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Talks and Poster Presentations (with Proceedings-Entry):

C. Jäger-Klein:
"Protected Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development and the Heumarkt-Projects within the Historic City Center of Vienna";
Keynote Lecture: International Forum on Architecture and Urban Planning, Tirana; 2019-11-21 - 2019-11-22; in: "Modernization & Globalization. Challenges and Opportunities in Architecture, Urbanism, Cultural Heritage", F. Nepravishta et al. (ed.); www.fau.edu.al, IFAU'19 (2020), ISBN: 978-9928-346-01-8; 33 - 41.



English abstract:
Are nationally or internationally protected cultural heritage assets obstactles for modernization and development? This question also popped up during the long-term discussion about a skyscraper-project on the area of "Heumarkt" within the core-zone of the UNESCO world-heritage site "Historic city centre of Vienna". The project supporters are arguing that the proposed project will contribute additional social values to the city´s development and repair a rather dissatisfying situation. The voices against the project state that the proposed project is breaking a kind of social con-tract of society that does not allow high-rise buildings for mere private business reasons. Even during the high-peak of "Gruenderzeit", the new rich strata of society would not dare to break that social con-tract, which just allowed high rise structures for church towers and representative communal or state buildings within the historic city centre and the zone of world famous Ringstrasse. Besides, because the project a quite important building from mid XXth century international modernism, the Hotel Intercontinental, former PANAM, will have to be deleted.
The paper will explain the legal background of the project, which allowed the investor to suggest that kind of project, and why the project gained support by the city of Vienna as politically responsible authority. It will counterbalance this position by the arguments of the civil society representatives, who heavily protested against the project, in the meantime with support through court judgements. Finally, it will summarize the position of international joint advisory mission of UNESCO and ICOMOS, supported by the state officials of Austria.

Keywords:
modernization, heritage values, historic urban landscape recommendations, Ringstrasse, Gruenderzeit

Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.