Smart City: Spontaneous Graz visit from China
Actually, the delegation from the Chinese megacity Nanchang wanted to learn something about energy-optimised districts, when coming to Vienna. But a presentation of experts from Graz was the reason why the guests from Middle Kingdom got enthralled by wanderlust, which could only be “healed” by a flying visit to “Murtropolis”.
The contact between the 5 million-strong city and Vienna exists since 2010 and mutual visits are already traditional. When the 13-strong delegation from China came to Vienna anew these days (invited by the federal ministry for traffic, innovation and technology) and heard details about the award-winning Smart-City-project, the planned Vienna tour was old news: a Graz visit with an excursion to the project area of a Smart City, which is located in the west of Graz, has been at the top of the wish list for the guests, who want Nanchang to become a low-carbon city with as few CO2-emissions as possible.No sooner said than done: a visiting programme, including a tour to the project area around Helmut List Halle was spontaneously organised with the help of the mayor of Graz, the EU department of the Executive Office for Urban Planning, Development and Construction, the City Planning Department, the Technical University Graz, the architectural office Markus Pernthaler and the Eco World Styria. After an exchange of experiences concerning the concepts of Graz CIVITAS projects and exploration of further possible cooperation between Graz and Nanchang, the visiting programme included a tour through the historic city, which is part of the World Cultural Heritage. Thereafter the delegation around vice-mayor Zhang Hongxing made their farewells with loads of positive impressions on the City of Graz.By the way, Graz was the only city in Austria that reaped a Smart-City funding from the federal government for its key project.
Author: Gerhard ABLASSER
