Cool spaces for Cities: climate- and gender sensitive urban development in Vienna

The IAK "Gender and Climate just Cities and urban Regions" met for its last face-to-face meeting on April 25/26, 2024. The meeting was hosted by the co-leader of the IAK, Prof. Doris Damyanovic (BOKU). 

During its three-year term, the IAK has intensively dealt with various approaches to gender-equitable urban development and incorporated strategies and perspectives from Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Sweden, Serbia, Spain, the Czech Republic and Germany. A special issue of DiSP is planned as a joint product. In addition, the IAK will offer a session together with the IIIK "Gender and Spatial Transformation" at the AESOP conference in Paris in June 2024. 

The final meeting of the IAK therefore focused on joint work on the contributions to the special issue. Furthermore, several examples of recent climate-adapted urban development concepts in Vienna's inner-city districts were visited, e.g. Johann Nepomuk Vogl Platz Johann-Nepomuk-Vogl-Platz in Währing (wien.gv.at), the "Klimaboulevard" Thaliastraße Ottakring - Thaliastraße NEU - Stadt Wien and the "Begegnungszone" Neubaugasse Begegnungszone Neubaugasse (wien.gv.at). Vienna is affected by increasing heat in summer and often by strong winds, and the city has been focusing on intensive greening of its residential streets for several years. With numerous projects spread across Vienna's densely built-up inner-city districts, the city is focusing on water-sensitive structures to limit surface runoff (sponge city principle), on the further promotion of cycling and walking and on the creation of attractive public places to linger. So that all population groups can live in as healthy an urban environment as possible, even in the face of increasing climate change effects.