WEBVTT

00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:50.280
Vienna brings to mind \"Gemütlichkeit\",
magnificent imperial buildings,

00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:52.880
not Europe\'s largest construction site.

00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:56.840
Digging started here in 2011

00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:01.560
to make space for housing
for the rapidly growing metropolis.

00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:08.120
A space like the unused airfield of Aspern,

00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:11.480
far away from St Stephen\'s Cathedral
and the Hofburg.

00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:16.720
Its transformation was decided by
an international architecture competition.

00:02:16.880 --> 00:02:19.920
In May 2007,
Vienna\'s municipal council

00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:23.480
declared the winner:
Swedish architect, Johannes Tovatt.

00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:26.880
His vision: A city within the city.

00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:30.280
A city around a lake: Seestadt
which translates as \"lake city\".

00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:37.520
Johannes Tovatt has been part
of many urban development projects,

00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:41.800
so he knows that a city\'s evolution
cannot be based on a single person\'s ego.

00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:45.960
It involves a process with
a range of people sharing their visions.

00:04:34.520 --> 00:04:37.480
When it comes to transforming
and developing the city,

00:04:37.640 --> 00:04:39.960
Vienna has always been revolutionary.

00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:44.080
It\'s no surprise to find it among the cities
with the highest quality of life.

00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.040
The city administration
invests a lot in public space,

00:04:48.200 --> 00:04:50.600
and controls speculation on housing.

00:04:54.440 --> 00:04:57.720
Aspern used to be Austria\'s largest airfield.

00:04:57.880 --> 00:05:00.600
Later, car and motorcycle races
were held here.

00:05:00.760 --> 00:05:04.760
Building a new city on the old airfield
was a crazy idea.

00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:07.960
But crazy ideas
have a long tradition in Vienna.

00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:14.680
Creative ideas were also used
to attract people to the new grounds.

00:05:14.840 --> 00:05:18.800
For example, with a gigantic show
called \"Crane Lake\".

00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:22.480
Aspern. Farming field.

00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:25.200
Battlefield.

00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.400
Airfield.
Construction site.

00:05:30.080 --> 00:05:33.120
The plan is set.

00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.880
The mission is clear.

00:05:37.640 --> 00:05:40.760
A city will be built here.

00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.480
The vision has a name.

00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:50.200
These machines represent a new beginning.

00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:53.920
And they never stand still.

00:05:54.080 --> 00:05:58.680
The new city is emerging on an area
as big as the historical city centre.

00:05:58.840 --> 00:06:03.160
Public space, such as streets,
squares, parks and the lake,

00:06:03.320 --> 00:06:05.920
will take up more than half of the area.

00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:10.640
The rest will be housing, offices, shops,
services and research facilities.

00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.520
Seestadt is scheduled to be finished in 2028.

00:06:20.760 --> 00:06:26.080
Planners and architects continually monitor
the realisation of Tovatt\'s master plan.

00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:28.840
What works and what doesn\'t?

00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:35.080
When I first started here, I had no idea
about the scale of the project

00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:37.000
and how long it would last.

00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.960
Everything you see out there now
wasn\'t there yet.

00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.360
You could see all the way
from the north to the south,

00:06:46.520 --> 00:06:49.720
without any buildings to block your view.

00:06:49.880 --> 00:06:54.920
I\'d just like to add here: my canteen
was the highest building in Seestadt.

00:06:55.080 --> 00:06:57.520
It\'s about four metres high.

00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.600
Yes, that\'s what it looked like here
back then.

00:07:00.760 --> 00:07:06.360
But month by month,
the project progressed.

00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.840
And at some point, the canteen
was no longer the highest building.

00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:19.240
During the planning process, a lot of thought
went into how to build this city.

00:07:19.400 --> 00:07:23.520
There are other examples from antiquity,
built by the Romans or Greeks.

00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.640
Or more modern examples,
such as cities like Brasilia or Astana,

00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:31.360
famous capitals
that were designed from scratch,

00:07:31.520 --> 00:07:34.640
built and then populated.

00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.600
But a different strategy was chosen here.

00:07:40.840 --> 00:07:45.520
There\'s a master plan, of course,
to establish what it will look like.

00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:47.520
But the process itself...

00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:52.560
The strategy here is rather clever:
they decided to build quarter by quarter.

00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:57.280
That means, you start with
a small, closed quarter, and build it.

00:07:57.440 --> 00:08:01.120
And then you populate it.
And then you see if it works.

00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.760
And then you start with the next one.

00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:19.040
The rough estimate at some point was:
it\'ll take about 20 years.

00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:23.760
But whether it\'s 15 or 25 or even 30 years
isn\'t relevant at all.

00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:28.440
It doesn\'t matter because in this project
the journey is the reward.

00:08:56.640 --> 00:08:59.800
A walk through Seestadt is fascinating.

00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:01.840
But it also raises questions.

00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.280
The atmosphere is light and spacious.

00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:08.240
But so far, only one third of the city
has been built and populated.

00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:13.280
Sometimes, it feels like being
on a film set or in a video game.

00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:16.160
But Seestadt is continually transforming.

00:09:16.680 --> 00:09:20.760
And an important aspect of the master plan
is not to make plans.

00:10:27.560 --> 00:10:32.240
Basically, life in a city always goes
hand in hand with a big challenge,

00:10:32.400 --> 00:10:34.960
which is its social complexity.

00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:38.760
A large number of people live together
in a very limited space.

00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.880
And that\'s something our brains
weren\'t designed for:

00:10:43.040 --> 00:10:45.840
to cope with so many people.

00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.760
So it\'s very important that cities
provide the necessary structures

00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:57.640
to enable us
to break up this huge social complexity

00:10:57.800 --> 00:11:00.400
into smaller, manageable units.

00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:04.200
The constructed space
plays an essential role in this.

00:11:06.040 --> 00:11:09.360
Of course, opinions differ
on such a monumental project.

00:11:09.520 --> 00:11:12.320
Some Vienna residents
have reasonable objections.

00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.560
Others just repeat prejudices:

00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:17.640
Don\'t know it, don\'t care about it.

00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:23.040
I hear nothing positive about it.
It\'s a ghetto.

00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:24.920
Okay.
- That\'s how I see it.

00:11:25.160 --> 00:11:28.560
The houses are too close.
You can almost jump between balconies.

00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:33.440
And there are \"squares\" that are covered
with asphalt, like the one by the school.

00:11:33.680 --> 00:11:37.000
I think it looks sterile,
but I haven\'t been there in ages.

00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.960
People have been herded together there.

00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:46.560
Lacking in all culture, in my view.

00:11:48.680 --> 00:11:52.480
Is Seestadt really a cultureless,
concrete ghetto?

00:11:52.640 --> 00:11:56.200
We want to hear
what the people who live there have to say.

00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:02.200
It\'s nice to know that
you just have to leave the house

00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:05.480
and you have a garden with trees
on your doorstep.

00:12:05.640 --> 00:12:10.960
Or you just walk 20 metres
and you\'re in a park.

00:12:11.560 --> 00:12:14.840
So it\'s definitely much better than...
- In the city.

00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:16.640
Exactly.

00:12:16.880 --> 00:12:21.120
It\'s different to my previous apartment
in Vienna, which was also very nice,

00:12:21.280 --> 00:12:23.680
but the building wasn\'t that nice.

00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:30.200
There were loads of people you didn\'t know.
You just knew the names from the doorbells.

00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:36.320
You knew a few people personally,
but otherwise it was totally anonymous.

00:12:36.560 --> 00:12:40.680
At the beginning,
when someone got on the bus,

00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:44.800
you\'d ask, \"And which building
do you live in here in Seestadt?

00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:48.040
And how is it? Do you like the building?\"

00:12:48.280 --> 00:12:52.480
And some of that spirit from the early days
is still there.

00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:56.960
I still know the people I talked to
on the bus back then.

00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:00.560
We say hi and make small talk
every now and then.

00:13:00.800 --> 00:13:02.800
For me, being here feels like

00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:06.920
being in an Italian
holiday apartment complex,

00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:09.520
because everything is so colourful.

00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:14.360
For me,
it was never something negative,

00:13:14.520 --> 00:13:16.880
being so far from the city centre.

00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:21.200
People say, \"It\'s so far away,
it\'s not even part of Vienna.\"

00:13:21.800 --> 00:13:26.520
Or that there\'s not much round here,
but it\'s developing all the time.

00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:29.880
The past two years
have seen loads of new things.

00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:32.680
Can I say something else?
- Sure.

00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:36.840
There are way fewer cars
here in Seestadt than in Serbia.

00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.200
In Serbia?
- Yes.

00:13:41.040 --> 00:13:44.360
And this is
one of the core ideas behind Seestadt.

00:13:44.520 --> 00:13:48.560
It\'s a totally new perspective
on how we move about a city.

00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.840
For instance, there are already plans

00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.720
to repurpose the car parks
in the car-free future.

00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:07.560
Seestadt wants to be a city
designed for its citizens.

00:14:07.800 --> 00:14:12.640
All citizens can go about
their daily tasks on foot or by bicycle.

00:14:14.680 --> 00:14:19.960
The \"Aspern mobile lab\" conducts experiments
to analyse traffic behaviour here.

00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:22.040
It develops new technologies

00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:25.360
for a smart and sustainable city.

00:14:28.520 --> 00:14:31.640
Once cars are no longer
the focal point of our lives,

00:14:31.880 --> 00:14:34.280
cities won\'t be designed for cars anymore.

00:14:37.280 --> 00:14:42.680
Seestadt\'s mobility concept is firstly about
being well-connected to public transport.

00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.880
And secondly, it\'s about
slowing down traffic within the city.

00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.760
It\'s about providing
shopping facilities right where people live,

00:14:50.920 --> 00:14:54.640
as well as educational services
and recreational activities.

00:14:54.800 --> 00:14:57.240
And the routes to these amenities

00:14:57.400 --> 00:15:01.600
should be particularly attractive
for pedestrians and cyclists.

00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.240
They are prioritised,

00:15:04.400 --> 00:15:10.160
whereas cars have been designated
less space on the roads.

00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:14.880
So this is an example of how
the mobility pyramid has changed in general

00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:17.000
over the past few years.

00:15:17.160 --> 00:15:22.400
Now people are on the top,
and motor vehicles at the bottom.

00:15:22.560 --> 00:15:24.680
It used to be the other way round.

00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:34.600
In Seestadt,
a lot of people ride bicycles.

00:15:37.920 --> 00:15:42.440
So we have a lot of new customers.

00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:46.080
There are more and more people living here,

00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.840
so there\'s more and more work for us.

00:15:54.040 --> 00:15:56.880
I\'m doing basic maintenance on this bike.

00:15:57.400 --> 00:16:00.800
Adjusting the gears
and readjusting the brakes,

00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.680
and checking all the screws.

00:16:10.560 --> 00:16:13.360
I came to Austria...

00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:17.400
I fled from Afghanistan.

00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:20.640
And I ended up here.

00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:25.160
And what makes Seestadt so special

00:16:25.400 --> 00:16:28.120
is that it\'s like a small village.

00:16:28.280 --> 00:16:32.000
I have lots of friends here.

00:16:32.160 --> 00:16:34.360
It\'s almost like family.

00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:39.640
And so it\'s the right town or village for me.

00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.800
And so everything started with the lake.

00:18:26.600 --> 00:18:30.800
Vienna\'s social architecture
has always been trail-blazing.

00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.480
After World War I
the municipal housing complexes were built,

00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:37.280
revolutionising subsidised housing.

00:18:37.800 --> 00:18:40.240
These houses,
not the palaces and theatres,

00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:44.000
made Vienna\'s quality of life
among the best in the world.

00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:50.000
The question of who builds
and what is built in Seestadt

00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.360
is regulated by
Vienna\'s expert advisory council.

00:18:53.520 --> 00:18:56.520
It ensures diversity and the right balance

00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:02.120
between services, shared spaces
and private and subsidised housing.

00:19:03.600 --> 00:19:07.360
This includes co-housing projects
like \"Baugruppen\",

00:19:07.520 --> 00:19:11.560
innovating concepts of communal living
that go back many years.

00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:14.320
These people want to live differently.

00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.600
Living together is the goal again.

00:19:18.320 --> 00:19:21.680
On the one hand,
we are part of a cooperative,

00:19:21.840 --> 00:19:23.760
or an association,

00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.920
which plans and develops these houses.

00:19:28.360 --> 00:19:31.720
But on the other hand, we are occupiers

00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:36.040
who rent an apartment
from this cooperative or association.

00:19:37.560 --> 00:19:42.640
When it comes to social innovation,
architecture plays an important role.

00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:47.920
Because, in a way, it provides the space
for social interaction to happen.

00:19:48.080 --> 00:19:52.200
For example, by planning communal rooms,

00:19:52.360 --> 00:19:55.440
the individual apartments can be smaller.

00:19:57.160 --> 00:19:59.200
Passing through here,

00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:03.960
we enter this space
which can be accessed from both buildings.

00:20:04.120 --> 00:20:07.440
It\'s the central meeting place.

00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:10.800
We call it
the \"atrium of the neighbourhoods\".

00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.520
Here, we residents want to meet one another.

00:20:14.680 --> 00:20:19.520
There will be a \"laundry bar\"
or a laundry room,

00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:24.120
where we do our laundry, meet others,
while the children play outside.

00:20:24.280 --> 00:20:29.920
Where we can read a book and have a coffee,
while we\'re waiting for the laundry.

00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:33.560
Or where we just bump into a neighbour
when we get home.

00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:37.680
One more flight of stairs to go.

00:20:37.840 --> 00:20:40.320
You can already see the apartments.

00:20:41.560 --> 00:20:43.800
We\'re climbing to the fifth floor.

00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:49.200
This is going to be our main meeting space.

00:20:49.360 --> 00:20:51.720
Our shared kitchen.

00:20:52.280 --> 00:20:56.760
We will cook here and meet one another.

00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:58.880
I can\'t describe the feeling.

00:20:59.040 --> 00:21:01.000
It\'s a tingling sensation.

00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:03.800
It\'s like: Yes, it all was worth it.

00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.080
All the effort
and all the time we put into this.

00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:10.640
The endless community meetings,
the voting...

00:21:10.800 --> 00:21:13.440
It was all online,
which was pretty tedious.

00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:17.480
Covid meant everything was online.
We\'ve never met in person.

00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:21.080
This is actually the first time
we\'re meeting in person.

00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:24.520
And now, it\'s such a great feeling.

00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:28.760
It\'s not just moving into a new apartment,
it\'s like coming home.

00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:31.040
Like you found your home.

00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:40.480
I hear nothing.
Well, at the moment some construction noise,

00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:42.720
but no noise from traffic.

00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.240
And no noise from the metro.
Fantastic.

00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:07.600
I believe that a lot of people

00:22:07.840 --> 00:22:12.280
no longer want to be trapped
in their roles as consumers.

00:22:13.080 --> 00:22:16.520
They want to break free of this role,

00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:19.280
and play a productive part in society.

00:22:19.520 --> 00:22:26.560
Housing is one of the core spheres of life
and many people want to shape it themselves.

00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:30.560
And the concept of \"Baugruppen\"
enables them to take charge.

00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:35.120
And to plan housing as a community.

00:22:36.280 --> 00:22:40.480
We\'re not isolated anymore,
living next door to each other,

00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:43.880
we shape our living space together,

00:22:44.040 --> 00:22:47.600
support one another
and inspire one another.

00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:50.280
That makes it so appealing.

00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:03.440
In Seestadt, even the simplest transactions
can turn into a social event.

00:23:03.600 --> 00:23:07.040
The community is palpably growing
with each new resident,

00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:09.720
so even handing over a key is a festive act.

00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:12.440
Good luck in your new apartment.
Thank you.

00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:19.240
We hope you enjoy living here.
All the best.

00:23:43.520 --> 00:23:48.760
Maybe Seestadt offers not only
affordable housing and quality of life,

00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:52.560
but also greater stability
for crises in the future.

00:25:16.840 --> 00:25:22.200
Events like the silent disco are also drawing
Vienna\'s long-time residents to Seestadt.

00:25:22.360 --> 00:25:24.400
It is a vibrant, dynamic place.