To browse Academia. This study engages with Zurich's urban transformation through a critical exploration of the Langstrasse Quarter and Altstetten, employing a spatial storytelling approach. It examines the interconnections between established infrastructures, site conditions, and varied urban programs—including asylum housing and prostitution—highlighting the tactical urbanism and participatory design strategies that address transient and marginalized populations.
Ultimately, it advocates for a nuanced understanding of urban interventions that emphasize the dialectical relationship between space and the socio-political dynamics at play. The ongoing discussion on the privatization of cities primarily focuses on the controlled spaces of gated communities in the outskirts just as in inner city neighborhoods.
However, the physical gating of neighborhoods is increasingly being replaced by other, soft forms of inclusion and exclusion. Not being physically gated or walled has become one of the Unique Selling Points of communities designed according to the concepts of new urbanism. More subtle forms of control have evolved and have been transferred to privatized public spaces of inner city areas.
The paper puts the discussion forward by extending the discursive context of soft urbanism to the strengthening strategic role of urban governments. The Historic City Center of Vienna serves as an example of converging policies set in effect by private actors and the city administration. In contrast to a privatization of the public realm, in the Historic City Center of Vienna power relations are continuously shifting towards the institutional networks of the municipality, becoming the major player, developer and investor in the production of the meaning, the narrative and the affects attached to the Historic City Center.
The tightening regulations for the Historic City Center indicate a programmatic convergence between the concepts of new urbanism and regulations, enacted by the urban government. Empirical analyses, presented in the paper, reveal how power and control are increasingly exerted over residents, private entrepreneurs and private developers alike. The analysis is based on different multi-scaled approaches. The introductory section examines the accelerating deployment of regulations and control.
