WohnMOBIL - Innovative living and transport options in areas with high settlement pressure

Status

completed

Abstract

Due to rising population numbers and an increasing scarcity of building land in urban areas, also in the suburban-rural area, there is a growing shortage of affordable housing and therefore a displacement process into the more affordable surrounding areas. This urban sprawl is accompanied by longer commuter distances and thereby leads to increased traffic. One possible solution to counteract this development is to integrate innovative forms of housing like transitory living, a concept that has so far been used more in urban areas, into suburban-rural areas. This type of housing is characterised by needs-based and temporary housing solutions that offer accommodation for a specific period of life to people seeking housing.

The project "WohnMOBIL - Innovative forms of housing and mobility in areas with increasing settlement pressure" pursues the goal of developing a systematic solution approach and integrating the approaches of transitory housing combined with mobility offers adjusted to the type of housing in a sustainable settlement development. This requires the planning of multimodal mobility offers and infrastructures for different types of neighbourhoods and settlements.

In order to accomplish this, a transferable kit was developed that, in combination with recommendations for action, is intended to support developers and municipalities in implementing the appropriate measures of integrated innovative housing and mobility development. To ensure the practicability of the results, the kit was tested and further developed within the pilot municipalities of Göfis and St. Johann in Tirol.

Different methods were used to develop the components of the WohnMOBIL kit, namely "innovative forms of housing" and "innovative forms of mobility". Qualitative methods, such as questionnaires as well as analyses and modelling, and the evaluation of commuter figures or the identification of redensification potentials, were used. The purpose of the qualitative methods was to identify the wishes, demands and needs of those seeking housing at the beginning of the project. Therefore, workshops were held to interview potential residents, as well as a survey of employers was performed. To further develop the results collected, a prototypical housing complex was drafted for the three target groups (singles, young families, elderlies) within a design workshop.

For the development of the module "innovative forms of housing", building potentials within dedicated building land on developed and undeveloped parcels were identified in order to promote the inner development and to minimize further urban sprawl. GIS methods were used to detect the maximal possible development for each parcel in the pilot communities and derived from this, the existing redensification potential. Another aspect was the development of innovative transitory forms of housing that offer space-saving and affordable solutions for selected target groups. According to the guidelines to offer space-saving and affordable housing, floor plan sketches were designed that can be combined together with shared areas (e.g. shared kitchen). To enable the assignment of target groups and the derivation of recommendations for action, different types of settlement were developed based on indicators (e.g. accessibility, building density).

In the module "innovative forms of transportation", different analyses and modelling were used to develop the demand and potential for change concerning the mobility in the pilot communities. This includes the evaluation of the commuter origin-destination matrix in the pilot regions of St. Johann in Tirol and Göfis, which offers an overview of the number of commuters and the distances they have to travel, and therefore illustrates the need for transitory forms of housing and multimodal forms of mobility to reduce the volume of traffic. In order to create target group-specific and housing form-adapted mobility offers, the behaviour scenarios of the target groups were analysed and suitable offers were developed depending on the type of settlement.

As a result of the work within the project, the transferable "WohnMOBIL" kit was developed, which represents an integrative combination of the results and components. Through the collection of target group-specific and needs-based solutions, users (e.g. developers, municipalities) can be given a tool that supports them in the planning of innovative housing projects by providing recommendations for action at various intervention levels. The kit comes in the form of playing cards with different measures from the field of housing (type of housing and additional offers) as well as mobility (infrastructure and offers). Detailed descriptions and examples of usage, together with additional information, are provided to users in the manual included in the kit. Another result is the developed data innovation (redensification potentials, settlement types), which is used in municipalities just like the WohnMOBIL kit.

The research results of WohnMOBIL can initiate the necessary political processes for new construction projects and intentions of district development in the involved pilot regions, and they create important basics and implementation paths for the development of demo projects. Through the dissemination of the results, the WohnMOBIL kit already was presented to a broad audience. Thus, a visibility of the kit could be achieved and its use in practice could be anchored. Another important step is the continuous interdisciplinary dialogue with stakeholders such as developers and municipalities, which serves to valorise the project results in settlement development and the creation of coordinated mobility offers. The project results offer numerous starting points for further development in research and implementation projects.

Project management

Research Studios Austria Forschungsgesellschaft mbH - Research Studio iSPACE

Project or cooperation partners

• HERRY Consult
• Energieinstitut Vorarlberg
• Paul Schweizer Architekt
• Gemeinde St. Johann in Tirol

Research Studios Austria Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Research
Studio iSPACE
Dr. Thomas Prinz
Schillerstraße 25
A-5020 Salzburg
Tel.: +43 (662) 908 585-213
E-mail: thomas.prinz@researchstudio.at
Web: https://www.researchstudio.at/studio/smart-settlement-systems/