The loss of semi-public spheres within the Vienna urban parterre system—cause and effect study

Abstract

[EN] As proven in the preceding pilot study the historical Viennese StadtParterre (urban parterre) originally presented an extensive, intriguing network of interior and exterior urban spaces: streets, building ground floors and courtyards. It included an essential semi-public sphere with no clear-cut boundary between inside and out. Rather, doors and windows were left open most of the time so that ground-floor premises were easily accessible to the"public flow". Original photos from the period attest to this: the ground-floor facades were permeable semi-public or private uses extended from the interior out to the street, and conversely. In addition, many of these so called "Gewölbe" were connected witgh basement floors or cellars underneath, which meant a further extension of the urban parterre and in most cases the (commercial) use of the street-facing premises also included the interior courtyard. Today, courtyards within the Viennese Gründerzeit areas mostly accommodate garbage cans or dumpsters; their soils are sealed and a considerable part of the urban parterre lies idle. Intensive, diversified use nowadays is rare: street, ground floor and courtyardall being different parts of one essential urban systemare not mutually supportive, their interlinked use-pattern falls apart and diverges. The paper discusses reasons and socio-urban effects of such a dis-linked, malfunctioning urban parterre structure by among others comparing it to the original historic state. First and foremost, though, it debates to acknowledge the significance of the StadtParterre for the functioning of a city -a fact that has somewhat fallen into oblivion lately