Living Streets Vienna

Preface

The main focus of this investigation on six housing estates in Vienna lies on the ideas people have of collaborative neighbourhood life and of communal use of access areas.

Furthermore a precise analysis of housing estates that stand out as lively communities is supposed to shed light on the significance of edificial and spatial qualities for the development of collaborative neighbourhoods. In this context the typology of the access balcony seems to be of particular importance.

streets in the air

During the industrialisation the access balcony has developed mainly as a method to economically organise large numbers of small units in multi storey housing.

Early-on social reformers have tried to develop this access typology not only economically but also as a way to generate a social life within the housing estates.

In the projects of our investigation the architects have tried in different ways to develop the ‚street' as an area of social interaction in multi storey housing.

We have assumed that most people feel the desire to develop social contacts and also friendships within their neighbourhood. Therefore we not only investigated on typological characteristics but also surveyed the inhabitants of the housing estates about their needs and opinions. It is the balance between openness and seclusion of the apartment but also of the whole neighbourhood that plays a critical part for the quality of the access areas. This balance can not only be described on the level of the building as it also depends on the habits of the inhabitants. Our investigation makes clear that on the one hand spatial deficiencies can be adjusted by the social commitment of the people but on the other hand spatial qualities alone can not guarantee for a lively neighbourhood.

The projects

The edificial characteristics of the investigated projects are based on very different concepts. Nevertheless they have in common that the apartments are organised around conjointly used access areas.

• The Apollogasse apartment house is an example of the Pawlatschenhaus as it was built for 19th Century working class people.
• The apartment house Miss Sargfabrik shows a contemporary version of the old Pawlatschenhaus typology that develops its positive spatial aspects to a new quality.
• The roofed passage spaces of the Zschokkegasse housing estate show a certain resemblance to the court yard spaces of the Familistères in Guise. The passages act as access spaces for the apartments but also and at the same time as huge communal spaces the inhabitants use for events and parties.
• The galleries of the housing estates in Satzingerweg and Gschwandnergasse explicitly join areas for access and niches for private habitation.
• The isolation of private terraces and public access balconies is taken again a step further in the housing estate Breitenfurter Straße. Although these two areas lay next to one another they are seperated by a garden fence and gate.

Results

Very important for the contentment of the inhabitants is their sensation to live in an exceptional housing estate. This sensation is only partly generated by the conciseness and singularity of the architectural design. More important seem to be possibilities for the inhabitants to take part in shaping their proximate surroundings. Notably people like to get involved with gardening. The more lively the vegetation is in the housing estates the more content are its inhabitants.

Significant for the development of a lively neighbourhood and a positive atmosphere is also the size and scale of the estate. The bigger estates of this investigation were described less lively by their inhabitants and seemed to us less adequate to support a collaborative neighbourhood than the smaller estates whose inhabitants get to know each other much easier.

Furthermore the atmosphere in the housing estates of our research is dependant on the existance of private exterior spaces. Inhabitants with own balconies are less active in a communal neighbourhood life. Although most people express the wish for private balconies it has to be said that these are mostly rather obstructive for the development of a lively neighbourhood, for it is mainly the access area where accidental meetings of the inhabitants occur. The more private balconies, terraces or gardens an estate has, the less do the access areas function for different activities of the inhabitants. If access areas mainly get used as storage places they tend to become subordinate and unattractive. An open apartment layout that allows visual interactions between private and communal spaces can counteract this and improve spatial qualities of the access areas.

The location of access areas within the housing estate has an influence on the development of communal spaces. Are access balcony, court yard or passage built to form the heart of the estate and apartments organised around it the access areas have best spatial preconditions to become meeting places of the inhabitants. The projects of this study show high quality examples of how access areas can be spatially integrated and harmonise with everyday movements of the people through their neighbourhood.

Housing concepts that emphasize collaborative neighbourhoods are especially conform to the access typologies of the investigated projects. The access balcony is a place of informal neighbourly contacts where different activities happen at the same time and people meet unintentionally. The inhabitants we surveyed expressed by the majority the wish for a neighbourhood that relies on lively but rather informal contacts. They want to personally know their neighbours and have the occasional talk but they avoid forced activities and contacts. Most of the inhabitants surveyed are in search for a habitation that lies between collaborative footing and personal freedom. Inhabitants who use the access balcony as extension of their apartment come close to this ideal for they themselves control whether to open up to communal spaces or to retreat to private areas of the apartment. Many inhabitants have the feeling that conjointly used access areas are especially applicable to develop an informal neighbourhood life.

In housing we have to act on the assumption of heterogenous groups of inhabitants as the nuclear family today is just one of many life scripts. Furthermore inhabitants are often mixed together from many different cultural and social backgrounds. On their search for a collaborative habitation people do not wish to be forced into communal rules but live their individual life. The task to combine communal and individual needs and desires is a major aspect of housing today. The projects of this investigation in different ways offer concepts for these contemporary developments.

It is not only the commitment of the inhabitants but significantly the spatial characteristics that generate the qualities of habitation when they satisfy the main use of the areas we were investigating: the everyday walk along the access balcony.