Bail-Out or “Billion-City”

What would you do, if you had 19 billion euros to spend? Students of the Technological University Vienna planned a completely sustainable city for over 100.000 people to live in. The money exists only in theory. It was used to rescue a failed bank.

In December 2009 the Austrian government bought the failed bank “Hypo-Alpe-Adria” for a symbolic price of one euro. To rescue it, about 17 billion euro were needed until today. Further two billion euro are estimated for its rescue.

A project led by students of the Technological University Vienna shows now what could have been done with the money. They planned a completely sustainable city for over 100.000 people to live in. 15th of October a model of the city (1 : 100) will be displayed in front of the viennese “Karlskirche”.

The city does not only criticize the expanse in which taxes are used to rescue failed banks. It is impressive because it combines newest findings of urban mobility, energy generation, or urban farming with city planning. “Hypotopia”, how the city is called, would be the sixth biggest and for sure most modern city of Austria.

You can get updates about the project (which is mostly in german) on our site or via our twitter account.

Foto Title: Milliardenstadt.at