Lead project for anchoring Baukultur in everyday life

Baukultur strategy for Southern Styria

Architecture, landscape planning and design, urban design and spatial planning, civil engineering and the preservation of historical monuments. By constructing, altering, preserving, and maintaining buildings, the creators of Baukultur craft an episode in the continuum of the past, present, and future. Traditional know-how, methods and working methods are just as important drivers for Baukultur as new materials, technologies, and future approaches.

Firmly establishing a place for Baukultur in our everyday lives is a long-term goal which can only be achieved by consistently raising the awareness of the respective decision-making and user groups for it. A vital precondition for high-quality Baukultur is a certain maturity in sensibility for Baukultur among ordinary citizens, those involved in the construction process, as well as among decision-makers from the areas of public policy, the economy, and the public administration. There is no such thing as a zone that is free of Baukultur!

In the settlement areas of Southern Styria, which are very much characterised by the local landscape, the interplay between buildings and their culturally landscaped environment is afforded special significance. While one of the main tasks of spatial planning is to ensure that building activity is restricted to certain concentrated areas and to preserve unspoiled landscapes, the act of building itself must demonstrate sensitivity to the characteristics of the particular cultural landscape. Baukultur enjoys a long tradition in the region.

In recent years, Baukultur aspects have been actively promoted in both the Nature Park of Southern Styria and the tourism sector by LEADER in various awareness-raising activities and by setting up advisory councils for design in individual municipalities in the Nature Park. The current regional development model now defines Baukultur as the lead project for the entire region of Southwestern Styria. What is more, important specifications issued by the regional government provide a roadmap for the principles guiding building policy. These are to be applied to actual practices in Southwestern Styria so that, ultimately, a strategy can be realised that has an impact here.

This project was presented as part of the 2015 Baukultur Workshops in Frankfurt.

Completion Ongoing
Planning period LEADER 2007–2013, LEADER 2014+
Developer State of Styria
Architect / planner

Construction District Directorate of Southwestern Styria

Planning partners Southern Styria Region, EU Regional Management, Tourism
Size / area Southwestern Styria 1,500 km², 140,000 inhabitants
Building costs (gross) 1st LEADER project 400,000 €, 2nd LEADER project in preparation
Uses Planning culture
Rural spaces
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