Kaiserschnitten Wien - Let's bring the forest in the city

• Main Author: Ajda Primožič
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Ljubljana 2012-01-01
• Series: AR: Arhitektura, Raziskave
• Online Access: http://www.fa.uni-lj.si/filelib/9_ar/2012-2-3/ar2012-23_21_primozic.pdf

The location is part of the Vienna River Valley, known as "Wiental", one of the most dissonant, incongruous, and contested areas of Vienna. Depending on one’s perspective, the Vienna River Valley can be viewed as a transit corridor, an unresolved urban area, an urban interface, an inter- zone, an infrastructure bundle, an ugly wound in the urban landscape, a socially charged boundary, etc. We started the project with urban pattern analyses on different scales: the scale of the city, the scale of Wiental (from Schönbrunn to Hofburg) and on a minor scale, i.e. the scale of the project.The analysis showed that Wiental constitutes the main connection between the city centre and suburbia and the countryside in the background of the city. With its clear morphological importance, it could become a green axis of the city, a pleasant place for people, rather than having only an infrastructural role. Our concept is to bring new character to Wiental by making it a pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly green axis. Our initial goal was to reduce car traffic. We proposed introducing a park-and-ride system, which would become a point of transfer where car traffic is replaced by public transport and cycle traffic. Through the afforestation of Wiental, the area could become a park or recreational route, and the quality of life in the area would improve.An important aspect of the project was dealing with the Danube. We proposed to manage the flood peaks by introducing a dam, and after the point of regulation, we arranged the River into two levels: an ambient upper flow and infrastructural lower flow in the existing channel. Also, by rearranging "Naschmarkt" with the Danube uncovered, we predicted an extension of tourism from the city centre to Schönbrunn by bicycle or on foot, which could be followed by an expansion of the public programme. We wanted to show that the Danube, with an appropriate environment, could become a significant element of the city structure.