Otto wagner area becomes a university campus and leisure mile-diepresse.com
The private university of the City of Vienna for Music and Art moves to the historic Otto Wagner area. Hippen restaurants and local supply are also planned there, but the green space should not be touched.
Vienna. The historical Otto Wagner area in Vienna-Penzing becomes a university location. On Thursday, Mayor Michael Ludwig and Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, Rector of Music and Art Privat University (MUK), presented the first plans for the new university. Ludwig spoke of « a future project that can be referred to as groundbreaking ». The buildings there are « the most attractive Art Nouveau ensemble worldwide, which is predestined for a university campus, which is also open to the population ».
900 students from 60 nations
The details: The private university of the city of Vienna, which currently looks after 900 students from 60 nations, will be moved in in 15 of the 35 listed pavilions. They used to be used as hospital pavilions. The move should be completed by 2030 or 2031. The overall budget is still open, the first step was decided (already a year ago) 120 million euros for the development of the area, specifically for infrastructure measures such as sewer expansion and water supply – after the city always wanted to develop the area as a university location. In addition, measures for climate protection would be taken on the area, for example the use of alternative forms of energy such as photovoltaics and geothermal energy for the future university location.
« It is a big hit for the Vienna cultural location, but the area is also becoming more attractive to the population, » said the mayor. The area will remain open to the public, the local supply expanded, local would be settled. The green space remains that nothing will be installed, Ludwig assured. Because 83 percent of the area are green space, you stick to that. Ludwig excluded the construction of private apartments.
Attractive local recreation area
A sports and leisure concept for the area is now being worked on. There are currently yoga groups that regularly visit the area. That was an example of a low-threshold use of the area, said the mayor, who emphasized: « It is planned to use the area year-round, it will not be a summer campus. »
An important aspect: The redesign of the area does not arise on the tearing board, as Ludwig put it, but « grows organically ». The area is developed together with the university. The MUK will not use the area exclusively. The theater on the area will remain open to the scene there.
The development of the area is intended to trigger a second effect for the city: After the current usage is « great used », the area is « a good way to equalize tourism, » emphasized Ludwig, which referred to the record year 2024. The Otto Wagner area will be a center that will be visited by many guests: « Because it is expanded into an attractive cultural location. »
Prominent graduates
Rector Mailath-Pokorny described the reason why the MUK moves to the Otto Wagner area: The three locations in Johannesgasse, Bräunerstraße and Singerstrasse are now too small and in need of renovation. « We are full of crash, » added Vice Rector Dieter Boyer.
With the move, the previous MUK locations that are only rented.
The MUK, which was founded in 1945 as a conservatory of the city of Vienna, described Ludwig as « very successful university with prominent graduates ». These include Nobel Prize winners Elfriede Jelinek, Falco, song contest participants such as Elisabeth Engstler and Marianne Mendt, musicians such as Lidia Baich and Joe Zawinul. Also in the list of graduates in the field of performing art there are numerous prominent names such as Verena Altenberger, Viktor Gernot, Nicholas Ofczarek and Kristina Sprenger.
Historical responsibility
The area has experienced a dark time. In the Nazi era it became the « Vienna Center of National Socialist killing medicine », as the documentation archive of Austrian resistance (DÖW) formulated. At least 7,500 patients were murdered there, including 800 children in the so -called children’s specialist department « Am Spiegelgrund ».
« We have a historical responsibility, » said Mayor Ludwig. Therefore, the DÖW will find a new home on the Otto Wagner area.
