Otto Wagner: Metropolis

City image. These thoughts do not apply to any specific city, but to large cities in general, which have just brought to the forefront the need to address the question of their future layout and the regulation of their current state. The opinions expressed here are neither an expression of the radicalism of agitators, nor a lamentation by historians of city building, but are based on the principle that the most important moment in solving such a question is the utmost fulfillment of purpose and that the implementation of this purpose must grant to everything that arises here the blessing of art.
The way we live, our work and efforts, our technical and scientific achievements today are completely different from those of thousands of years ago or even from a very short time ago; they have always been a growing force; therefore, art must lend its expression to this growth and thus also to our time. Art has the task of adapting the city image to the current humanity. So much beloved slogans of the art of the homeland, genius loci, sense in the urban image, etc., as they are expressed by people who already know and judge art only from textbooks, are nothing but phrases that these people cling to because they stand helplessly before the question of building great cities. Only a true artist-architect can distinguish and weigh between the beautiful and the old, and only the ancient, and does not think of the criminal destruction of beauty, nor of the copy of the current state, nor of unfortunately so beloved "decoration" of the city; every artistic unruliness is foreign to him.
Our democratic environment, into which humanity is squeezed under the influence of efforts for cheap and healthy housing and the enforced economy of life, has caused uniformity in our residential buildings. Therefore, this uniformity will also strongly manifest in the future image of the city. An individual apartment is cheaper in multi-storey buildings with the same cubic content and the same floor plan compared to lesser-storey houses, considering construction costs and rent; the price of land, foundations, and roofing is of course counted only once. However, since the proverb "Time is money" applies today more than ever, multiplying storeys in residential and commercial buildings up to seven or eight or even towering skyscrapers (if allowed by the municipality) in the city center is quite natural. The number of residential buildings disproportionately exceeds in every large city the number of public buildings; from their accumulation arise therefore long and uniform street areas. The art of our time has elevated this uniformity to monumentality with its wide streets and is fully able to artistically utilize this motif with delightful contrasts. There can therefore be no doubt that one cannot speak of a "template" if art can correctly intervene in such cases. Unfortunately, the uniformity of residential buildings, conditioned by purpose and economy, has led to a wholly condemnable effort to outdo each other in the external decor of these utility buildings, with unpleasant things like risalitas, towers, gables, columns, ornaments, etc. It is good that the modern wide street somewhat dampens the effect of these middle-class absurdities.
Equally unjustifiable and artistically condemnable are intentional, unmotivated bends in streets, irregular solutions for streets and squares to achieve supposed picturesque street images. Every large city will probably at some point need several such curved streets or irregularities; but these inequalities will only be welcomed by artists if they arise directly from the organism of the streets or traffic or are determined by terrain conditions. The majestic expression of the city arises precisely from the combination of existing beauty with newly created beauty.
The greatest influence on the image of the city is the "physiognomy of the city," which has the difficult task of as pleasant an impression as possible from the first encounter. This impression depends on the "mimicry" of the large-city physiognomy, in this case, on the wave of life in the urban image. For the first impression that a large city makes, a significant circumstance is that broad layers, and thus also incoming foreigners in their vast majority ― and that is precisely what matters here ― lack a sense of art. Therefore, art must utilize leverage if it is to evoke the desired interest and satisfaction among the broadest layers where it can safely rely on a favorable impression. Industry, fashion, taste, comfortable luxury, etc., are sustainable artistic means of expression; therefore, it is easy to see how they direct the gaze of the broad layers towards art, so that even the artistic creations receive a lenient judgment. The continuous chain of radial streets, adorned with beautiful shops (from which the artistic products of the country and city beckon to us), through which a feverish crowd is rushing, other streets suitable for mass parades and satisfying pedestrians with mutual bowing of strollers that allow examining the surrounding luxury from their own pockets, a series of beautiful and good restaurants providing bodily refreshment and calm, squares where the viewer is surprised by highly artistic buildings and monuments, and much else that does not need to be specifically mentioned: these things primarily grant the city its physiognomy. When the best means of transportation, impeccable street cleaning, residences containing all comfort and meeting every social status are added, the main conditions for a favorable impression of the image of the large city for artistically indifferent layers are provided. Wherever in all these matters a measure of greater or lesser perfection is established, quality of beauty, therefore artistic, always determines; only this enables pleasant satisfaction for both residents and foreigners at the first sight of the city. After such preparation, both residents and foreigners will be in a better mood and will embark on the "Stations of the Cross" towards the existing beauties and the artistic granaries of the large city, no longer filled with horror before art.
The more successfully a large city fulfills its purpose, the greater satisfaction it instills in its inhabitants, and the more pronounced the voice of art is here, the more beautiful it is. Its orderly appearance, its meticulous cleanliness always go hand in hand with the art of building and cities, and therein lies a strong guideline for every city administration.
The influence of art on the emergence of large cities, thus on their future shaping, is today almost excluded. The main reason for this circumstance is not economic pressure, but rather the absolute indifference of broader layers to artistic creation, thus a lack of artistic sensitivity. For decades, the masses have been accustomed to leaving the art of city building in the hands of those in power, and now overlook that a self-governing community has taken their place, which now has the obligation to evoke the necessary artistic sensitivity. On the outer boundary of the large city, the boundaries of plots, field paths, watercourses, small differences in levels, trees, even garbage dumps provoke the later placement of simple buildings. These buildings, in turn, influence the determination of the location of emerging roads, squares, etc., so that the final image of the city arises from the above-mentioned rural conditions. However, it is not about raising these matters as the foundation for the artistic formation of a large city; where would the beautiful image of the city, desired and longed for, remain, where would the deliberate placement of public buildings be, where the establishment of air reservoirs, views, the best operational routes, where the purposeful and economically correct straight lines of the emerging construction sites, where finally the need for orientation, which must be observed in every large city?
From this, it becomes clear that the construction of a large city must not be left to chance, but must be based on well-thought-out rules. The construction of this foundation and the indication of the path to achieve the goal is the main purpose of this work.
There is certainly no doubt that most people would rather live in a large city than in a small one or in the countryside. A significant portion of the inhabitants of the large city is forced to do so by their profession. Earnings, social status, comfort, luxury, low mortality rates, the availability of all mental and physical tools, the possibility of spending time in both good and bad ways, and finally art are the motives for this phenomenon. The majority of the stimuli that drive the large city to further growth mutually complement each other in their influence. Closely related to this is the socio-economic moment, and it is therefore not surprising that municipal councils support the growth of large cities; therefore, the influence of any city administration on the influx of residents and foreigners is quite natural.
Regulation. The skeleton of every large city consists of existing communication lines, rivers, lakes, sea shores, terrain conditions, etc. Every regulation of a large city must be carried out, as I have already indicated, according to a system that naturally breaks down into two parts: regulating the old, thus existing part of the city, and regulating the future part, thus the continuous continuation of the city. Regulation of the old part of the city will be limited to maintaining the existing beauty and beneficial utilization of it in the urban image. Conditions of operation, health requirements, the fact that so many beautiful objects are in private ownership, that many works have reached the limits of age and fulfillment of their purpose, and finally social and economic conditions recommend case-by-case consideration when regulating the existing part of the large city.
For these reasons, while it is very desirable to preliminarily determine the future building lines in the existing part, it can hardly be precisely implemented. It goes without saying that the community administration should seek the opinions of artists for new adjustments where the existing beautiful state is to be affected. The second part, however, can, indeed must, be integrated into the system, lest new events "belatedly" present the community administration with insurmountable obstacles. The adjustment of the way of living and life of future inhabitants in broad outlines, the possibility of installing things today completely unknown, the assumption of "insurance caps" for the expansion of the large city, and last but not least its aesthetic decoration, all this must be integrated into this system.
How important, even fearfully provocative, is the reference to such a distant view of future ways of living emerges from the fact that the population of large cities has doubled in 30 to 50 years and that city administrations are almost compelled to take care that even now residential houses, public buildings, communication routes, health measures, etc., are correctly placed, lest otherwise a chaos arise instead of the expected beautiful image of the city, the removal of which would only be possible at tremendous costs. It is probably self-evident that the administration of a large city requires division into districts. Proper placement and boundaries of districts form the basis of systematic regulation of a large city.
Although determining districts by profession (higher education), way of living, industrial and commercial quarters, wind direction, etc. is relatively easy, it is still not possible to create districts exclusively for a single specific purpose because both workers and employees of higher and lower ranks, officials, etc. wish and must live in certain districts; however, some objects, such as parks, gardens, children's playgrounds, schools, churches, communication connections, provisioning structures, offices (courts, police, and city offices), bazaars, areas for the import and export of materials, car garages, morgues, even theaters, specialized museums, libraries, barracks, asylums, workshops, social houses, and exhibition buildings, etc., must necessarily be assigned to each district to a greater or lesser extent and already from the reason that there are a number of public buildings, the utility of which can hardly be estimated properly more than a century ahead and therefore can only be assigned to future buildings serving similar or the same purposes in newly emerging quarters. Naturally, new quarters will be acquired in bands around the city center; it is indifferent whether this is possible based on given conditions in a closed circle or only in a segment. The distance from the city center will always determine the attainment of permissible limits of construction or the possible beginning of settlement.
The division of districts into bands most often arises almost inadvertently with the entry of concentric streets into the urban body. The attained limit of density of settlement in an individual district can be taken according to experience as 100,000 to 150,000 inhabitants. It is self-evident that up to reaching this limit, two or three such districts can be assigned to a single administrative center. The number of 100,000 to 150,000 corresponds to an area of about 500 to 1,000 ha for one district, with the achieved maximum allowable height of residential buildings. Therefore, the idea that the core of the city should be surrounded by band communications at distances of two to three kilometers, and that individual quarters should be integrated into the emerging bands is completely purposeful.
In the systematic regulation of the large city, it is first necessary to ensure that the main concentric streets receive a width that will satisfy the increased demand for traffic in the future, while the band communications should be capable of accommodating everything that is still unknown and anticipated. The basis for the width of band communications can be taken as 80 to 100 m. Integrating these band streets into an already built large city will certainly cause great difficulties, but it is still possible to introduce them into already existing streets and to concede indeed something from the dimensions mentioned above.
Since, as will be shown later, individual quarters arise according to a well-considered plan in pre-established periods and thus form a group of smaller cities scattered around the center, it seems more appropriate to give each individual district sufficient air reservoirs in parks, gardens, and playgrounds rather than later anticipate the establishment of forest and meadow bands; for the establishment of such a band around the city is again merely a firmly established boundary that must be avoided. The expansion of the large city must, according to our present feeling, be without limitation. Nonetheless, such a band would lose completely the appearance of a band with necessary concentric communications with inevitable settlement along them and would completely change the intended purpose.
On the basis of the advice provided here and through systematic regulation, it becomes possible to solve the overall arrangement of each district artistically beautifully and communicate adequately and hygienically correctly even before its approval by the municipal administration for construction. Thus, a series of splendid urban images will arise solely under the influence of purpose, which will create for our descendants uninterrupted, plastic histories of art, and thus already exclude everything template-like. These districts, which primarily meet certain purposes, for example, art with its new collections and schools or university disciplines with the imperial library, will be created even more colorfully.
Areas pre-designated in each district for public buildings can, of course, serve temporarily for other purposes until their final occupation. Without looking at buildings occupied by state and provincial administrative offices or large collections, etc. that must remain located near the center, and without looking at buildings to which individual districts are entitled, a number of buildings and facilities will still emerge in every large city, their location being conditioned by altitude, water communications, ports, local conditions, etc., which must remain unchanged. Similarly, buildings and facilities suitable for individual districts, such as buildings for organizing markets, for warehousing samples, larger workshops, shops, etc., finally such as allow for greater distances from the center, like cemeteries, warehouses, balloon halls, barracks, areas for sports of all kinds (including aviation), etc. Especially cemeteries have such a visit on several days of the year that it seems almost impossible to control the enormous traffic caused by it, which leads to the conclusion that it is better to establish two or three similar sites. Distance has no effect here, as every large city will soon not be able to transport corpses any other way than by railways and therefore it is advisable to already provide individual districts with halls for the transport of corpses.
It cannot be the task of this work to perfectly clarify all questions concerning the large city, primarily the questions of the levels of individual large cities; however, it is certain that the existing railways will necessarily become elevated or underground railways and that it is not possible to fundamentally change the existing sewage systems. It must also only be indicated that it will be the task of city councils to combine all means of transportation in their hands. Assuming this, we must consider such operation that the continuous movement in the direction of the bands is possible and a constant shuttle operation in the direction of the concentric streets so that every arbitrary point can be reached with just one transfer. The possibility of transfers between elevated, street, and underground railways will be facilitated by elevators. If these proposals are implemented, it can be confidently stated that systematic regulation will ensure every large city a free development for eternity and that the notorious "delay" will completely disappear.
One thing, however, must become the foundation of all regulation of the large city: that art and artists are allowed to have a say, that the destructive influence of engineers on beauty is definitively broken, and that the power of the monster of "speculation," which today renders the self-government of large cities almost illusory, is restricted as tightly as possible. The means for implementation and the manner in which this should be achieved will be shown in further explanations.
Economic part. If this consolidation and surely desired improvement of the city is to be carried out in the indicated manner, enormous resources are required. There can be hardly any talk of savings in such an execution, since the best in this case is hardly sufficient. Therefore, we should have the opportunity to speak today about a sort of mutual competition among municipal administrations in the regulation and improvement of large cities. The late Mayor of Vienna, Dr. Karl Lueger, clearly indicated the true goal by transferring a number of facilities, such as gasworks and power plants, water supply, streetcars, burial of the dead, etc., into the ownership and management of the municipality, from which the municipal administration derives quite substantial revenues. Another source lies in the continuous increase in the price of building land, caused by the growth of the large city, which naturally benefits the common good, i.e., the municipal administration. Efforts in this regard have matured the question of taxing the increase in value, and in Germany such a tax has already been enacted, but it remains doubtful whether this issue can at all be solved in this way amid the difficulty of finding the right place to exert the leverage with the result that the already enormous tax quota, as in Vienna, is to be further increased.
A simple means of regaining a rich source of income for municipal administration is provided by every expansion of the city in such a way that the city administration buys future bands, namely areas around the large city that are still completely or minimally built and retains them until they are ripe for construction. It is self-evident that these areas can yield sufficient revenues for their immediate leasing or letting, whereas the future increase in value will accrue to the municipality. It can be confidently expected that the price of the acquired land, even if sufficient returns are not obtained from the outset, will rise in a short time to a level that exceeds significantly the interest, interest on interest, and the capital originally invested, and that from this a revenue will arise which will reach up to hundreds of millions. It can rightly be asserted about all the land surrounding the large city that it can be acquired now for a relatively nominal sum. However, the increase in population indicates that part of this area will definitely be built within fifty years, thus passing from public ownership (let's say that the municipality acquired the land through ownership) to private. This process is naturally constantly renewed. The municipality can, through land price regulation, leasing, etc., direct the construction of the city into certain channels, secure the necessary public space for individual districts, build up barriers against land speculation, which is thriving today, and carry out magnificent enterprises and improvements through final profits. The sum can be easily increased further, as the administrations of large cities are capable of regulating the construction of districts by maintaining land prices in such a way that immediate multi-storey residential buildings arise, thus increasing the price of land again. By utilizing these means, a perspective opens up for municipalities that enables them to carry out the construction of residential buildings or large-scale enterprises on their own, for example, brick production, which can again serve as a source of income for the municipal administrations. The conditions for implementing such calculations are these moments:
Firstly, an expropriation law, which can be easily achieved, as every state will warmly support the flourishing of a large city, which is among its largest and most reliable taxpayers.
Secondly, the establishment of a fund from the increments of property, which guarantees all conditions of its coverage, interest, and security from the outset.
Municipal expropriation law would be divided into two parts: for the expansion of the city and for the improvement of the old urban core. If the city is supported in this way, any administration of a large city can think of measures that would support the flourishing of the city, which rapidly advancing culture definitely demands.
Rich means will enable the councils of large cities to establish community houses, community tenements, communal sanatoria, buildings for large markets for goods and storage of samples, railways, steamers, fountains, observation towers, museums, theaters, water castles, memorial halls, etc., thus all things that are today not even conceivable, which, however, will not be able to be missed in the future image of the large city. The desired single-family house in the garden city, even more desirable, can never evoke general satisfaction since under the pressure of harsh living conditions, through an increase or decrease in the number of family members, or changes in profession and status, etc., there arises a constant change of wishes of a million inhabitants. Wishes arising from these circumstances can be fulfilled only by an apartment building, never by a small, detached house.
Finally, it must be said plainly that in houses divided into 4 to 6 parcels in building blocks, each bordering one side on a garden, square, or park and bordered on three sides by streets 23 m wide, apartments must have all cultural conveniences, being healthy, beautiful, comfortable, and cheap, and that they are therefore certainly more suitable for our activities and efforts than apartments based on completely incorrect assumptions. The reference to tradition, sentiment, picturesque appearance, etc., as a foundation for the housing of modern people is completely alien to our present feeling. The number of city dwellers who prefer to disappear in the crowd as a "number" is greater than the number who daily want to hear the greeting "good morning" or the question "how did you sleep?" from criticizing neighbors in family homes.
The family house will not disappear from the image of the city, it is, nevertheless, self-evident; it will always owe its existence to the wishes of the upper ten thousand.
The art of living, as the present time demands, will create yet a series of things of which we have barely an inkling today, such as portable houses, compact houses on land leased from the municipality, etc.
Considering that, for example, Vienna has not created another large-city image of high artistic quality for 60 years despite favorable circumstances than Semper's outer castle square (after the removal of the castle gate and the construction of the castle) and not exactly flawless Schwarzenberg Square (the Town Hall Square and in front of the Votivkirche should be marked as mistakes) ― for the Ringstrasse owes its existence to happy chance ― and if we set it against future artistic, purposeful arrangement and execution of individual, systematically differentiated districts, even the layman, art's most imperturbable critic, will recognize the idea that a beautiful large city can never arise without the generosity indicated, without the necessary foresight, and without the blessing of art.
It is not possible to leave the construction of the large city as before to blind chance and complete artistic incapacity and to add artistic efforts as unnecessary or finally to expose the development of the city to the saddest land speculation. The damage caused to the residents and the municipal administration must be marked in economic terms as enormous, and the damage will continue to grow more terrible, as the passing time makes it increasingly irreparable.
May representatives of large cities particularly strongly realize that a large city can only fulfill its task completely, namely to be a quiet refuge for a million populations, if it is also beautiful. This can, however, only be achieved through art.