Urban renewal with WieNeu+

In view of the current tasks and goals of the City of Vienna as embodied in the Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna, the Vienna Climate Guide for attaining climate neutrality by 2040, the programme for phasing out oil and gas as well as numerous other policy documents and legal rules of the City of Vienna, key priority must be assigned to urban renewal and its further development. Social cohesion and community sense in times of profound changes in society or the redesign of the built city due to manmade global warming are all issues that call for solutions. In this context, the credo of “gentle urban renewal” remains an important guiding principle, also because the preservation of the historic building stock – and of the dwellings of the people living in these buildings! – is essential for sparing resource use as well as for the application of the principles of a circular economy in the construction sector.

Even after 50 years, many fundamental tenets of gentle urban renewal are still valid: understanding the concerns and needs of local residents, aiming for concrete results, looking and planning beyond individual buildings (i.e. rehabilitation of entire blocks), establishing co-ordination and interfaces between City Administration, private individuals and enterprises as well as acting across departmental and thematic boundaries.

“Retrofitting” gentle urban renewal

The WieNeu+ urban renewal programme is concerned with stepping up the City of ’s approach to the renewal of entire neighbourhoods. It is our objective to implement concrete solutions that meet the needs of people in the neighbourhood while also developing innovative methods and learning from the results thus achieved. While the term “retrofitting” often refers to the refurbishment or remodelling of old buildings with modern infrastructure, it takes on a different meaning in the context of WieNeu+: namely, continuing the success story of urban renewal.

This is possible due to a long-term resolution taken by the Vienna City Council in 2020, which provides for a budget framework extending until 2030. The impulse generated by the EU-funded project “Smarter Together“ in Vienna’s 11^th municipal district Simmering was important to give visibility to urban renewal as a task cutting across many themes and departments and thus harbouring rich synergies and potentials for innovation. A central aspect concerns the demonstration of concrete and “tangible” solutions on the ground. For it is only in everyday practice that the functioning and numerous details of a mobility solution or of an energy and utility system in a building become truly visible. This concept of an urban living lab is implemented through WieNeu+.

The Programme Management Group “WieNeu+ programme and special projects” was set up in 2022 at Municipal Department 25 (MA 25) – Technical Urban Renewal. In practice, however, numerous individuals from a variety of enterprises and organisations are involved in WieNeu+ as partners; this also goes for the thousands of people who have contributed to WienNeu+ either directly or through the various “Grätzlmarie” projects.

Strategies need methods

Every zone, or neighbourhood (called “Grätzl”), in WieNeu+ is organised as a programme that in its turn – as the first two neighbourhoods show – is composed of roughly 30 individual projects. Three (deliberately) broadly defined thematic pillars, i.e. “Buildings & energy”, “Public space” and “Social neighbourhood & neighbourhood development” structure the projects. Fruitful synergies and interfaces frequently arise across these thematic pillars. In addition to building refurbishment and rehabilitation, local infrastructures, lively business premises and green and open zones are among the most important elements for finding solutions to safeguard climate- and future-proof neighbourhoods. Moreover, “Knowledge and innovation management” is another important task of the ten-year programme. This segment builds on the outcomes of the individual projects (project-oriented knowledge management) and generates valuable input for the further development of both the projects per se and the entire WieNeu+ programme. It provides all partners with important, timely feedback regarding the set goals as well as with an analysis of processes and outcomes, which again becomes part of all subsequent activities.

This methodological approach also requires making contact with and assisting the owners of individual properties, entire urban blocks or streets with regard to energy solutions or refurbishment ventures. WieNeu+ specifically focuses on projects that go beyond standard solutions and are already underway. Here, programme management provides a context that enables many private and municipal partners to work together on joint projects. Key partners include wohnfonds_wien, the Urban Renewal Offices (GB*) and Wiener Wohnen but also the Vienna Business Agency or municipal departments of the City of charged with urban planning. Regular and direct contacts and exchanges involve the Municipal District Offices.

Another methodological element concerns the structuring of WieNeu+ programme areas into a three-year programme management phase plus preliminary preparation and post-activity follow-up. Moreover, funding incentives for the various areas are important as well: WieNeu+ “Grätzlförderung” (“neighbourhood subsidy”) for the additional cost of structural-technical innovative solutions and “Grätzlmarie” (“neighbourhood money”) as a direct subsidy pool for residents or associations on the ground. The “Grätzlmarie“ subsidy scheme also comprises an advisory board composed of residents and local institutions, which was duly authorised by the City of Vienna to take the final decision regarding subsidy disbursements.

One goal for the coming years will lie in launching pilot and research projects that cover entire neighbourhoods. At the moment, the Holy Grail of tasks lies in preparing entire urban zones for climate neutrality and getting such ventures off the ground, which is currently the case for the Alliiertenviertel neighbourhood in the 2^nd municipal district, where the City of Vienna (including WieNeu+) is conducting such a project.

So far, the feedback of stakeholders has yielded the following concrete added value derived from WieNeu+:

• The access to subsidies or the implementation of subsidised projects is enabled.

• Networking and know-how transfer take place.

• Valuable direct contacts with the City Administration are established.

• Co-ordination and project management render the activities of all programme and project partners more dynamic.

• Participation possibilities are made use of intensively and WieNeu+ maintains close ties with the people in the neighbourhood.

• Outcomes and know-how are collected and made available to all stakeholders.

• Understanding what does not work and why also offers valuable insights.

• WieNeu+ triggers practical implementation and gets developments off the ground.

• (Pilot) measures translate the strategies of the City of into reality and offer proof of their effectiveness.

However, what counts most at the end of the day is that the people in the WieNeu+ neighbourhoods gain (and feel) this added value.