119 CATHEDRAL COMMUNICATIONS THE BUILDING CONSERVATION DIRECTORY 2025 EXTERNAL WORKS 3.4 a 1713 Imperial table complex adjacent the historic Kaiserforum, that was the subject of a design competition for cultural reuse in 1986. By 2004, the baroque buildings were repurposed and the heritage facade conserved, yet inside the large courtyard now sit two new contemporary art museums, the Leopold and MUMOK. These new structures present a juxtaposition with the old, adding a new layer to the city’s history. The city is awash with similar juxtapositions, the old and new side by side in respect of one another. This is not for every city or every urban setting but for Vienna it physically reflects their Secession motto ‘to every age its art, to every art its freedom’. BEYOND THE PHYSICAL: INCLUSIVITY AND UNTOLD STORIES This interrelationship of old and new does not only apply to architectural relationships. As part of the city’s development strategy, a focus has been placed on its inhabitants, specifically the stories, characteristics, and needs of contemporary communities. Vienna has a strong cultural identity, something which is recognised in the city’s Unesco management plan. As with the approach to transport, public realm, and architecture, the city is committed to reflecting the evolution of this culture in its built environment. Symbols of cultural diversity can be seen inside the historic core of the city, within its streets and public realm. Traffic crossing signals depicting same sex couples introduced in 2015 and LGBTQ+ crosswalks enhance visibility of the queer community in the city. Whilst the Ringstrasse’s baroque public parks are busy with regional and international visitors, at the heart of the residential neighbourhoods within and surrounding the city centre, are a series of protected residential parks and play spaces. These are some of the spaces where the city’s gender mainstreaming work has been exhibited through design interventions, such as the Mädchenbühne (girls’ stage) at Reumannplatz, aimed to encourage the use of public spaces by girls. In the 1990s, Vienna became one of the first cities to recognise the importance of women in planning and civic design, and this prioritisation of inclusivity continues to be exhibited through public space design, female street names and design governance. Most recently, the city has adopted the Inclusive Vienna 2030 strategy, aimed at ensuring that the historical assets of the city are accessible to all. CONCLUSION: WALKING A TIGHT ROPE Vienna can be a helpful case study for other cities to glean lessons from as they potentially seek out new ways to regenerate their own historic urban form and heritage assets, but any lessons must be viewed through the context from which they derive. Each place has its own history Telling everyone’s story: new LGBTQ+ crossing and traffic signals have been well received by locals and tourists alike. and it has taken its own unique journey in design and development. There are the clear and obvious lessons Vienna can teach: the importance of a multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary approach that focuses beyond the obvious factors of protection and/or restriction; considering how to develop around the fringes to bring people into the city in sustainable and efficient ways; to move people around with a focus on walking and linked up public transport options; and to prioritise quality of experience with attention on how to upgrade and maximise the public realm offering. Yet other lessons require deeper consideration. Should others mimic Vienna’s contemporary architecture approach in their historic setting? Or borrow their ideas on celebrating women, inclusivity, or delivering local spaces? Any attempt to transfer such lessons wholesale from one context to another would be insensitive and inappropriate. The real lesson Vienna offers here is the importance of knowing your own history and the value of the heritage you are seeking to preserve and enhance. Vienna’s confidence in their approach to their own heritage and development has however seen them walk a fine-line with the city’s Unesco status recently placed under threat as it was added to the world heritage organisation’s danger list. A proposed higher-rise new development at Heumarkt, designed by Isay Weinfeld, was approved by Vienna’s city council in 2017 but proved too controversial for Unesco in regard to potentially damaging core heritage values nearby. Vienna has yet to meet the same fate as Liverpool and be removed entirely from the list of protected world heritage sites but it remains at a crossroad with competing priorities. Perhaps more crucially, the competing attitudes, as to what exactly the city is trying to conserve both now and in the future, have yet to be reconciled. At the very heart of everything that Vienna does though, and arguably the core reason for its success to date, has been their singular focus on the most important element of all – people. Delivering for people is at the heart of all design and conservation, whether that be how they arrive, how they move, how they experience place, how they engage with history, or how they behave. Vienna puts people at the heart of their approach to heritage, regeneration, and new development, and the city is a better and more accessible place for it. Such an approach ensures that people keep the histories alive and that they shape new narratives that will write the next chapters in the city’s ongoing story. PHILIP BLACK is director of the Manchester Urban Design LAB (www. manchester.ac.uk/mudlab) and senior lecturer in urban design at the University of Manchester. Email philip.black@ manchester.ac.uk RACHEL KERR is outreach co-ordinator at the Manchester Urban Design LAB and lecturer in urban design, also at the University of Manchester.
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