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The City Institute at York University (CITY)

Seminar with Dr. Eva Schwab

FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL & URBAN CHANGE AND CITY INSTITUE

"Expanding the Greenbelt in an Expanding City: Changing Regulation, Demands and Actors in Vienna’s Greenbelt"  by Dr. Eva Schwab.

September 23, 2026, HNES (Health, Nursing, and Environmental Sciences building) room#140, Keele campus, York University.

Eva Schwab, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz, Austria
Commentator 1: Laura Taylor (EUC, York) on Greenbelt Ontario
Commentator 2: Camilla Perrone (University of Florence, Italy)
Visiting professor Eva Schwab, Technical University of Graz, Austria, will share the history of the Vienna Greenbelt, which is more than 120 years in existence, in spite of different planning rationales. Her main argument is that the inhabitants of the Vienna region understand this greenbelt as a common good and have taken to shape it actively. This talk will be complemented with some thoughts by Laura Taylor, EUC, on the relevance of our own Greenbelt around Toronto. And finally, Camilla Perrone, who is a visiting professor from the University of Florence, Italy, will present some thoughts on Terrain Vague, a conceptual thinking to look at space beyond the market.

The Vienna Green Belt was established as early as 1905 and has since been regarded as a key tool for managing urban growth. However, in more than 120 years of its existence, it has not only been an important planning tool but also a highly valued common good that has been continuously developed over the years, engaging local, regional and national policy levels. In recent years in particular, various forms of protest and bottom-up planning have reacted to the challenges presented by a growing population, ongoing suburbanization, depleted local authority budgets and additional challenges posed by the climate crisis, and thus have not only helped to expand the Vienna Green Belt but also to make it more relevant than ever. The talk brings into conversation experiences from Vienna and Toronto.

Dr. Eva Schwab is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Graz, Austria, and is currently Deputy Head of the Institute of Urbanism. Trained as a landscape architect, she embarked upon a career in research with a PhD on public space-based upgrading programmes of informal settlements in Medellìn/Colombia. Her doctorate won both the Landscape Research Dissertation Prize and the Talent Award of the City of Vienna in 2016.

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poster Sept 23_Seminar Eva Schwab_Laura Taylor_Camilla Perrone

Date

Sep 23 2026
Expired!

Time

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
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