Cities Dialogue: High-quality housing in London and Vienna

Free

Burridge Gardens (Jack Hobhouse)

As part of NLA's Cities programme, join this webinar to learn about delivering high-quality housing in London and Vienna.

Join a live global forum as London and Vienna come together to explore how cities can deliver high-quality, affordable homes at scale, and what it takes to balance cost, quality, and long-term social value. As part of the NLA’s Cities programme, this Cities Dialogue brings together policymakers, practitioners and housing experts to examine the systems, partnerships and design approaches that underpin Vienna’s internationally renowned housing model, and what London can learn as it seeks to accelerate housing delivery.

The discussion will explore policy and funding frameworks shaping housing delivery in both cities. Vienna will share insights from its long-standing subsidised housing model, including land policy, housing funds, and the role of limited-profit housing associations. London perspectives will focus on policy and the increasing role of public–private partnerships in boosting housing supply.

Another key focus of this dialogue will be on quality management, comparing how London and Vienna balance architectural and social quality without driving up costs, and how these principles are applied in the delivery of mixed-use developments.

The NLA Cities programme fosters cross-city collaboration, enabling London to learn from other cities and offer its expertise in city-making to global leaders. This Cities Dialogue also brings together learnings on housing delivery for the NLA’s upcoming insight study on ‘Homes for Londoners: A new agenda for public housing.’

Format: all online

10:00-11:30 (London LON GMT) / 11:00-12:30 (Vienna WIE CET)

Programme

09:55 LON / 10:55 WIE Arrivals on Zoom

10:00 LON / 11:00 WIE
Welcome from London
Adara Wicaksono, Programme Manager, NLA

Welcome from Vienna
Johannes Lutter, Head of Future Cities Department, UIV Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH

10:05 LON / 11:05 WIE Opening statements: Challenges and opportunities for housing
Caroline Harper, Managing Director, Be First London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Kurt Hofstetter, Head of Unit for Strategic Projects, Housing Research and International Relations (Municipal Department for Housing), City of Vienna
Sabine Pollak, Co-Founder and Architect, Köb&Pollak Architektur
Andrea Steiner, Head of New Building Management (development and control), Sozialbau AG

10:15 LON / 11:20 WIE Presentation: Key pillars of Viennese subsidised housing
Kurt Hofstetter, Head of Unit for Strategic Projects, Housing Research and International Relations (Municipal Department for Housing), City of Vienna

10:20 LON / 11:10 WIE Presentation: Delivering public housing at scale
Caroline Harper Managing Director, Be First London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

10:25 LON / 11:20 WIE Presentation: Innovative approaches to housing design
Sabine Pollak, Co-Founder and Architect, Köb&Pollak Architektur

10:30 LON / 11:30 WIE Panel Discussion
Speakers above

11:10 LON / 12:10 WIE Audience Q&A

11:25 LON / 12:25 WIE Closing comments

11:30 LON / 12:30 WIE End

Speaker biographies

Caroline Harper

Managing Director, Be First

Johannes Lutter

Head of the Executive Unit for International Relations and Strategic Partnerships, UIV Urban Innovation Vienna

Adara Wicaksono

Programme Manager, NLA

Kurt Hofstetter

Head of Unit for Strategic Projects, Housing Research and International Relations (Municipal Department for Housing), City of Vienna

Sabine Pollak

Co-Founder and Architect, Köb&Pollak Architektur

Andrea Steiner

Head of New Building Management (development and control), Sozialbau AG

Free

NLA Webinar on Zoom

Once you have registered, a reminder to confirm the event details and instructions to access the webinar will be sent a day before the event. If you have any questions, please contact the NLA Events Team: events@nla.london.

Accessibility

This webinar will have the closed captioning and automatic transcript functions enabled. Please ensure you manually turn these on when you join. If you would like more information, or have any access requirements, please let us know what these are and how we can best accommodate these by emailing events@nla.london.

Cities Dialogue: High-quality housing in London and Vienna

Free

Programme

Speaker biographies

Free

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