Taming ‘wild’ Vienna? The handling of informal settlements by the planning authorities – perspectives, discourse, (counter)actions in the interwar and post-war periods

Abstract

This paper presents a periodized overview of informal urbanization in Vienna in the twentieth century. It offers a new perspective on the evolution of planning discourse and the phenomenon’s handling by planning authorities. The variegated manifestations of ‘Informal Vienna’ triggered an ongoing dispute on how orderly city development could be re-established after 1945. Our approach combines quantitative and qualitative aspects and illuminates not only the shifting significance of informal urbanization over several decades – especially in their lengthy formalization process – but also highlights the co-evolution of formal planning and the Viennese informal ‘grand project’.