4. Buildings & energy

4.3 “My Favorite“

Partner: Räume für Menschen_Architektur (RfM)

“My Favorite” is a study focusing on sustainable urban transformation in Favoriten. It was prepared by the studio Rfm Räume für Menschen_Architektur (Jutta Wörtl-Gössler and Uli Machold). Together with the project partners GESIBA and Wien Energie, concrete properties located in the WieNeu+ programme area were taken as examples to investigate pioneering refurbishment and energy solutions. The study was based on the predecessor project “Smart Block Geblergasse”, where multi-property refurbishment procedures were examined and applied.

In the context of the “My Favorite” project study, five specific GESIBA-owned properties located in the WieNeu+ neighbourhood were examined for their transformation potentials and possible synergies with each other as well as with the surrounding urban quarter.

The following aspects were analysed:

  1. Innovative refurbishment of different building typologies with special attention paid to recyclability

  2. Sustainable energy supply that is based on an anergy network between the properties, geothermal heat and PV and is suitable for expansion in order to function as a solution for the surrounding urban quarter

  3. Design of public space, which is to be transformed in connection with the installation of the anergy network

Objectives:

  • Sustainably transformed, densified buildings with climate-resilient inner courtyards

  • Desealing, lively ground-floor zone and strengthening of the ecosystem

  • High-quality, healthy and traffic-calmed / traffic-free living in an urban quarter

The following GESIBA properties were analysed: Inzersdorfer Strasse 99, Angeligasse 97-99, Fernkorngasse 48, Fernkorngasse 44 and Inzersdorfer Strasse 113.

"My Favorite" urban quarter approach

The "My Favorite" chart shows five highlighted buildings within an overall urban setting; they are linked by a greened street. The planned interventions are shown in round inserts.
Fig. 17: “My Favorite” urban quarter approach. Copyright: rfm

Outcomes

Limited-profit / non-profit housing associations as initiators

Due to their mandate vis-à-vis society and their size, limited- and non-profit housing associations boast particular scaling potential and, thus, can implement flagship projects for sustainable, socially just and climate-friendly building refurbishment. The innovative and recyclability-oriented refurbishment strategies developed also take account of their transferability to other buildings. Moreover, solutions that embrace more than just one building harbour special opportunities, as the predecessor project “Smart Block Geblergasse” has shown.

Challenges and added value

In the context of the Limited-Profit Housing Act (WGG), financing at the scale of individual buildings poses challenges. Multi-property, technically feasible solutions are more complex but also more cost-efficient. Further challenges lie in the statutory framework conditions, in the introduction of circular economy principles, in ensuring affordability for tenants and in communicating the added value of innovative energy renovation to tenants and developers.

Co-operation

The various stakeholders collaborate to tap inherent opportunities: the synergetic use of excavation works in public space harbours special potentials for the setting-up of anergy networks or for upgrading or refurbishing district heating systems (return and waste heat utilisation, etc.), the simultaneous development of resilient open spaces, the joint handling of construction tasks, etc. Furthermore, the implementation of projects is facilitated if preceded by training for developers and building owners, awareness raising and community building among residents.

Outlook

The practical implementation of the study findings is currently in the planning phase. For one of the five properties, plans have been formulated and will be realised next year, to be followed by further practical applications. Such large-volume refurbishments and the development of solutions for entire urban quarters are to activate and integrate other properties and, in this way, considerably accelerate a sustainable transformation process.

Based on this project, the refurbishment of the property Inzersdorferstrasse 99 was launched in 2023 and submitted to the WieNeu+ “Grätzlförderung” subsidy scheme at the end of the year.