Eva Kail Municipality of Vienna Chief Executive Office, Urban Planning Group

Gender Planning implementation in Vienna – an overview Planning for a long time was perceived from a (traditionally male) work and leisure-time perspective while the perspective of home making and family work was largely neglected. Gender mainstreaming in principle means acknowledging gender-specific needs, mainstreaming research and principles elaborated in women's groups, feminist discourses and activities, mindful of similar discussions about other disadvantaged population groups. Transferring them to planning topics: Translate needs to technical criteria is the most important task. Co-Ordination Office for Planning and Construction Geared to the Requirements of Daily Life and the Specific Needs of Women Gender-specific aspects of urban planning in Vienna were first addressed in the exhibition "Who does public space belong to – women’s everyday life in the city " held in 1991.

Poster of the Exhibition 1991

In 1992 the Women’s Office was established which, in its early stages, also dealt with the planning issues. First head was Eva Kail, a planner by professional background. In 1998, the Co-ordination Office for Planning and Construction Geared to the Requirements of Daily Life and the Specific Needs of Women (Co-ordination Office) was established at the Chief Executive Office – Executive Group for Construction and Technology. With the Coordination Office, the City of Vienna has had its own body to assess gender-related quality assurance and social sensitivity in planning on an ongoing basis and at the highest level of the City Administration. The Co-ordination Office was staffed with 3 women-experts in the field of planning. The head of the department, Eva Kail, has twenty years of experience with gender-related planning and has been active in setting up and defining the main strategy of the programme. Women and girl-specific planning was defined as a main focus for the Co-ordination Office and since 2001 gender mainstreaming in planning had been one of its core activities. Housing construction, park design, traffic planning and safety in public space are the main topics. Several responsibilities had been added, including urban development procedures and projects in public purpose building.

Mainstreaming the structure Since 2009 Vienna has for the first time a female general director for Urban Planning, Development and Construction.- DI Brigitte Jilka. The She restructured the organisation as a whole with the beginning of 2010. Under the aspect of mainstreaming the Coordination office was dissolved. Three gender experts were installed in the units with the greatest impact for daily life: Urban Planning, Building Construction and Public Works. The aims rest the same, but the expectation is, that with the integration of the gender experts in the formal responsible units a broader field of influence and activites can be reached. The target is to align urban planning more strongly with the interests of less self-assertive groups to reach a fair-shared city with well-balanced interests within municipal activities. Gender implementation strategy The Co-Ordination Office followed a double strategy: essentially top-down, but including work on site to understand the gender-specific interests of people and to define criteria based on these. Main emphasis was placed on strengthening social intelligence in the planning departments within the city administration. 1 Political commitment is ensured by the City Council´s resolution in favour of gender mainstreaming and in particular by the Executive City Councillor for Urban Development, Traffic and Transport, who refers to gender mainstreaming as one of two major cross-sectional themes in the planning department. First activities of the Co-ordination Office included research studies and pilot projects carried out in cooperation with relevant administrative departments. This enabled the Co-ordination Office to gather experience and test appropriate methods. Following this cooperative ways of making gender part, not only of pilot projects, but of mainstream everyday planning as well, had to be found. There is a wide range of actions, jointly preparing planning recommendations and checklists, drawing up expert reports and representing relevant interests in committees, advisory councils and juries. Developments have reached different stages depending on the work processes, structures and tasks defined for each urban planning department. The first half Year of the new structure the focus was on developing concepts for A broader, mainstreamed approach. Gender-sensitive housing Housing and the housing environment are traditionally viewed as a “female realm“. Yet since men, who have a different background of experience, usually plan housing projects, the daily life patterns of women and the related demands are frequently given short shrift. For this reason, the Co-ordination Office has right from its inception championed the gender-sensitive planning of new housing complexes (before that, the Women’s Office of the City of Vienna was active in this field). The objective of this approach lies in facilitating household and family work by providing a practical housing environment. It is another objective to provide an environment where women feel at ease and can move without anxiety at any time of the day. Flats, that are flexible and adaptable to different family set-ups and life phases, good natural lighting of all work and lounge areas, functionally and comfortable appointed kitchen that offer the best preconditions for communication and childcare during work are important criteria. The housing complexes should also provide space for informal contacts to encourage the formation of a neighbourhood as “social space”. Secondary utility rooms such as laundry rooms or rooms for storing prams and bikes must be strategically positioned, of adequate size and if possible feature natural lighting. Staircases and entrances should be designed as friendly, clearly structured areas to further communication and prevent the emergence of 1

The Viennese City Administration includes about 60 municipal departments, 30 of them are so-called technical departments also including public gardens and housing. Being installed at the Chief Executive Office, the Co-ordination Office has a strategic and coordinative function to all technical departments and can principally issue orders, not only recommendations. Unlike the political bodies, the administration is a non-elected body with staff employed independently from elections. This guarantees sustainability in establishing gender mainstreaming within in the City´s administration.

anxiety zones, and also underground car parks, which often are felt to induce anxiety, require particularly thoughtful planning. Taking care of the specific needs of house and family work or thinking of subjective feelings of insecurity does not mean to strengthen traditional gender roles. Shaping adequate space for the needs resulting from the – necessary – house and family work is not about determining who is doing the work – the share of labour between sexes cannot be influenced by architecture – but the unpaid work has to be taken into account in the design process. The first model project, Frauen-Werk-Stadt I (a housing project by and for women, 360 housing units, first tenants moved in in 1997) was met with a positive echo. Frauen-WerkStadt II (140 housing units, first tenants moved in in 2004) added focus on “assisted living for the elderly“. At the end of 2009 the move – in of Frauen-Werk-Stadt III (project “rosa”) took place (41 housing units, future tenants had founded an association and accompanied and influenced the whole planning period). The planning criteria for “housing construction geared to the specific needs of women“ tested during the projects were subsequently included in the quality test for awarding of housing subsidies. Since 1997, more than 1 000 subsidised construction projects with a total of approximately 85 000 apartments have been assessed on the basis of these criteria. In 40 percent of the rejected projects due to low planning quality, the statement of the advisory board refers explicitly to the comments of the Co-Ordination office. The projects have to be worked over. Being part of the survey and decision process for housing subsidies works really well and is one of the most successful strategies for quality assurance geared to gender-specific needs, which has resulted in quality improvement of accessory rooms and space of general access (development, open space).

Frauen-Werk-Stadt I

Frauen-Werk-Stadt II

Frauen-Werk-Stadt I: A Flat for All Life Phases (Flat-layouts by Elsa Prochazka)

Frauen-Werk-Stadt I: Secondary utility Rooms as a Primary Issue

Frauen-Werk-Stadt II: Intergenerative Living (Layout by Christine Zwingl)

Frauen-Werk-Stadt II: Assisted Living

Rosa (Frauen-Werk-Stadt III)

Frauen-Werk-Stadt III: Patchwork of Different Flattypes (Flat-layouts by Sabine Pollak)

Gender-sensitive park design The project gender-sensitive park design can be described as an ideal process flow of implementing gender mainstreaming into everyday administration. First step was to conduct a socio-economic analysis on different ways of park utilisation by girls and boys (Edith Schlaffer and Cheryl Benard, 1997). The sociologists stated that girls appropriate space with markedly less confidence than boys. Moreover, as a result from the existing dearth of public open spaces in condensed neighbourhoods of Vienna, the existing spaces are claimed by the more assertive groups and after all, the commonly used designs and equipment of playgrounds tend to favour male children and teenagers. Gender-sensitive park design therefore means organising and equipping open spaces in a way that makes sure that girls will be given the same opportunities and development possibilities as boys. In 2000, following the top-down strategy, gender-sensitive park design was defined as a strategic project within the City’s Strategy Plan under the overall control of the Co-ordination Office. As part of the project, since 1999 a total of 6 pilot parks have been designed or redesigned with gender-sensitive aspects in mind. Two parks were redesigned following a competition in whose context three landscape planning studios headed by women were invited to submit plans. For the design of the other four pilot parks, different forms of participation were tested. For the Co-odination Office, evaluations were an important part of the project. 5 usability analyses and design analyses for a total of 14 parks were performed. Working groups in cooperation with competent bodies in the administration and planning experts from outside worked together to discuss experiences from the pilot parks and to draw up “planning recommendations for gender-sensitive design of public parks“. With these planning recommendations, gender-sensitive park design is now considered citywide. The guidelines have since become the basis for all park design in Vienna. A separate focus is being placed on "design of parks geared to the specific needs of the elderly " since 2007. Three projects have been realised.

Pilot Park: Odeonpark

Pilot Park: Draschepark

Usability Analysis Einsiedlerpark

Gender Mainstreaming in traffic and transport planning In questions of traffic and transport, the different needs of women and men are relatively easy to understand, since personal surveys have always provided the basis for important transport policy decisions. The modal split is a key goal indicator. A gender-specific perspective is informative. In Vienna, 59 per cent of all car journeys are made by men, 60 per cent of all pedestrian trips by women (Socialdata 2003). Gender-specific destination studies have shown that women in Vienna made over half more escort and shopping journeys than men. 50 per cent of these journeys are made on foot, which, in combination with working activities typically involve the complex coupling of journeys. Children, young people, and old people are also frequently out on foot close to home. Gender Mainstreaming Pilot District Mariahilf In 2002, the sixth district Mariahilf was nominated “gender mainstreaming pilot district“, requiring it to include Gender Mainstreaming in all measures taken in public space. Competent staff in the administration was trained during selected projects, during counselling specific to individual departments and during network meetings. Between 2003 and 2005 several measures were taken for pedestrian traffic: Between 2003 and 2005, 1,000 metres of pavement have been widened, 40 street crossings and 5 barrier-free pavements have been created, 26 lighting projects and one lift in public space have been installed and 2 minor square designs and additional seating in 9 different locations have been realized. Upon completion of the gender mainstreaming pilot project Mariahilf a comprehensive set of instruments was made available to coordinate gender mainstreaming in the design of public street space.

street crossings pedestrian-friendly traffic lights enlarging pavements lighting projects barrier-free pavements additional seating

Gender Mainstreaming Pilot District Mariahilf: Realized Measures

Gender Mainstreaming Pilot Projects since 2006 The pilot projects have clearly caught the City Administration’s interest in gender mainstreaming. The findings and tested procedures now have a more stable ground to build on. Since 2006 all traffic, transport and urban planning departments have been working on pilot projects, which they are able to choose themselves. These pilot projects range from urban development projects to design of educational institutions (e.g. schools, kindergartens, libraries) or the extension of underground railway systems. Competitions for public spacedesign or an empowerment process for elderly have also been selected as gender mainstreaming pilot projects. During the last five years, 50 projects in the field of urban development, urban design and architecture and in the field of transport and traffic planning have been chosen and were handled with a view to gender mainstreaming. Scope of action for the pilot projects is defined in cooperation with responsible staff and project-specific planning criteria are developed. Both urban development and public purpose building are relatively new working areas for the Co-Ordination Office. Up to now, 5 urban development projects of varying sizes (between 1,600 and 20,000 inhabitants) have been selected as gender mainstreaming pilot projects, 3 of which during urban development competitions and the remaining 2 on the basis of specific urban development expertises. For these, accessibility on foot, adequate social infrastructures, as well as sufficient scope for use in semi-public and public open space were defined as gender-relevant aspects. For the urban development project Flugfeld Aspern, the typical journeys of different daily life pattern were shown on the basis of four virtual places of domicile.

paid working (combined with supply work)

„supplied“ working

1/6/8: flat, 2/4: kindergarden, 3: working place

1/4/6: flat, 2/3: workingplace/ underground station, 5: restaurant

Master Plan Flugfeld Aspern: Sequences of Journeys

Within the project Nordwestbahnhof, an important focus was put on the quality of semipublic open space: Each submitted project had to show the shading of open space at a certain time and date. Also, the semi-public open space was checked up on the possibility to establish children’s playgrounds of adequate scale (especially for kindergartens). The criteria drawn up on the basis of these considerations were defined as requirements for competitions and were also reflected in the juries.

Competition Nordwestbahnhof: Shading of Semi-Public Space and Establishing Children´s Playgrounds of Adequate Scale

To define gender relevant planning aspects for public purpose buildings in the case of two educational facilities (competition for a large scale education center for 3- to 10-year-olds which is the new prototype for urban development projects in Vienna and revising draft plans for a library, a music school and an adult education centre) workshops were held with the participation of the people concerned and the administrative bodies responsible. The resulting planning requirements were considered in the competition and during revising of the draft plans. This year it was possible to change the whole structurl conditions- the so called “roomprogramm” for a new huge campus for children from 1 to15 years in one of the central delopment areas of Vienna. From this new frame conditions all the future educational campus projects will take profit- because this childcarefacilities and schools are allday, quality improvements there are very important under gender aspects. The project “Salto” developed measures to assure the quality of life of elder people and to strengthen their autonomy in every day life. Within the project a gender figure was designed in order to show the impacts of a measure on a certain target group. multiple underprivileged women

local administrations, NGOS, institutions

multiple underprivileged men

higher level of ressources compensatory active men

higher level of ressources compensatory active women

Salto: Gender Figure

Vienna is a growing city. The future strategy of the gender experts in the Executive Group for Urban Planning, Development and construction is to identify key tasks. We want to concentrate on development processes with the highest dynamic to get the greatest impact and the best possibilities to influence the quality of daily life.

Conclusions Introducing gender mainstreaming to planning in principle is an area of conflicts. Departments are called upon to maintain technical levels while reducing costs and at the same time providing quality assurance. Enforcing new qualities and perspectives for planning and project processes which show up existing deficits and thus potential new tasks, or which at least suggest that the emphasis needs to be shifted in many cases will no doubt come up against substantial resistance. Chances of success depend on the nature of the spheres of activity in planning, as well as on personal values and approaches taken by individual actors. Where social requirements and effects are considered from the outset the gender perspective constitutes an additional instrument for distinguishing quality criteria that meet different needs and groups. Where social intelligence in planning is low and the interests of future users are not made sufficiently transparent gender mainstreaming imposes an excessive demand on existing structures. Gender mainstreaming as method is new to planning. Finding criteria for gender-specific planning processes tends to be difficult as well. Technical planners work with guidelines and sets of criteria, their tasks are becoming increasingly difficult because they have to meet many different interests. Gender-related criteria are "soft", rather subjectively perceived criteria (e.g. concerning safety), which have to be translated into “hard” technical criteria. The challenge lies in successfully connecting the two. Gender Mainstreaming enriches experts` discussions. But it is not so easy to implement in the current planning culture. For example within planning competitions, which are an important part of the planning system, Gender Mainstreaming needs fair attention: well-balanced social impacts have to be regarded as important as functionality or aesthetic values. A new culture of competitions is necessary. Architects and planners are “visual animals”. The problem is: The aesthetic value and formal quality of projects are self-evident. The functional quality needs already much more time to judge it. But how can you judge the social intelligence and social impact of a design under the restricted time conditions of a jury. The crucial question concerning gender issues is how balanced is a design in regard to the different needs of different user groups. To create fair shared space needs fair attention to the social impacts of a project. The call for tender should already content a gender-sensitive social analyses. You need more time and weight for the preliminary assessment, visualisations are very important, because as evidence shows nobody is reading long written explanations during a jury. And, most important of all, you have to raise the social intelligence within the jury. Jury members must be selected also under these aspects. Gender design as a learning system To identify “gender footprints” of planning measures is a key challenge for the future. The task is to develop the necessary “bricks” for the construction of a gender-balanced city. For example, to reach quality on the urbanistic scale, it is not sufficient to know only the necessary square meters for open space, for schools and kindergartens. To identify the ideal shape of the sites for social infrastructure in a master plan, you have to occupy yourself with the demands of the users (staff and children – are there different user patterns between girls and boys?) to know the necessary and desirable elements of playground equipment and how life is organised within these institutions. It is very important to learn to cope with limited resources without neglecting the quality. For example, what are excellent flat-layouts, not only functional ones under average conditions (concerning square-meters, financial means, construction costs).

We have to improve our knowledge. Differentiated analysis of data and a better evidence of everyday life of user groups is necessary (more gender-sensitive observations, inquiries, participations processes and workshops). Before designing the physical space, the social space has to be analysed. This means identification of (potential or already existing) user groups and their specific needs and interests and also evaluation of user patterns. The judgement of the success of a design must also consider how it responds to the different needs of users. Gender Mainstreaming is the most successful strategy of quality management.

Start-up Meeting: Gender Mainstreaming Pilot District Mariahilf