The second winning project of the URBAN MENUS Smart City Calls has been determined, announced by Austro-Argentine architect and urban planner Laura P. Spinadel.
Werner Krammer, Mayor of Waidhofen a/d Ybbs received the award in the Smart City Chief category. The reason for this triumph is its successful performance in Waidhofen in various aspects of the international debate on how to make our cities smarter and the dream of making everyone happier.
What the URBAN MENUS team found: A city that has been experiencing for years the approaches that are at the core of the URBAN MENUS philosophy namely, teamwork to develop shared visions with a focus on people and the impact that projects have on them. This is exactly what URBAN MENUS analyses based on the impact of happiness, safety, innovation, profitability, and circularity. At Waidhofen, people think long-term in an integral way. urbanmenus.com/category/award-winners/
In doing so, achievements, traditions, and heritage are treated with respect, i.e. not everything is made new and different without taking history into account. Visions for the future are developed responsibly, implemented in cooperation with the population and, if necessary, readjusted: "Waidhofen must and always has had to reinvent itself" says Werner Krammer in the interview. For him, urban development is a continuous process in which one has to engage, but above all, it is a process that can be shaped actively.
What remains - unfortunately - extraordinary: the courage and emotion, the authenticity, how the process is experienced. The driving force for this commitment is probably a quality of his personality. Since 2014, Werner Krammer has been shaping an innovative development for the city, in cooperation with the citizens and with skills such as those of the architect Ernst Beneder, who previously accompanied Waidhofen on a process of comprehensive repositioning of urban development in the 1990s.
Today, the "tangible results" of the process can be seen in the city: the new Beta Campus, where virtually anything can be done and everything fits: a wide range of activities from education and research, co-working and housing, to events and community facilities; all under one roof overlooking the Ybbs. There is still much more to do: In the coming years, sustainable cycles will be consolidated, new synergies will be created and more opportunities for the healthy development of the citizens will be offered. The aim is to formulate new concepts for public space in the suburbs, where the majority of the population lives while making life in the city centre more attractive. Densification and new connecting lines are the goal. There are plans to develop the urban railway area, the main station, the hospital surroundings, and there is also an idea of implementing a green axis.
Mayor Werner Krammer invites all those who want to contribute to shaping Waidhofen to submit their ideas online as part of the "Co-Create" or "Mitgestalten" initiative: https://waidhofen.at/stadtprojekt-20-17— a continuation of the tradition of digital participation, which experienced a significant achievement in 2015 with the "Participate" or "Mach mit" app for Waidhofen residents.
Meet the winner of the Smart City Chief—URBAN MENUS has produced a video. It is available at the following link urbanmenus.com/ waidhofen-a-d-ybbs/.
Ignition for something big – the URBAN MENUS Smart City Calls remain open to those who want to develop consensual visions and solutions for the future
In the coming months, more exciting products, services, and cities/urban projects from around the world will be presented: The Smart City Chief Call (urbanmenus.com/platform-en/smart-city-chief-call-en) is open to mayors with particular urban visions, the Smart City Products & Services Call (urbanmenus.com/platform-en/smart-city-products-services-call-en) for smart products and services. The submission is a chance for a presentation on the URBAN MENUS 3D Smart City Platform, impact analysis and implementation support.
The calls are about collaboration on an equal footing. The URBAN MENUS team is itself committed to future-oriented urban and regional planning and is looking for fellow campaigners. A joint, digital workspace for smart city projects is to grow. The goals: To make innovators and achievements visible, to facilitate international cooperation, and to show new ways of balancing different approaches to create a collaborative vision and make it a reality.
A new dimension of participatory, sustainable planning of our living space – resilient even in times of crisis, preventing future crises.
Contact
Dr. Mag. Arch. Arq. Laura P. Spinadel
+4314038757, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
urbanmenus.com/platform-en
Further information
About URBAN MENUS
URBAN MENUS is a software for the participatory development of urban planning visions with an integrated smart city platform to connect people who want to make a difference with their products and services.
Various actors including citizens can use it to develop, walkthrough and analyse urban planning visions. The area of application is the critical phase of preliminary planning, in which it is first necessary to bring together partially divergent needs and to create a basis signed by all for the subsequent detailed planning.
The idea for the tool was born during the master planning for the new campus of Vienna University of Economics and Business (2008-2015): youtube.com/watch?v=h_MKrJ0TIic. The development to date has been funded by AWS Impulse XL 2017 and FFG Impact Innovation 2020, among others.
About the initiator
The idea for URBAN MENUS goes back to Laura P. Spinadel, an Austrian-Argentinean architect, urban planner, author, educator and head of the architectural firm BUSarchitektur and BOA büro für offensive aleatorik in Vienna.
As a pioneer of holistic architecture, Laura P. Spinadel has been working for a long time on the democratisation of urban planning processes in a multidisciplinary way, dealing with how to design processes in such a way that as many people as possible affected by a project also participate in its creation. An essential tool: visualisation not only of the appearance but also of the impact.
