We will offer organized city walks that provide insights into the structures and recent dynamics of Vienna. If you wish to participate, please make sure to register separately in the registration form. Please note that a public transportation ticket is required for most City Walks.
If the City Walks are fully booked, please reach out to us. Depending on availability, we will do our best to arrange an additional one.
1. City Walk: Wien7_Neubau: urban planning, urban development and urban laboratory
Description: Wien7_Neubau is considered “the” urban laboratory in Vienna. The excursion is dedicated to climate adaptation measures, participation and governance, as well as the transformation of public space. The excursion is at the interface of planning, politics and society and visits places of transformation in public space.
Route: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue; Zollergasse, Bandgasse, Zieglergasse, Bernardgasse
Guide: Prof. Martin Heintel
Date: 9.9.2025 (Tuesday), 14:00-17:00
2. City Walk: Segments of the Vienna Housing Market
Description: Vienna is a city of renters. Owner-occupiers are at 20%, and stable. The large rental market, however, includes a large variety of submarkets, from 22% public housing plus 21% limited-profit housing to ca. 20% regulated private rentals and ca. 12% market rentals. In many parts of the city, these submarkets exist side by side. Such proximity allows for a city walk looking into each of these segments.
Route: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue; A 9 min metro ride will bring us to Heiligenstadt, where we will visit Karl-Marx-Hof, a non-profit project, a historic tenement with rent regulation, and an unregulated private market project. Further uphill, on Hohe Warte, variants of owner-occupied projects will be visited, terminating at Josef Hoffmann’s artists’ villa colony of the early 1900s.
Guide: Dr. Walter Matznetter
Date: 11.9.2025 (Thursday), 14:00-17:00
3. City Walk: Who has a say? Participation in public spaces in Vienna.
Description: The City of Vienna is proud on its recent achievements in the redevelopment of public spaces. Cool streets, climate-fitness, superblocks, sponge-city approaches and many other buzzwords demonstrate a change in planning within the framework of socio-ecological transformation. Participation processes are a key element in implementation. However, not everyone who uses public spaces is consulted or even heard. This city walk focuses on invisible groups who, for various reasons, depend on public space in the city. Join this tour if you are interested in critical reflections on the nexus of public space and participation.
Route: Start: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue. Several stops in Mariahilf, 6th district.
End: IKEA at Westbahnhof, 1150 Vienna.
Guide: Dr. Yvonne Franz
Date: 10.9.2025 (Wednesday), 14:00-16:00
4. City Walk: Climate aspects of a dense city center
Description: Walk through the city center of Vienna with discussion of aspects of climate change as a consequence of city structure (buildings, streets and green structure)
Route: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue; Georg-Coch-Platz, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Hoher Markt, Stephansplatz, Neuer Markt, Stadtpark, Landstrasse Wien Mitte, Stubentor (ca. 4km)
Guide: Prof. Erich Mursch-Radlgruber
Date: 10.9.2025 (Wednesday), 14:00-17:00
5. City Walk: 15 million years in 300 meters (downhill)
Description: The aim of this excursion is an overview of the geological and geomorphological development of the region, the anthropogenic changes to the course of the Danube and the Danube tributaries as well as the climate, site qualities, potential vegetation and land use on Viennese soil. Subsequently, some “physiogeographical” facets of Vienna’s urban landscape will then be explored on foot.
Route: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue: Leopoldsberg – Kahlenberg – Nußdorf – Danube – Hohe Warte (Stadion)
Guide: Robert Peticzka
Date: 11.9.2025 (Thursday), 14:00-17:00
6. City Walk: Data walk: Social Dimensions of Urban Heat
Description: Vienna is significantly impacted by urban heat, forcing the city to adopt diverse mitigation strategies. In this Data Walk, mobile sensors and thermal imaging cameras will be utilised to provide an empirical base for discussions on the social dimensions of urban heat. Special attention will be given to vulnerable groups within public spaces, a critical analysis of ongoing urban transformations and their implications for social equity and segregation.
Route: Start: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue; Stephansplatz, metro ride to Keplerplatz, Supergrätzl Favoriten, End: Hauptbahnhof / main station
Guide: Anna Hämmerle-Shahimy
Date: 9. and 10.9., 14:00–17:00
7. City Walk: Urban Transformations – from a planning Perspective
Description: The walk addresses urban transformations on the examples of urban planning processes in the area of Europe’s longest street market Brunnenmarkt and the area of the underground line U6 at the public library located at the Urban-Loriz-Platz.
Route: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue – U6 Station Josefstädter Straße – Yppenplatz, Brunnenmarkt, Urban-Loriz-Platz
Guide: Prof. Cornelia Dlabaja
Date: 9.9.2025 (Tuesday), 14:00-17:00
8. City Walk: Vineyards, Terraces, and Flood Dynamics: A Journey Through Vienna’s Geographical Layers
Description: This 3-hour city walk provides a field-based introduction to the physical geographical landscape of Vienna, beginning at Kahlenberg and descending towards the urban core. The walk explores the geology, soils, land use (we will walk through the wine yards), the sequence of Danube river terraces, as well as the flood dynamics in the city and its adaptation strategies.
Route: Start: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue;Travel to Kahlenberg (Metro and Bus) – Several Stops at Kahlenberg and during the descend to Grinzing – End: Tram station Grinzing
Guides: Philipp Marr, Till Wenzel
Date: 9.9.2025 (Tuesday), 14:00-17:00
9. City Walk: Gentrification and Displacement in Vienna?
Description: Vienna is often seen as an international posterchild for social and affordable housing. On this walk, we explore gentrification and displacement by looking at how Vienna’s (historic) housing stock is being transformed and how public spaces are changing in their use. We look at how the welfare-state environment has led to subtle forms of displacement – sometimes framed as urban renewal. At the same time, we look at the ways in which capitalist urban development enables new forms of (housing) exclusion and racialized dispossession.
Route: Start: ÖAW – Building of the main conference venue; several stops through the 7th district, Neubau; End: Neubaugasse (Metro Stop U3)
Guide: Judith Schnelzer
Date: 10.9.2025 (Wednesday), 14:30-17:00
