Please note: the speaker will be presenting virtually from Austria. Attendees will still be able to ask questions and interact.
1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
8:30 a.m. ‐ 10:00 a.m.
As explored in this session led by a virtual presenter, Vienna has been well‐known for high quality of life, which has a lot to do with a high quality of housing. In many countries, the term "social housing" is seen as a marginalised topic, as housing for the poorest of the poor, tainted with stigma and prejudice and not something to be adorned with. But using that term in Vienna is not talking about deficits, it is talking about the notion of social in the context of “societal” of community. This started more than 100 years ago, when there was a movement that was definitely pushing the envelop and created more than 60.000 housing units within only 15 years, offering light, air and sun for the first time to people, who had only know a living under dark, damp and health threatening circumstances. This movement is known as “The Red Vienna”, and it still is the strong foundation for developing our system of social and affordable housing further into the future.
Of course, the times continue to change quickly. Therefore, Vienna tries to maintaining the attitude while constantly adapting the measures. As for the financing system for affordable housing, a few aspects from the past are interwoven with legal regulations that make renting attractive, with institutional structures that make the City a strong stakeholder, and with subsidies and incentives, that are helping us to meet the challenges of reducing greenhouse gas as quickly as possible.
Learning Objectives
1. Learn to regard housing first of all as a Human Right, then as a trading good for the stock market, and understand the effects of that on the financing models for affordable housing in Vienna.
2. Understand social mixing and neighbourhood development as key factors for successful urban development.
3. Understand prospective land management and clear rules for land use and the real estate market as strong backbones for the financing models in Vienna.
4. Learn about quality assurance based on economy, ecology, architecture, energy, and social sustainability—and the outcome in affordable housing projects compared with the free market.
Kurt Hofstetter, Director, Vienna IBA, Vienna City Planning Department, Austria
Kurt Hofstetter, 1963, is a graduate of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna. As an employee of the City of Vienna since 1991, he has been involved in various leadership functions with urban planning and development issues, including zoning and development planning, as well as landscape planning for the whole of Vienna. From 2003 to 2015, he was significantly involved in the urban development of Seestadt Aspern in Vienna. From 2016 to 2022, he was director of the International Building Exhibition, “IBA_Vienna – New Social Housing”, which held its final presentation in 2022. Since 2023, as an expert on housing topics, he has been involved with strategic projects for the City of Vienna, as well as with international contacts.