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Hereinspaziert!

Räumliche und soziale Aktivierung des urbanen Raums durch die Implementierung einer neuen mehrschichtigen, flexiblen, zugangsschaffenden Struktur und Nutzung der Ressource Leerstand am Beispiel der Wienerstraße

Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg

Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg

WIENER STRASSE is actually the EXTENSION of LANDSTRASSE, which is the BACKBONE of the CITY CENTER. As BUNDESSTRASSE 1, it leads ALL THE WAY to - just – VIENNA (WIEN). Today this SPATIAL CONNECTION is cut by the NEW BUILDING of the MUSIKTHEATER - ANALOGIES to other, OLDER PLANS should be a topic elsewhere. It is bad enough that AUSTRIA's northernmost east-west RAIL LINK, which approaches the CITY from the south like an ARCH, SEPERATES a large part of the city from its center. This also applies to Wiener Strasse, which begins exactly at the RAILROAD LINES - or the other way around, where the CHIC Landstrasse ends. The RESTRUCTURING to which RAIL COMPANIES throughout EUROPE are subject is also leading to the RELEASE of SPACE formerly OCCUPIED not only by rails themselves but also by SERVICE ARCHITECTURE or OFFICE BUILDINGS in the VICINITY of railroads. The AREAS around Wiener Strasse, lost from VIEW BEHIND an UNDERPASS, may have even BENEFITED from this for a while. The mainly MIGRANT NEIGHBORHOODS did not receive much CARE but were also LEFT ALONE in the sense of NOT BEING PUT UNDER PRESSURE – at least to a CERTAIN EXTENT. However, the PEOPLE there are also FACING the GENTRIFICATION PROCESSES now EMERGING on the former RAILROAD PROPERTIES alone. And the whole thing is happening, as said, on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS.

ÖZLEM DEMIR and JASMIN STEINBERG see a DISCREPANCY above all in the FACT that while EXPENSIVE NEW BUILDINGS are being CONSTRUCTED on Wiener Strasse, at the same time a lot of VACANT space can be DISCOVERED. Unsurprisingly, during their WORK it turned out that by looking under each URBAN LAYER, more came to light and a PLACE like Wiener Strasse is, BEYOND its SPATIAL CONDITION, a primarily SOCIALLY COMPLEX place. After their DETAILED ANALYSIS of the STREET, its VACANCIES as well as its often NOT IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS uses, Özlem and Jasmin ASKED themselves how such a SOCIO-SPATIAL CONSTELLATION can be SOLIDIFIED and SUPPORTED in its further DEVELOPMENT. They decided to CLOSE WIENER between UNIONSKREUZUNG and RICHARD-WAGNER-STRASSE to INDIVIDUAL TRAFFIC and to allow and enable only FIRE TRUCKS, AMBULANCES and INFRASTRUCTURAL TRAFFIC ACCESS to this area. Since the TRAM-LINES in this area of the street were moved UNDERGROUND anyway - though they are still part of the PUBLIC STREET SPACE with open SKYLIGHTS the size of their TRACK BEDS and PLATFORMS - the DECISION was made to OFFER the Wiener also a public street space at LEVELS +1, +2 and so on, in ADDITION to LEVELS -1 and 0. For this PURPOSE, Özlem and Jasmin INVENTED a FILIGREE, SCAFFOLD-LIKE STRUCTURE that, in the FIRST STEPS, will INITIALLY also make vacancies LOCATED on UPPER FLOORS ACCESSIBLE and permanently USABLE for PUBLIC USES. Over TIME, these "STREETS IN THE SKY " become increasingly DENSE until a spatially STABLE structure emerges with a WIDE VARIETY of uses developed for and FROM WITHIN the COMMUNITIES, which does JUSTICE to the COMPLEXITY of its SOCIAL COUNTERPART.


This project is a result of the studio “Interregnum I: Urban Agencies & Dei Ex Machina”.

Concept and teaching: c/o now - Andrijana Ivanda & Tobias Hönig + Markus Rampl, Paul Reinhardt, Duy An Tran, Ksenija Zdešar 

Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg
Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg
Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg
Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg
Wiener Straße. © Özlem Demir, Jasmin Steinberg

Studio project, 2021/22
Architektur:Urban