How can cities build a stronger and more sustainable society for the future? Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate 2020 Vienna shows us how by enlisting its citizens early and often in its urban development process, as well as empowering them to work with one another, has improved the city and its neighbourhoods.
For example, the city operates ‘Local Agenda 21’2 (LA 21), district-level programmes where residents and public officials cooperate on projects to enhance their neighbourhoods. Each programme typically lasts four years and receives about 100,000 Euros (approximately 105,200 USD) in funding per year.
Constructed on a former airfield, Vienna’s new Aspern Seestadt12 district offers lessons in mobility and citizen participation. Over 13,200 people already live and work in the area. When it is fully completed in 2028, it will have homes for over 20,000 people and thousands of workplaces. Complementing its extensive public transit network, wide cycling paths and generous sidewalks, mobility suggestions from the public have helped to achieve 38 percent of trips by public transport, 28 percent on foot and seven percent by bicycle.
This article was first published in 7 July 2022 on the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize website. All images contained within this page are used with license and shall not be copied, modified, or reproduced.
Watch to learn more about Vienna's other urban strategies:
1. https://www.la21wien.at/home.html
2. https://www.agendaalsergrund.at/home.html
3. https://graetzloase.at/
4. https://www.wien.gv.at/presse/2022/05/06/saisonstart-fuer-die-wiener-graetzloasen
5. https://digitales.wien.gv.at/projekt/wiengibtraum/
6. https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/klimaschutz/klimafahrplan/#:~:text=Wien%20will%20bis%202040%20klimaneutral,aller%20Menschen%20in%20der%20Stadt
7. https://smartcity.wien.gv.at/en/approach/smart-city-made-simple/co-owning-a-solar-power-plant/
8. https://www.wienenergie.at/privat/produkte/buergerinnenkraftwerke/
9. https://positionen.wienenergie.at/projekte/strom/viertel-zwei/
10. https://smartcity.wien.gv.at/en/approach/smart-city-made-simple/e-car-sharing/
11. https://urbaninnovation.at/foerderung-mobilitaetsangebote-im-wohnbau/
12. https://www.aspern-seestadt.at/en/business_hub/planning__reality/master_plan
13. https://www.eltis.org/sites/default/files/sump_conference_2017_a4_1_roider.pdf
14. https://www.aspern-seestadt.at/en/business_hub/planning__reality/mobility
15. https://www.mobillab.wien/storymaps/en/part3.html
16. https://www.wien.gv.at/stadtentwicklung/projekte/aspern-seestadt/verkehr/lastenraeder.html
17. https://www.aspern-seestadt.at/jart/prj3/aspern/data/downloads/aspern%20Seestadt_Factsheet_EN.pdf