Duration: 3 days
Client: Master in Urban Development and Spatial Planning (University of Antwerp)
Date: 2022
Project Lead: Jan Denoo
Partners:
In 2022, the Master in Urban Development and Spatial Planning at the University of Antwerp travelled to Vienna to examine the tensions behind its reputation as “the most liveable city in the world”. Led by Jan as part of the cooperative Endeavour, the trip asked how such liveability is defined — and how it might be decoupled from the expulsion of inhabitants. Moving between the 100-year legacy of Red Vienna and contemporary experiments of the IBA on New Social Housing, the programme explored how ambitious, socially driven urban policies shape everyday life.
Travel
Across Vienna, participants encountered a wide range of emblematic urban projects and practices: from the 10,000-inhabitant cooperative city Alterlaa and the new district Seestadt Aspern to urban swimming culture around the Danube.
The group also explored how gender-mainstreaming policies are translated into public space design, and how participatory mobility planning takes shape through the Barcelona-inspired Supergrätzl. Together, these cases offered a layered understanding of Vienna as a city shaped by long-term housing policy, strong public institutions, everyday urban cultures and contemporary experiments in spatial justice.
Translate
The learning process started before arriving in Vienna. Students and professors were supported in preparing research on additional cases and trained to produce podcasts on site with public, private and civic actors.
These conversations helped gather multi-layered insights into the spatial, social and governance logics behind Vienna’s projects. The podcasts were published online and shared with other students, turning the excursion into a collective knowledge resource beyond the group that travelled.
Transform
Back in Belgium, the insights from Vienna were carried into the students’ design studio on Belgian regional development. The cases, conversations and podcasts became material for translating Vienna’s spatial and governance innovations into new questions for another context.
Rather than presenting Vienna as a model to copy, the trip helped students critically examine what makes ambitious urban policy possible — and how liveability can be imagined without displacement, exclusion or expulsion.
Going from the rich 100-year history of ‘Red Vienna’ to contemporary laboratories of the IBA on ‘New Social Housing’ we witnessed the potential of ambitious socially-driven urban policies and their effects on daily lives. From iconic cases like the 10.000 inhabitant cooperative city Alterlaa and the new Seestadt Aspern to urban swimming culture around the Danube, gender-mainstreaming policy translated to public space design and participative urban mobility planning with the Barcelona inspired Supergratzl; we developed a deep understanding of this inspiring capital.
Before the trip, students and professors were supported in doing preparatory research on extra cases and trained in making a podcast on site with public, private and civic actors - gathering multi-layered understanding of emblematic projects in the city. These podcasts were published online and shared with other students, then translated into spatial and governance innovations in their design studio on Belgian regional development.