Vienna Symposium meeting

Reimagining the Outskirts: Strategies and Innovations for the 15-Minute City

The DREAMS Symposium, held on October 11, 2024, at TUtheSky, Vienna, brought together transportation planners, practitioners, researchers, and innovative thinkers to discuss transformative strategies for the 15-Minute City concept in urban outskirts. The event was hosted by Linda Dörrzapf (TU Wien) together with Yusak Susilo (BOKU) and moderated by Roman Klementschitz (BOKU).

The event began with presentations addressing the "15-Minute City" concept, emphasizing strategies for improving accessibility in newly developed areas outside city centers. Maximilian Jäger from AustriaTech introduced the "Driving Urban Transitions" (DUT) program goals and approaches. Following this, Lukas Lang from the City of Vienna, presented the new development area RothNEUsiedl and its strategies for applying 15-minute city principles. Can Yönter from the Vienna Business Agency discussed funding mechanisms to support local services within neighborhoods.

Project insights were shared from ongoing DUT projects. Anna Kajosaari and Michael Kloiber from the Austrian Academy of Science provided insights into the AccessCity4all project which aims to enhance the 15-minute-city concept by considering diversity of people’s mobility needs and the spatial heterogeneity of neighbourhoods. Karst Geurs shared findings from the DREAMS project. A Zoom-In session led by Linda Dörrzapf focused on the challenges and potentials of the Vienna DREAMS Living Lab Location, alongside information for a subsequent site visit presented by Simon Bohun from Stadtland. The Living Lab serves as a hands-on opportunity to implement 15-minute city strategies, offering a real-world setting for research and innovation.

Following a coffee break, three parallel workshops facilitated discussion and co-creation around methodologies, business models, and decision-making tools for the 15-Minute City. The sessions included:

Workshop 1 focused on assessing the impact of 15-minute cities through KPIs and methodologies, hosted by experts from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and BOKU.
Workshop 2: was a collaborative brainstorming session to develop business models tailored to the needs of urban outskirts, led by Mpact and Hochschule Utrecht.
Workshop 3 explored a decision-support tool designed to aid planners in implementing the 15-minute city model , presented by TU München.

The workshops concluded with brief summaries from session hosts, highlighting key insights and practical ideas for fostering outskirts.

After a networking lunch, which included a poster walk, participants joined a guided tour of the Vienna Living Lab at Wiener Flur – organized by Philip Krassnitzer and Simon Bohun. This visit allowed attendees to observe firsthand how the 15-minute city concept could be adapted to Vienna's unique outskirt, with insights into its challenges and opportunities.

The event emphasized both theoretical frameworks and practical approaches to support the 15-minute city model. The DREAMS Symposium provided an engaging platform for collaboration and knowledge exchange on creating sustainable and accessible urban outskirts – bringing together international and Viennese stakeholders from the field of transportation practice and research.