Studio 5
18.08. - 29.08.
An Architektur - Oliver Clemens, Sabine Horlitz, Anita Kaspar
Space Power Property
The Inheritance Custom of Realerbteilung in Vorarlberg
Space is architecture, is urban space, is a built-up environment, is Euclidean in its geometry; it has three dimensions and acquires a fourth in the form of time, as well as many others in its character as social space. Space is always many spaces that exist next to one another simultaneously and are dependent on one another. They are characterized by the relationships between subjects and objects, between people and the built-up environment. Space is political through and through, a construct that is ceaselessly produced and used; it is pervaded by various demands and requirements imposed on it, and these help to give it shape and appearance. Space is social space, at once a product and a container of all its experiences and practices. It structures everyday life and social relationships, but it also produces experiences of dissent and exclusion. Space is a place, an object, and a product of conflicts and negotiations.
The workshop studied these complex dimensions of space and their interconnections and effects upon life experience by examining the inheritance custom of Realerbteilung practiced in Vorarlberg. Traditionally, and to this day, land in Vorarlberg has been divided among all of the heirs of the owners, and this leads to a landscape of small parcels of farmland, orchards, and building sites. In the congested spaces of the Rhine Valley, in particular, this is resulting in ever smaller plots of land that can mostly accommodate only single family houses and make it increasingly difficult to plan community areas, public spaces, or parks.
The workshop looked into the relationships between how space is structured in practice and the underlying ideas and beliefs of society expressed through this. In the process, it inquired into the associated economic circumstances and ownership structures, the relationship between private and public spaces, and the surrounding cultivated landscape, as well as what this means in concrete terms for the way life is lived and for future planning.
No Comments »Millenium Park, Lustenau
Development concept: PRISMA group
Project coordination: Lustenau Building Office and Department of Economic Planning
Area: 87,200 m², including 18,200 m² of developed land area
Gross floor area: 35,800 m²
Project development:
1993: Study of the current Millennium Park property by Georg Rauch, first idea for an industrial site at this location
Approx. 1993 Saeco Austria AG searches for land in the region on which to build, with Baumschlager Eberle as architects. The community of Lustenau offers to sell them a plot of land at what is now Millennium Park.
1997: The community of Lustenau hires PRISMA GmbH to provide a development plan for the site; PRISMA receives a commission for companies recruited.
1998: Realization of the company headquarters of Saeco Austria AG sets the standard for use and architecture. Gradually, more companies come.
2002: A plan is created to establish green zones between the company buildings.
2008: Millennium Park is to be expanded by up to eight hectares. The potential area of expansion is part of the green zone and is not yet designated as building land.
First of all, we are primarily interested in the ownership relationships prior to the development of Millennium Park. The original map makes it apparent that at least initially, there were many small plots of land there. How did the community of Lustenau handle this, and who now owns the plots of land?
The small size of these parcels of land and the great number of private owners was indeed a problem. The land itself was dedicated as green space, but it lay outside of the green zone and could therefore be rezoned as building land without much difficulty. The community bought up the parcels for approximately three times the market value and then sold them to the companies at break-even prices. The whole process was completed gradually, and around five to six years passed before all the parcels had been bought. There was no pre-existing overall plan. Instead, the parcels to be sold were sized according to the individual requests of the firms involved. The land was prepared for construction by the community itself.
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Hardsiedlung, Hard
Hardsiedlung
Nearly a hundred years ago, the textile company Schöller set up a housing development in the town of Hard with fifty-four apartments for the migrant laborers from Trentino. Thirty years ago, immigrant workers from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey moved in.
After purchasing the area, “Hinteregger project” planned to build a new residential development with an underground parking garage. To that end, they wanted to raze the gardens and outbuildings. But authorities prevented this because of the historical character of the area - and now the development is listed as a protected historical site, and the Agency for Historic Preservation has instructed that the architectural ensemble located there must not be changed. The sheds and the apartment buildings together form a rigorously symmetrical community.
South Tyrol Settlements
In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini came to an agreement (the “Hitler-Mussolini Pact”): it forced the South Tyroleans to choose between living under the conditions of Italian fascism in South Tyrol or emigrating to the German Reich.
In the period between 1939 and 1943, this choice was known as the “option in South Tyrol”, whereby the non-Italian-speaking South Tyroleans (native German-speakers and Ladin-speakers) emigrated to Germany or Austria (the Optanten, or “optants”) or stayed in South Tyrol (the Dableiber, or “stay behinders”).
Eighty percent (166,488 South Tyroleans) chose the “Option”, and by the end of the war, around 75,000 of them had emigrated. Approximately 11,000 of them were accommodated in hastily erected housing developments in Vorarlberg.
No Comments »Semi-Detached Housing Complex, Lustenau
Year built: circa 1950s,
approx. 12-15 townhouses
Can you tell us a little about the history of your house? We saw that the property line runs straight through the house. How long has it been that way?
It’s always been that way. Like all the others you see here, it was planned and built as a semi-detached house (or duplex).
Who owned these plots of land?
It was a large piece of land owned by a farmer. Then he sold it to a building contractor who developed the area and then sold the individual parcels and houses to the owners. Over time, some of the owners built on extensions. You can see that over there: Here, this is the original house, and that was added later.
So that doesn’t have anything to do with Realerbteilung?
No, not here, but that does happen often here in this area. You see it right away, when the houses stand at such a crooked angle, and you can only get to the rear plot by going across the front one, on a private road.
Interview with resident
No Comments »Allmende Lustenau und Schweizer Ried
Allmende Lustenau
Partition: 1806
Transfer to citizen ownership: 1834
In the year 1806, the “community land” of Lustenau (according to the legal form of organization known as Allmende, or “common land”) was distributed by lot among 420 citizens after having been geometrically measured off, partitioned, cut through with ditches, and made accessible with suitable paths across the fields. However, the definitive transfer of the community property to citizen ownership according to the number of people did not occur until 1834 and was confirmed by a court decree in 1835. This marked the introduction of the recording of the meadows that ultimately led to the current structure of open pasture land in the Lustenauer Ried area following additional property transactions and partitioning.
From: Portrait of Lustenau, 1975
Schweizer Ried
1593
A special complication resulted with the location bordering the Swiss Confederation, a situation that emerged in the late fifteenth century, especially considering that the old crown community of Lustenau was only divided into the communities of Widnau and Haslach (Au) on the left side of the Rhine and Lustenau in 1593. At that time, the separated Swiss communities in the north and south of Lustenau were granted two large sections of the meadow known as the “Schweizer Rieder”.
From: Portrait of Lustenau, 1975
In the eastern part of Lustenau, one is struck, on one hand, by the very small parcels of land in the Ried and, on the other hand, by the two connected pieces of land south and north of them. What is the explanation for this particular structure?
Lustenau was a very poor community, not least because of the frequent flooding of the Rhine. The economic upturn came only with the textile industry around 1890. In 1800, all the residents were still farmers. Each family had a small bit of its own land to cultivate-but a large proportion of the land was community property, the Allmende. It encompassed the entire Ried and was to be used solely as pastureland. But since only the wealthy were able to profit from this commonly owned land - the poor farmers hardly owned a single head of livestock - the farmers revolted. The urgency of a more just distribution of public property became even more clear when a famine began to spread. Finally, the city fathers gave in to the demands of the farmers. The land of the Ried was divided among the families of Vorarlberg according to their size. The families were granted this land to provide for their own sustenance, but they were initially also bound to it and were not allowed to sell it.
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Wohnanlage Pfarrer Giererweg, Dornbirn
Architect: Gunter Wratzfeld
Year built: 1981/82
68 residential units, low-income housing for purchase on installment plan
How was the housing project developed, who owned the land?
The land belonged to an heir. In the late 1970s, the city planned to build a road through the property and thus divide it into parcels, but the owner didn’t want that. He engaged me to develop a proposal for using the property that would prevent it from being divided. I designed this housing project, which speaks the language of the surrounding area of single-family homes, even though it has townhouses and apartment buildings. I come from Dornbirn myself, and I’ve known the land for a long time. It used to be a meadow filled with snowdrops, but it has been dedicated as building land for quite some time now.
How was the housing project financed?
The project was supported with funds for low-income housing development. I looked for a non-profit property developer, Wohnbauselbsthilfe [”Home Building Self-Help”], which had already carried out similar projects. They bought the land and managed the project. The financing was laid out over twenty years, in the form of a leasing plan. The tenants had to satisfy certain criteria - they couldn’t earn too much, otherwise they would ineligible for support. After ten years, the units were transferred to them as their property in the land register, and after twenty years, the debt was paid off. The land was not physically partitioned but instead remained communally owned with special rights of use for the small private gardens.
Interview with Gunter Wratzfeld, architect. Bregenz
No Comments »Fallbach Community, Dornbirn
Realized in nine stages, 1962 to 1982.
324 residential units
22,900 m² living area
Community in the south of the city, near the quarry.
VOGEWOSI
Vorarlberger gemeinnützige Wohnungsbau- und Siedlungsgesellschaft mbH [Vorarlberg Non-Profit Home Building and Settlement Corp.]
Development of VOGEWOSI in Vorarlberg
1939-1943: Construction of approximately 2,200 residential units for South Tyrolean immigrants (not native Italian-speaking South Tyroleans), shortage of 6,000 units after the war
1948: Establishment of VOGEWOSI, initial construction of small residential projects (townhouses, semi-detached and single-family houses); starting in 1950: construction of buildings with multiple apartments (8, 9 and 12 units), with the first housing project in Bregenz-Kuengasse; continued construction of primarily small residential estates in the 1950s.
End of the 1950s, the 1960s, part of the 1970s: Also construction of condominiums
Starting 1964: Installation of central heating systems in new residential properties for rent (earlier in owner-occupied units)
Early 1980s: Beginning of large-scale renovation
1990s: Construction boom with almost 3,200 new residential units, increasing focus in new construction on energy criteria (energy-saving buildings), greatly intensified after the end of the construction boom (end of the 90s) by the promotion of residential construction by the province, increased inclusion of environmental criteria in construction projects in the new millennium (environmentally-friendly residential construction)
As of 2004: mandatory handicapped access
As of 2007: Mandatory “passive house” design
Since the early 1950s, residential construction always with use of public funding with a few exceptions, and since the mid-1970s, apartment units only for rent (sometimes with right to purchase, since 2000 only apartment units for rent).
Criteria for assignment of residential units
- Units are assigned solely by the community to households eligible for support. This includes people who are Austrian citizens or have equivalent status according to European Union law or international treaty, and “citizens of other states for whom long-term residence is authorized” who are considered in accordance with the proportion of the population they represent in the community.
- Unrestricted tax liability in Austria
- Urgent need of housing (fulfillment of certain criteria)
- Interested parties own no residential property of their own, or have no contractual right of residence elsewhere
- Adherence to income limits (80% of the limits applicable to support for ownership of house or apartment)
- Entry into fixed-term rental contracts between three and ten years
Interview with Dr. Lorenz, managing director of Vogewosi:
How much does Vogewosi invest in low-income housing each year?
The volume of new construction runs about €12-15 million, and between 100 and 150 units are completed each year. (But that is subject to large fluctuations. This year, for example, there are only seventeen new residential units, but there are almost 300 units under construction.)
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Siedlung an der Ach, Bregenz
Architekten: ARGE Abrecht & Wratzfeld
Year built: 1974-1982, realized in nine stages
839 residential units
60,400 m² living area
2,600 residents
The history of the housing project “Siedlung an der Ach”: The project was built on the edge of the city on former alluvial land of the river Bregenzer Ach river.
1971: In the provincial capital Bregenz, the registry of those looking for an apartment lists 736 persons.
March 1971: Planning of the “Siedlung an der Ach” within the framework of a city-planning idea competition.
April 1972: ARGE Abrecht & Wratzfeld of Bregenz wins first place in the second level of the competition
1973: Sale of the necessary building area to VOGEWOSI. In the first stage of construction, 242 residential units are planned (25,000 square meters), 140 to be built by VOGEWOSI, 54 by BUWOG and 48 by ÖBB. The designs also call for a temporary preschool and 130 parking spaces, most of them underground
July 1974: Start of the first stage of construction
June 1975: Completion of the first 242 apartments
Summer of 1976: The apartments are all assigned. The infrastructure includes a preschool, a youth sports area, a children’s playground, and a Sparmarkt grocery store
April 1977: Beginning of the second phase of construction with another 173 apartments, which were already made available in July 1977
Late September 1977: Keys handed over for 43 residential units from the third stage of construction
March 1979: Beginning of construction on the preschool
March 1980: Opening of the new preschool
September 1980: Transfer of the 133 residential units of the fourth stage of construction
April 1981: Fifth stage begins with construction of 247 more apartments
October 1982: Transfer of the last apartments to the tenants. The construction of the largest housing project in Vorarlberg with 839 apartments is completed.
Timeline
Timeline with Population Statistics
The practice of Realteilung which has lasted for centuries in Vorarlberg and its effects on the fragmentation of fields is a subject that has attracted little attention from historians. The Realteilung is surely a relevant factor that exerts a constant effect over a very long period of time, but it is difficult to quantify.
The adjacent diagram places the Realteilung in Vorarlberg in the broader historical context of various effective factors, some of which exert their effect only intermittently. These are historically bounded in the timeline, but on the other hand, the reciprocal influences of the mechanisms also become evident (such as in the alternating phases of land speculation and statutory regulation).
In certain areas, the population figures below the timeline were supplemented with the total number of land parcels in Vorarlberg. The chart also indicates the segment of people living from agriculture, in both absolute and relative terms.
