Research Projects

Symposium and evening event celebrating 20 years of cooperation at the Vienna University of Technology with international speakers from university, politics and NGOs.
TUthesky, Vienna Technical University

Since the beginning of the era of globalization, urban development conditions have become more and more determined by external factors. It is less the decision of a mayor or a local parliament who appoint the framework of the on-going urban development. Cities have to lead their immediate career within an extensive framework of regional, international and global networks of economic, political or even social processes. This on-going dynamic is leading to booming and emerging cities on one hand as well as to decreasing processes or shrinkage on the other.

Besides being a humanitarian disaster in the conflict zone, the on-going territorial conflict in Ukraine since 2013, , is having immense effects on the urban development in nearly all Ukrainian cities. This situation has already generated more than two million national refugees moving to other cities to try and build their future. Several urban regions of the Ukraine, which have been accustomed to a decreasing population since the 1990ies, are now suddenly forced to manage an increasing growth while also becoming social and humanitarian hot spots.

The symposium „Urban Dynamics within Global Changes“ tried to analyse the current and future challenges of urban regions in Ukraine based on the circumstances mentioned above. Iris Gleichmann (GIZ Lviv) presented her own recent experiences of urban renewal in Lviv, followed by Viktor Zotov (Canactions Kiew), talking about new Ukrainian urbanism. After these two key inputs the chief architect of Lviv, Julian Chaplinskyy, Christian Gigler as a long-time involved actor within the cooperation and the representative of the Ukrainian chamber of commerce and industry in Austria, Rainer Staltner gave speed lectures on (juxtaposed insights into) working cross borders. The symposium was concluded by a round table discussion focussing on the following questions: Which goals should be formulated to influence this current urban reality? What tools within Urban Planning can be applied to improve the living conditions? Who might be the actors to manage that process.

The event was rounded off by the celebrations of the 20-year anniversary of the cooperation including presentations of different current research focuses as well as the book presentation „Identität, Architektur und Rekonstruktion der Stadt“ by Bohdan Tscherkes. Finally the process and results of the held logo design competition were showcased and the curators gave acknowledgements to the main driving forces of the development and ongoing activities of the cooperation.

Also see the detailed program of the symposium, as well as the results of the logo design competition and more information about „Identität, Architektur und Rekonstruktion der Stadt“ by Bohdan Tscherkes.