Road Studies

The road along the Danube

With the increasing motorisation after the Second World War, it became necessary to rebuild the Wachau Road. The roads through the villages became too narrow for the numerous tourist buses and cars. Initial plans for constructing the road along the banks of the Danube were opposed by critical voices from society. Due to media pressure, politicians had to consider the new road’s integration into the landscape as a design task.

At the beginning of the investigations, extensive research on the history of the road’s creation and development is conducted. Historical and artistic images as well as plans are the basis for selective image interpretations. Through analyses of historical documents, literature and interviews, the criteria for the design integration of the road into the landscape are identified. Videos are used to examine the experience of the landscape through driving on the Wachau Road on site. In the research process, contemporary representations of the road as part of the landscape will be elaborated performatively, communicated and critically reflected upon.

Time & Space

Design Principles of Wachau road

Vegetation dynamics over decades

Sankt Michael: Transformations through road construction

Seasonal changes

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Designed road in the landscape

In this folder, we shed light on the landscape setting of the Wachau road and the design considerations that were made when it was built in the 1950s. To begin with, the alignment of the road was important, as it had to be in dialogue with the landscape. The aim was to pass through all the characteristic landscape features of the Wachau. Sankt Michael was already considered a neuralgic spot during the construction work and was the subject of heated debates. This place is also special to us. The traffic routes become condensed at the narrow section between the Danube and the cliffs. Here, design considerations are impressively visible and tangible. In addition to this overall view, it is also essential to look at the details. In the folder, we show design considerations for visible details, such as the retaining stone walls or the planting of the river banks.

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Reorientation of the villages

The increase in car traffic in the 1950s led to traffic jams in the narrow streets of the Wachau villages. Therefore, the new Wachau road was planned as a bypass. Also in Emmersdorf, the Wachau road leads past the village. Landscape architect Herbert Ursprunger was commissioned with the reorientation and connection of the village to the new road. Discover his proposals for design measures and planting for Emmersdorf in the folder. His design still characterises the village today. The western entrance to Emmersdorf was also designed by Herbert Ursprunger and has crystallised as an important site for us: this is where the old and new streets meet, where processes of change become apparent. On the poster side, students from the University of Arts Linz and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna have captured their perception of this place in drawings.

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Phantom Rides

In order to explore the landscape in motion, or more precisely the relationship between speed and landscape perception, standard means of transportation and, in the first year, primarily cars are equipped with cameras and used for “phantom rides”. In contrast to classic phantom rides, these cameras film not only forwards or backwards, but also sideways in order to capture axes and diagonals. Some cameras are moved by rotary motors and filming is done both forwards and backwards at the same time. This connects the past and the future. Another part of the footage documents overtourism in the Wachau. Slow-motion films are created at busy locations, showing tourists in their outfits and equipment as they seemingly glide weightlessly past the camera.

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Drehmoment

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Spiegel

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Grat

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Ursprunger

Interview with the architect and landscape architect Herbert Ursprunger, who played a key role in the planning of Wachaustraße in the 1950s. The interview took place on March 31, 2023 in his apartment in Vienna.

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Ursprunger

Around 1955/56, Herbert Ursprunger produced a large volume of drawings, plans and photographs during the planning and construction of the Wachaustraße. His focus was on the nature and design of the road itself, the fortification walls to the vineyards and the bank fortifications to the Danube. Another focus was on the planting of the banks and embankments along the new roads.

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Time & Space

Landscape is characterised by constant change and transformation. The construction of the Wachau road caused a major intervention in the landscape of the Danube valley. A selection of historical images of sites before and after the road was built and during the construction work are supplemented by current ones. The chronological series provide an insight into the temporal and spatial changes.

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Design Principles of Wachau road

The integration of the road into the landscape was consciously designed. A selection of the design principles developed by Herbert Ursprunger are presented and illustrated with his own photos and sketches.

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Vegetation dynamics over decades

Plant growth and the associated spatial changes become visible when observed over decades. This is a continuation of Herbert Ursprunger’s long-term documentation of his own planting measures along Wachau road.

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Seasonal changes

Perceptions in different moments are snapshots that repeat themselves in the rhythm of the seasons. Plants, as living and constantly changing landscape elements, have a spatial and atmospheric influence on the landscape. An annual observation of four locations along the Wachau road.

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Sankt Michael: Transformations through road construction

Traffic routes reshape the landscape and over time become an integral part of it. The built and natural changes in the village Sankt Michael are retraced on the basis of historical postcards and current photos and set in relation to written descriptions.

A project of the Institute of Landscape Architecture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and the Department Artwork Practice at the University of Arts Linz. Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Programme for arts-based Research (PEEK) [AR 762-G]