On June 12, 2025, a workshop on 10 + 1 of Sibylla's as-yet-unrealized project ideas took place in the light-filled Arnold Schmidt Room at TU Wien. Sibylla Zech and our former study assistant Maria Stepan led the afternoon. Accompanied by coffee and cake, the participants—including TU employees, students, and other colleagues of Sibylla—were able to discuss the various project ideas in small groups at 11 tables. Each table was supervised by one or two experts.

The projects are:

• Open Prechtlsaal – moderated by our project assistant Daniel Youssef and idea generator and architect Sabina Riß.
• Why isn't Lise Meitner here? – moderated by our research assistant Karoline Hadek.
• Karlsgasse shared space – moderated by our dean of studies and idea generator Thomas Dillinger.
• Labyrinth without borders – moderated by architect Ingrid Konrad and our study assistant Matteo Holzmann
• Schwedenplatz: House of Enlightenment – moderated by professor and idea generator Sabine Köszegy
• Doctoral College Rural Space - moderated by professor and idea generator Markus Tomaselli
• Danube Film Festival - moderated by idea generator and spatial planner Stefan Klingler and our senior scientist Nina Svanda
• My bicycle garage - moderated by spatial planner and idea generator Herbert Bork
• Mobilitätsband - moderated by our project assistant Elias Grinzinger
• landuni in heaven – moderated by our graduate student Clara Kessler and our project assistant Benjamin Altrichter
• DREAM Sudan – moderated by spatial planner and idea generator Mariam Wagialla, Professor Alexander Hamedinger, and our senior scientist Petra Hirschler

The results of the workshop and further inspiration can be found on our Padlet, opens an external URL in a new window.

After the workshop, Sibylla was celebrated in style in the Luftpavillon of the TU main building. In addition to a buffet and open bar, speeches were given by Dean Rudi Scheuvens, Institute Director Martin Berger, and representatives of the student council, gifts were presented, photos were taken, people chatted, laughed, reminisced, and looked to the future. The evening ended at Club U on Karlsplatz. The farewell party was a varied, informative, and emotional send-off for Sibylla as she entered her well-deserved retirement.

Sibylla Zech grew up in Nenzing (Vorarlberg, Austria) and studied spatial planning at the Vienna University of Technology. In her thesis in 1985, she developed computer-assisted methods as a contribution to environmental impact assessments and applied them specifically to route comparisons in road projects. In addition to her work as a university assistant at the Institute for Landscape Planning, she took on various roles in planning and architecture firms—in development planning, village renewal, and open space design.

In 1991, she founded the stadtland office together with Alfred Eichberger, passed the civil engineer examination, and ran the office in Vienna and Vorarlberg as an engineering consultant for spatial planning and as a technical office for spatial and landscape planning. Initially, the focus of her work was on environmental planning and ecologically oriented spatial planning (EIA, environmental studies in railway expansion, landscape and green space concepts). Soon, the office's field of activity was expanded to include process-oriented communicative planning within the framework of cooperative participation processes (city-suburb management Vienna-Lower Austria, Vision Rheintal, Austrian Spatial Development Concept, urban planning dialogue procedures).

Sibylla Zech worked extensively on the road and in the field. Her international activities took her to Luxembourg (studies on housing policy), Switzerland (structural planning, citizen participation), and post-communist countries in Eastern Europe, among other places. Consulting and training programs for urban and transportation planning involved repeated stays, primarily in Albania.

In 2008, Sibylla Zech accepted a position as professor of regional planning and regional development at TU Wien. She taught and conducted practice-oriented research with interdisciplinary teams at the Institute of Spatial Planning, with a special focus on rural areas. For example, she is the initiator of the Center for Rural Areas, established in 2021 at the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning, and a promoter of Landuni Drosendorf (Waldviertel).

We—the Regional Planning and Regional Development Research Division—would like to express our special thanks to Sibylla for her drive, creativity, and courage. Trying new things, reaching out to others, and simply DOING—we want to continue to embody this spirit in our research division in the future. We wish you all the best!