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The International Dialogue on Metropolitan Planning, which consists of a four-part dialogue series, kicked off in fall 2020 with the first two MetroLab Forums on mobility and urban growth. This was followed in 2021 by two more Forums on the importance of resilient urban landscapes and the new role and identity of city regions.
During a two-day program each MetroLab Forum offered the opportunity to listen to exciting lectures by international experts, participate in walkshops and watch and discuss selected movies. The overall objective is to learn more about the planning challenges and approaches of other metropolitan regions and, in the spirit of this translocal learning experience, to share innovative tools for metropolitan planning and design. In doing so, current planning requirements in the Vienna City Region are reflected and the discussion of alternative approaches and integrated development strategies is stimulated together with local experts and interested parties.
Get an insight into the first MetroLab Forum about metropolitan mobility!
On our way through Simmering we dealt with networked and multimodal mobility and learned from the integration of environmentally friendly and new mobility concepts into district planning as well as from innovative alternatives to fossil fuel mobility in housing construction.
The experts Gerald Franz (Energy Center, Urban Innovation Vienna) and Vincent Neumayer (Multimodal Mobility Management, Wiener Linien) accompanied us on the walk and gave a deep insight into the subject.
In the last decades the built-up area within the SuperWien Metropole has grown enormously. Despite all political intentions and regional planning regulations, increasing wealth is still accompanied by the consumption of land. Urban expansion has formed complex hybrid landscapes consisting of residential areas, commercial zones, agricultural plots, recreational and nature reserves. Many growing cities in the metropolitan area are already having problems handling the increasing demand for living and working space. SuperWien Metropole is a vision for the the six million future inhabitants of the Vienna-Bratislava-Wr.Neustadt metropolitan region. It will incorporate the current growth of more than 50 000 inhabitants per year. One main goal is to reconfigure and strengthen the polycentric structure of the Metropole by following the principle of compact growth and concentrated densification. Together with international experts on housing, settlement development and metropolitan planning, we will discuss the need of new forms of governance and co-creative planning tools.
As a closing of the Urban Design Studio”MetroLab Growth”, which was organized in October and November 2020in cooperation with the Institute of Urban Design of the Vienna University of Technology, architecture students present their designs. During a three-week workshop they defined strategies for growth on the border between Liesing in Vienna and Vösendorf in Lower Austria, including aspects of mobility, agriculture and recreation.
Teachers: Nela Kadic, Stefan Mayr, Cédric Ramière
A coherent, cross-border transportation network is the backbone of metropolitan development. In the future, our mobility systems not only will have to meet multimodal, but also multi-optional demands. From the interlocking of different forms of mobility, to a smooth transition from walking or cycling to bus, train or car, the discussion is moving towards the general requirements of a successful interconnection of metropolitan areas. Discussing the future of metropolitan mobility means not only questioning existing mobility policy instruments and measures, but also encouraging sustainable and inclusive mobility as well as a territorial rebalance. By learning from other metropolitan areas such as Grand Paris, Barcelona and Madrid, we want to take on a multi-perspective view when talking about the planning and management of public transport systems in the Vienna Metropolis and shed light on how far mobility is an essential tool for creating new centralities and enables the development of new urban-rural lifestyles.
The special opening event of the MetroLab Forum on resilient urban landscapes revolved around how we want to feed the future Vienna metropolitan area. MetroTalk expands the transdisciplinary platform of knowledge exchange by opening up the discussion about urgent issues of metropolitan food cycles in the context of topic specific workshops.
New concepts of sustainable food production and urban agriculture were explored together with Philipp Loidolt-Shen from Azolla Ecosystems, who gave an insight into his aquaponics system. Vanessa Braun and Daniel Löschenbrand presented their project FOOD ATLAS Vienna and showed connections between production, consumption and waste of food by means of collective mapping. Throughout the event the guests were invited to taste delicious metropolitan tacos prepared by cook Christoph Fink with local and sustainably available ingredients.
Metropolitan areas consist of functionally connected heterogeneous environments that cross administrative boundaries and different spheres of competence. On the one hand, the great challenge is to sharpen a common identity of the metropolitan region. On the other hand, cross-border cooperation needs to be established within a well programmed polycentric network, shaped by the potential and role of all places. Multi-level governance structures as well as inter-municipal cooperation mechanisms are necessary in order to establish intra-regional synergies, ensure a coherent approach and thus, meet the challenges of sustainable metropolitan development. By exchanging knowledge and experience between different metropolitan areas, we will discuss how to improve the attractiveness, competitiveness and integration of the Vienna Metropolis.
As a closing of the Urban Design Studio “MetroLab Delta + Program”, which is held this semester in cooperation with the Institute of Urban Design at the Vienna University of Technology, the students’ final designs were presented and exhibited. The Design Studio is looking for strategies for the metropolitan area by developing concepts for programming its urban and rural landscapes, both on the metropolitan and local scale.
Teachers: Nela Kadic, Stefan Mayr, Cédric Ramière
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