(un)planbar

Visions of city architecture and what remains thereof:
stunted realty – lush real estate

Book Presentation
Wilhelm Kainrath
>>Die Bandstadt<< – Vision of city achitecture or realistic model of urban development?

Wilhelm Kainrath, critical Viennese city planner, advocated the Marxist demand for “urban-rural-penetration” and studied the history of the linear city modell in the framework of his work for the Viennese urban development plan.

Discussion
Hermann Czech, architect
Irmgard Frank, architect, ÖGFA
Siegfried Mattl, city historian
Oskar Nitsch, Chamber of Labor
Hugo Potyka, architect and city planer
Erich Raith, TU Wien
Elisabeth Weihsmann, GPA Wohnbauvereinigung für Privatangestellte
Moderated by:
Otto Kapfinger

Additional Information

Wilhelm Kainrath (1939 -1986) completed his architecture studies at the Technical University of Vienna in 1965. He was soon to find out that his actual strengths were urban planning on the one hand – and this in a sociopolitical integrated type of city planning – and a pronounced literary talent on the other. As early as in 1970 he was working in London at the New towns Runcorn and Milton Keynes. Following his return to Vienna as a civil engineer he initially worked with municipal architecture and primarily with housing issues. Very early he pointed out that city renewal and city expansion were two sides of the same coin.
As of 1975 he “left his mark” as an officer of the municipal urban planning department, an activity crowned by the design of “Step 84” in 1980.
In the introduction to this book “Die Bandstadt” Kainrath questions the VALUE AND NON-VALUE of city modells and seeks to answers these questions by discussing the linear settlement structure in the urban area – with the objective of creating a balance between rurality and urbanity.
Based thereon he systematically documented the broad array of linear city concepts, their origin, development, and destiny thereby contributing greatly to the literature available on the discipline of municipal architecture and area planning. The last chapter is dedicated to the planning of Vienna.
And the Viennese STEP of 1984 with the area modell of settlement axes and wedges of green inbetween.
In contrast to utopian modell ideas, real planning concepts are exposed to the merciless routine of feasability, the protagonists of which naturally represent highly varying interests.

Kainrath hardly received any reactions from architects or architecture schools after the publication of STEP 84 which he felt to be “the absolute low point of the level of planning”.

The book presentation is an occasion to throw a light upon Vienna’s city planning of the last 10 years from all sides in a panel discussion.