Upscaling “Building and Planning Culture” to a Regional Level in Römerland Carnuntum (Lower Austria)

Abstract

Under the term "Baukultur" (building culture), there have been a large number of success stories in Austria in the construction of new buildings or the renovation and transformation of existing buildings. But regional planning and design advisory boards such as the Neusiedler See World Heritage Association (Burgenland, Austria) or the "Rhätische Bahn" advisory board (Kanton Chur, Switzerland), institutionalized above single municipal initiatives (Verein Welterbe Neusiedler See (Hrsg.), 2011; Clemens, n.d.), are still rare. Basically, the term "building culture" (in German: “Baukultur”) is much more popular than "spatial planning" (in German: “Raumplanung”), but still misleading and incomplete. Building and planning projects are often preceded by a “common history” during many years of discussion and decision-making processes with different stakeholders, and various instruments involved on the local spatial planning level. Thus, a more comprehensive term, instead of “building culture” would therefore be "building and planning culture" (in German: “Bau- und Planungskultur”). This paper describes how the use as well as the procedure of a Regional Planning and Design Advisory Board (REGB) is prototypically tested in a real-world laboratory, within the framework of a transdisciplinary research project (RLC 2040). The goal is future institutionalisation within the regional development association to aim for quality assurance in planning and building projects with regional relevance in the Römerland Carnuntum region. The participatory workshops including municipality representatives and interested citizens of the regional “future council” (an institutionalised civic platform) identified seven characteristics to classify the regional relevance of building and planning projects. It can be stated that basically every project is regionally relevant whose positive as well as negative impacts are clearly reaching beyond effects on a single municipality. Based on this fundamental finding, the paper discusses the construction and functioning of the catalogue of criteria used for project evaluations and the linkage of these criteria to the five fields of action (“Handlungsfelder”) developed for the vision of "RLC 2040". It also explains the possible uses of the catalogue of criteria beyond project evaluations and what added value the different types of the 30 municipalities from the “Römerland Carnuntum” region may gain by using this toolbox. The paper concludes with a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the advisory board (REGB) draft