Wien und der Konflikt eines baulichen Wandels

Urban development in Vienna has in the last decade been marked by the construction of several large scale office development projects. Among these, the new high-rise office towers have changed Vienna's urban space most notably. They are clearly silhouetted against the background of the historic urban structure and widely visible. With reference to their symbolic value, they are used to promote the new image of Vienna as modern business location and headquarter-center for Central and Eastern Europe. The architectural quality of the new office buildings, however, differs clearly. Whereas the office towers, in general, provide conventional and profit-oriented design solutions, outstanding and ambitious architecture has only been realized with a few projects, mostly low-rise buildings. In the case of Vienna, substantial debates on the architectural quality of the new office development projects are hampered by the reluctance of official urban planning representatives to discuss contentious issues as well as by informal networks and coalitions of interest between political and economic actors.