revisit: Linz Franckviertel - Discussion Evening in the Volkshaus Community Center / Exhibition in the Franckviertel Senior Center

04.04.2007

200 visitors attended the “Is Franckviertel Beautiful?” discussion on March 28.

Some still speak of it disparagingly as a neighborhood where “the streets are paved with broken glass,” but others are going out and actually rediscovering Franckviertel, the southern section of Linz near the voestalpine steel works. Under the direction of urban sociologist Peter Arlt and in close cooperation with Stadtteilarbeit Leben im Franckviertel, an urban social initiative, and MUF/London, a collaborative practice of art and architecture committed to public realm projects, 14 architecture students at the Linz Art University spent March 2007 exploring this part of town to discover intensely thought-provoking public places. The interesting results of this encounter including creative approaches to solving problems will be on display in the Franckviertel Senior Center (Ing.-Stern-Straße 15-17) until April 10, 2007.

One element of this large-scale project was a March 28 discussion that asked 200 attendees “Is Franckviertel beautiful?” The moderator was Erhard Gstöttner, editor of the Linz daily newspaper OÖN; panelists were Roland Gnaiger, professor of architecture at the Linz Art University; Elisabeth Lanzerits of GWG, the city’s not-for-profit housing development corporation; Klaus Luger, Linz city councilman in charge of planning; and Linz09’s Martin Heller.

Focal-point topics crystallized rapidly and were articulated in emotional terms: messy, run-down public spaces, the very modest standards of the available housing stock, as well as widely varying interpretations of and possibilities for coexistence of the area’s diverse ethnic groups are the issues at the center of conversations and conflicts in Franckviertel.
The bottom line: Franckviertel is a lively place that could certainly do with some development. As such, it will be one of the most important parts of town for Linz09 as well as for the City of Linz once 2009 is history.