RothNEUsiedl Climate Model District, Vienna, Austria

In the climate-pioneering district of Roth-NEUsiedl, climate protection and climateadaptation have been at the heart of plann-ing from the very beginning, with the goalof achieving climate neutrality both inoperations and—as far as possible—dur-ing construction. To this end, Transsolardeveloped a comprehensive life-cycleassessment concept that takes into ac-count both the emissions from the con-struction of the buildings and their energyrequirements during operation over thedevelopment period. Based on this, targetand threshold values were defined forbuilding construction as well as for energyuse during operation.

Energy supply plays an essential role inachieving this goal. Therefore, energy gen-eration relies on renewable sources suchas the ground and the sun. The conceptprovides for a district cooling system desi-gned at the neighborhood level. The com-ponents that feed into, store, and draw en-ergy from the system are geothermal fieldsin the ground and energy from wastewater,which, in combination with heat pumps,supply the buildings in Rothneusiedl. Lo-cal and renewable electricity generation isprovided by large-scale photovoltaic sys-tems installed on roofs and facades.Thanks to the early expansion of thesesystems, a significant contribution to sup-plying the neighborhood with renewableenergy can be made as early as the devel-opment phase.

In addition, detailed climate studies wereconducted to achieve a high level of out-door comfort year-round while simulta-neously addressing the challenges of cli-mate change. Particular attention was paidto thermal comfort in public spaces, adapt-ability to climate change, and the integra-tion of climate zones into the urban design.Wind flows in the neighborhood were mo-deled in detail using CFD simulations. Theanalysis takes seasonal differences intoaccount, particularly summer heat and win-ter cold. The study of thermal comfort isbased on the UTCI model, which accountsfor physiological responses to climaticinfluences.