Public Space, Ecology & Co-Production 

Wednesday 17.04.2024 | 12:00 – 14:00
Boeckl-Saal, TU Wien, staircase 1, 1^st floor,
Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna

Susann Ahn (research unit landscape, opens an external URL in a new window, TU Wien) and
Sabine Knierbein (research unit urban, opens an external URL in a new window, TU Wien) in conversation with 

Cordula Loidl-Reisch (TU Berlin,  emeritus),
Markus Reiter (7^th district, Neubau, Vienna),
Eva Schwab (TU Graz, opens an external URL in a new window) and
Daniel Zimmermann (3:0 Landschaftsarchitektur, opens an external URL in a new window),

Public spaces are a central vehicle for urban planning in order to drive forward a public welfare-orientated and ecological transformation of our cities in the face of the climate, care and biodiversity crisis. However, this presupposes that the attributions of public spaces as hard, sealed, predominantly anthropocentric spaces are questioned and rethought.

The "Beyond Asphalt" event at the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning at the TU Wien will bring urbanistic, landscape architectural, political, administrative, technical, cultural science and journalistic perspectives into dialogue in order to discuss the potentials and hurdles of climate-fit, socio-ecological public spaces in urban expansion and urban redevelopment.

The discussion focuses on the questions: Why does large-scale unsealing in the urban fabric still remain a utopia and how can an unsealed socio-ecological transformation be achieved in urban development and implementation? Can a change in thinking, planning, communication and building be promoted through co-productive and co-creative approaches? What kind of decision-making and action skills as well as planning and technical knowledge are essential for such a change?

Speakers from the fields of landscape architecture, politics, administration, science, culture and journalism will discuss current and future developments in public spaces in order to bring about change for an unsealed city. 

This is the third of four events in the ZUKUNFT STADT (FUTURE CITY) series on the topic of "Transformation of the existing" (all other topics can be found here, opens an external URL in a new window). Experts from the fields of planning, practice, administration and research will be discussing various topics in line with the faculty's annual theme "Transformation of the Existing, opens an external URL in a new window". They will deal with important topics relating to urban planning, urban development, architecture and spatial planning that influence the way we live together.

This event will also be published as a podcast as part of the "ZUKUNFT STADT (FUTURE CITY)" series as Season 1 "Transformation of the existing building stock" and is edited by the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning. The podcast will be available via all common channels. The lecture series and podcast is a cooperation between ifoer, opens in new window (Local Spatial Planning) and the future.lab of TU Wien.