We are organizing city walks that provide insights into the structures and recent dynamics of Vienna. Please note that a public transportation ticket is required for most City Walks.

City Walk 1
Wien7_ Neubau: urban planning, urban development and urban laboratory

Tuesday, Sept 09, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Guide: Martin Heintel
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: Zollergasse, Bandgasse, Zieglergasse, Bernardgasse

Description: Wien7_Neubau is considered “the” urban laboratory in Vienna. The excursion is dedicated to climate adaptation measures, participation and governance, as well as the transformation of public space. The excursion is at the interface of planning, politics and society and visits places of transformation in public space.

City Walk 2
Segments of the Vienna housing market

Thursday, Sept 11, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Guide: Walter Matznetter
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building
(main entrance)
Route: A 9 min metro ride will bring us to Heiligenstadt, where we will visit Karl-Marx-Hof, a non-profit project, a historic tenement with rent regulation, and an unregulated private market project. Further uphill, on Hohe Warte, variants of owner-occupied projects will be visited, terminating at Josef Hoffmann’s artists’ villa colony of the early 1900s.

Description: Vienna is a city of renters. Owner-occupiers are at 20%, and stable. The large rental market, however, includes a large variety of submarkets, from 22% public housing plus 21% limited-profit housing to ca. 20% regulated private rentals and ca. 12% market rentals. In many parts of the city, these submarkets exist side by side. Such proximity allows for a city walk looking into each of these segments.

City Walk 3
Who has a say? Participation in public spaces in Vienna

Wednesday, Sept 10, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Guide: Yvonne Franz
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building
(main entrance)
Route: Esterházy-Park, Mariahilfer Straße, Gumpendorfer Straße, U6-station Gumpendorfer Straße, IKEA at Westbahnhof

Description: The City of Vienna is proud on its recent achievements in the redevelopment of public spaces. Cool streets, climate-fitness, superblocks, sponge-city approaches and many other buzzwords demonstrate a change in planning within the framework of socio-ecological transformation. Participation processes are a key element in implementation. However, not everyone who uses public spaces is consulted or even heard. This city walk focuses on invisible groups who, for various reasons, depend on public space in the city. Join this tour if you are interested in critical reflections on the nexus of public space and participation.

City Walk 4
Climate aspects of a dense city center

Wednesday, Sept 10, 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Guide: Erich Mursch-Radlgruber
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: Georg-Coch-Platz, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Hoher Markt, Stephansplatz, Neuer Markt, Stadtpark, Landstrasse Wien Mitte, Stubentor

Description: Walk through the city center of Vienna with discussion of aspects of climate change as a consequence of city structure (buildings, streets and green structure)

City Walk 5
15 million years in 300 meters (downhill)

Thursday, Sept 11, 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Guide: Robert Peticzka
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: Leopoldsberg, Kahlenberg Nußdorf, Danube, Hohe Warte (Stadion)

Description: The aim of this excursion is an overview of the geological and geomorphological development of the region, the anthropogenic changes to the course of the Danube and the Danube tributaries as well as the climate, site qualities, potential vegetation and land use on Viennese soil. Subsequently, some “physiogeographical” facets of Vienna’s urban landscape will then be explored on foot

City Walk 6
Data walk: Social dimensions of urban heat

Tuesday, Sept 09 / Wednesday, Sept 10 /Thursday, Sept 11, 2:00pm – 5:00pm (all 3 days)
Guide: Anna HäMMerle-sHaHiMy
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: Stephansplatz, metro ride to Keplerplatz, Supergrätzl Favoriten, Hauptbahnhof / main station

Description: Vienna is significantly impacted by urban heat, forcing the city to adopt diverse mitigation strategies. In this Data Walk, mobile sensors and thermal imaging cameras will be utilised to provide an empirical base for discussions on the social dimensions of urban heat. Special attention will be given to vulnerable groups within public spaces, a critical analysis of ongoing urban transformations and their implications for social equity and segregation.

City Walk 7
Urban transformations – from a planning perspective

Tuesday, Sept 09 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Guide: Cornelia Dlabaja
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: U6 Station Josefstädter Straße, Yppenplatz, Brunnenmarkt, Urban-Loritz-Platz

Description: The walk addresses urban transformations on the examples of urban planning processes in the area of Europe’s longest street market Brunnenmarkt and the area of the underground line U6 at the public library located at the Urban-Loritz-Platz.

City Walk 8
Vineyards, terraces, and flood dynamics: A journey through Vienna’s geographical layers

Tuesday, Sept 09, 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Guide: Philipp Marr, Till Wenzel
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: Kahlenberg (Metro and Bus); Several Stops at Kahlenberg and during the descend to Grinzing; End: Tram station Grinzing

Description: This 3-hour city walk provides a field-based introduction to the physical geographical landscape of Vienna, beginning at Kahlenberg and descending towards the urban core. The walk explores the geology, soils, land use (we will walk through the wine yards), the sequence of Danube river terraces, as well as the flood dynamics in the city and its adaptation strategies

City Walk 9
Gentrification and displacement in Vienna?

Wednesday, Sept 10, 2:30pm – 5:00pm
Guide: Judith Schnelzer
Meeting point: ÖAW Main Building (main entrance)
Route: several stops through the 7th district, Neubau; End: Neubaugasse (Metro Stop U3)

Description: Vienna is often seen as an international posterchild for social and affordable housing. On this walk, we explore gentrification and displacement by looking at how Vienna’s (historic) housing stock is being transformed and how public spaces are changing in their use. We look at how the welfare-state environment has led to subtle forms of displacement – sometimes framed as urban renewal. At the same time, we look at the ways in which capitalist urban development enables new forms of (housing) exclusion and racialized dispossession.