as they enter the capital through this ‘gate’.” He also intends to move the Prater closer to the Danube waterfront.

Klopf suggests to use Hamburg as a role model for Vienna and allocate only small blocks of city-owned land property; this provides a variety of different land use concepts and owners. Another procedure worth imitating is a special form of property allocation practised in Hamburg, where property acquisition is preceded by a one-year period during which the future builder-owner gets the opportunity of exclusive planning of the property. At the end of this period, a purchase contract is signed.

This procedure shall help improve the quality of an individual project as well as of urban development. Moreover, it shall also avoid that investors buy a block of land and then wait for more favourable market conditions. As Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg stresses, this land allocation procedure also pays for investors and builders, who in return for a moderate fee get enough time for thorough planning.
(Source: aqua press Int. 2/2007, Mag. Christof Hahn)

Contact & Information:

Magistrat der Stadt Wien/MA 21 A
Mag. arch. Peter Klopf
Rathausstraße 14-16, A-1082 Wien
Tel.: ++43/1/4000-88 561