Berliner in Simmering

Visit to Smarter Together in Simmering
The visit focused on energy issues and, in Simmering specifically, on the innovative measures and processes initiated as part of the Smarter Together project.

Smarter Together was an EU-funded smart city project implemented in collaboration with Munich and Lyon. It was submitted in 2015 and implemented between 2016 and 2021. Vienna received over 7 million euros in EU funding.

The key question across all projects is: how can the results of one-off projects be transferred into the standardised administrative processes of the city and its numerous partner organisations?
How has Smarter Together managed to ensure that so much of what was first trialled thanks to EU funding is now an integral part of the City of Vienna and is being continued by the project partners

Bojan Schnabl, a member of the former team, introduced the project to the guests from Berlin during a guided tour of the former Smarter Together project area and highlighted solutions for which Smarter Together had paved the way.

A holistic project
The starting point was already exciting: in its call for proposals, the European Commission called for a holistic project requiring transdisciplinary solutions. These were intended to be pioneering for the challenges of urban regeneration. Smart city solutions were sought in the areas of large-scale housing renovation, energy, e-mobility and data management.
Vienna added a key political mandate to this: to place citizen participation at the very forefront of the process.

The Smarter Together project interpreted this requirement even further:

•  Participation not only of the target groups of the individual projects, but also
• Involvement of the wider population,
• Engagement of children and young people,
• Involvement of numerous stakeholders such as
• o Neighbourhood Support for Urban Regeneration (GB*),
  o schools in the district,
  o youth workers and street workers,
  o Simmering Adult Education Centre (VHS),
  o Science Pool,
  o residents’ representatives in council housing,
• Universities and students and many more.

Co-creation
Particular attention was paid to the participation of all stakeholders in a co-creative process. Thanks to the person-hours funded by the EU, numerous staff members from a wide variety of City of Vienna departments, as well as from the project partners, were able to be seconded to the project with the express mandate to think outside the box and devise innovative solutions. Due to the diverse nature of the project remit, Smarter Together also brought the charm of transdisciplinary work to the table. In this way, Smarter Together became part of the personal life stories of all those involved. Both during the project and after its conclusion, these participants were able to naturally incorporate their experiences and innovations into their respective departments and develop them further there.

Particular emphasis should be placed, especially in innovation projects, on issues of organisational culture, a shared vision and shared values, which the project is intended to convey. These fundamental guiding principles must be developed very early on in a co-creative process, as they channel individual creative energy towards a common goal. In the case of ‘Smarter Together – Gemeinsam g’scheiter’, for example, the very name laid the foundation for a shared vision. The organisational culture then contributed to the project’s momentum and, consequently, to its sustainability.

Initiating and scaling up innovations
Much of what was first trialled and initiated as part of Smarter Together is now standard practice in the City of Vienna and has thus been scaled up: innovative energy solutions for school refurbishments and new school buildings, solar panels on ‘Gemeindebauten Neu’ housing estates, the Wien Mobil stations, parcel delivery by the Post using electric vans, low-threshold participation facilitated by the Office for Participation, the use of waste heat from data centres for heating, the FIREWARE data platform, local energy plans and much more. Many of these have also been further developed. Last but not least, the Vienna Smart City Framework Strategy evolved into the Vienna Smart Climate Strategy, just as ‘Smarter Together’ had previously evolved from a smart city project into a climate project.

NMS Enkplatz 4: A school that everyone enjoys attending.

A particular highlight of the Berliners’ visit was a guided tour of the NMS at Enkplatz 4: it is actually two schools under one roof, one specialising in sport and the other in the arts.
On the initiative of Smarter Together, four underground sports halls were built, along with an extension housing 16 classrooms. All of this was achieved using innovative and integrated energy solutions, including 16 geothermal probes, each 150 metres deep, rooftop photovoltaic panels, solar thermal systems, heat pumps and district heating as a backup – particularly as the old part of the school was heated by this system. Temperature control was also installed for the first time, thanks to the necessary geothermal circuit.
The pupils’ involvement was consistently intensive and creative. Their wishes were sought and taken into account during the planning process.
The school extension carried out by Smarter Together has now led to the refurbishment of the historic, listed part of the school, which is now complete. There is even a photovoltaic system on the roof of the old school wing, which had been discussed at the time as part of Smarter Together but was not yet feasible.

A special thank you!
The visit by the Berlin delegation provided an opportunity to once again express a heartfelt and personal thank you to the headteacher of the Sport-NMS Enkplatz 4, Ms Martina Vogel-Waldhütter.
Over the years, Martina Vogel-Waldhütter has been a key pillar of support in the school’s regeneration process, contributing creative ideas and actively involving her pupils in the process. A special thank-you was devised on the spot, because innovation also has a deeply human dimension, as it is based on the commitment of everyone involved: the “Smarter Together – IBA_Vienna Thank You for co-creative participation and the involvement of pupils”.
During the Berlin delegation’s visit, it became clear that NMS Enkplatz is a flagship school that pupils enjoy attending and which many members of the delegation would have liked to have attended themselves.

PS: ‘Smarter Together’ was also part of the pioneering IBA_Vienna, ‘New Social Housing’, from 2016 to 2022. IBA stands for International Building Exhibition. Over the years, it has brought together numerous Viennese stakeholders to discuss issues of social housing, stimulated and fostered discourse, and thus contributed to a shared understanding of how we envisage our liveable Vienna of the future: with affordable housing of the highest quality. In short, a Vienna that is both liveable and lovable.

What is WieNeu+?
The urban regeneration programme WieNeu+ succeeded ‘Smarter Together – Gemeinsam g’scheiter’ in 2021. The latter had already been submitted to the EU in 2015 as part of Horizon 2020 and was implemented from 2016 to 2021.
WieNeu+ focuses on energy-efficient and climate-friendly renovation projects for residential buildings. These projects are networked, funded and supported. Participation is once again key: on the one hand, from stakeholders capable of implementing large-scale projects; and on the other, from the wider public, who contribute to quality of life through numerous participatory projects that are 100 per cent funded. The funding scheme for this is called Grätzlmarie.
As with ‘Smarter Together’, work under ‘WieNeu+’ is again carried out in programme areas. This creates and harnesses synergies: in Innervoriten (2021–2023), Grätzl 20+2 (2023–2025) and Hernals (2026–2028).

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)