Sustainable quarter "Aspern"

The development concept for the new quarter in Vienna (a former airfield) demands a great deal of sustainability: overall energy strategy, sustainability criteria as financial incentives for applicants for building permits and construction of sustainable and energy efficient buildings.

Short Description

Status

completed

Summary

Within the next 20 years the "Flugfeld Aspern" in the 22ndViennese District aims at providing a high-quality urban area with working and living facilities up to 20.000 inhabitants and 25.000 employees. The master plan describes the development of a total gross floor area of about 2 million m².

Aims of the project

The dimension and strategic location of the area has a special importance for the city of Vienna. The aim of the developing agency Wien 3420 AG is to bind the allocation of building plots in the Aspern area to criteria of sustainability. Specifications for the assessment of developers who want to build at the Aspern area respectively of their projects had to be defined. From the energetic point of view, target criteria and minimum criteria have been defined, which have to be fulfilled by the buildings and can – both, during the tendering and also after the completion – be controlled. To set energetic target and minimum criteria for the buildings, an integrated energy concept for the overall area to balance and optimise the energy use and energy supply had to be developed.

Methodology and content

Within the research project NACHASPERN criteria and measures, which serve as a basis for a sustainable development, have been worked out. An important aspect was the consideration of the energy demand and supply. Different scenarios have been created to come to an integrated energy concept for the whole area.

Based on existing criteria for sustainable buildings and urban development (in particular klima:aktiv) concrete criteria have been developed for the ‘Flugfeld Aspern’ giving minimum criteria and aspired criteria – which is passive house standard. Key drivers for the definition of the criteria are the impact on the sustainability of the district, the economical assessments (the impact on investment and running costs) and the level of acceptance of future inhabitants. The findings from the energy scenarios have been embedded into a catalogue of criteria of sustainability, which have been developed and upgraded to a guideline for a sustainable city and district development.

To make sure, that the allocation and realisation match with the sustainability requirements of the development agency, measures for quality assurance have been worked out. For the tendering process on the first construction site in Aspern, a preliminary test for the developed criteria has been done and a concept for an energy monitoring system has been created. Apart from the technical aspects concerning energy supply and demand, the project development process includes criteria to ensure that low energy usage is calculated during the planning phase and realised as well in the operation phase of the buildings. Sustainability criteria form part of the tendering process for the individual building plots and /or provide financial incentives for developers in order to build sustainable and energy efficient buildings. As an example the amount of the “land lease fees” will depend on the energy efficiency of the buildings. A specification for monitoring and billing control mechanisms should also already be included in the negotiation process.

The project has been realised in close coordination with the development agency, relevant stakeholders as well as real estate developers.

Results and conclusions

From the energetic point of view, defined minimum criteria and aspired criteria for Aspern have to be met. To be able to define specifications for the single building plots, an integrated energy concept for the whole area had to be developed. To ensure that sustainability targets are sticked to until the utilisation phase, measures for quality assurance have been developed within the research project.

As a conclusion it is to say, that in the frame of NACHASPERN fundamental steps have been carried out in order to implement energy efficient and sustainable buildings in a large scale in Aspern.

For all future buildings here, there are binding criteria to ensure that there is a focus on energy efficiency, energy supply and sustainable building materials. Also measures for an energy efficient utilisation are being forced. The developed measures for the planning process have been tested in the first building plot and turned out to operate. It will be in the development agency´s responsibility to care for the implementation of the developed mechanisms. In detail, this will be the following tasks:

  • Integration of the criteria in all tenders
  • Delegation of at least one entitled and competent person into the selecting committee in order to defend the criteria of sustainability
  • Integration of financial incentives into the contracts for the construction of buildings which fulfil the target criteria and not to build up buildings, which do not meet the minimum criteria.
  • At least random sampling inspection of buildings in the planning respectively building stage as well as within completed buildings.

Within a follow-up project, a central energy monitoring system is going to be tested. In case of success, this should be implemented for the whole area and so would provide a promising contribution to resource saving and optimisation of performance for energy efficient buildings.

Project Partners

Project management

DIin Claudia Nutz, DI Peter Hinterkörner
Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG (ehem. Asperner Flugfeld Süd Entwicklungs- und Verwertungs AG)

Project- and cooperation partners

  • Österreichische Gesellschaft für Umwelt und Technik (ÖGUT)
  • AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
  • e7 Energie Markt Analyse GmbH

Contact Address

Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG
DIin Claudia Nutz, DI Peter Hinterkörner
Rosthorngasse 5
A 1220 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1) 7740274-0
E-Mail: office@wien3420.at
Web: www.wien3420.at