Research Schools

Thematic scope: Socio-ecological transformations, architecture and planning 
Architecture and spatial planning are essential to scientifically grasp and practically achieve socio-ecological transformations. They produce important transformation knowledge in transdisciplinary processes and aid the realization of much needed transformations towards greater sustainability. The related amalgamation of research and praxis, however, creates a significant challenge regarding academic qualification and scientific excellence, making doctoral research a balancing act of producing outputs for the academic community (i.e., scientific knowledge) and the praxis community (i.e., societal impact). The Research School tackles this issue.
The Research School invites applications from doctoral students whose dissertation projects address questions of socio-ecological transformation from a variety of angles, ranging from analytical perspectives on the sustainability of infrastructures, space and place to concrete design or interventionist approaches to the transformation of the built environment, as well as research delving into the transformation of architecture and planning regarding governance, practice, instruments, methods, education, or similar. It hence welcomes projects that deal with issues such as efficiency and sufficiency, just transitions, urban obsolescence and transformative innovation, re-use and circularity, or sustainable urban and rural development, and view them through a decidedly architectural and/or planning lens.

Coordinators:
Lorenzo De Chiffre, Elisabeth Leitner, Margaret Haderer and Johannes Suitner 

You can find further information about the Research School here.

After a successful pilot year, the Research Center for New Social Housing is establishing the New Social Housing Programme for Doctoral Candidates in 2026. The programme seeks to establish an interdisciplinary setting around social housing themes and looks for a connection of international and local perspectives.

Highly dynamic political, social, ecological, and political transitions bring a number of challenges to the provision of housing today. The current global housing crisis is stimulating political interest and a broad public debate on housing issues and practical solutions. As a complex research field, housing includes the design of buildings, housing as a form of practice, and housing regimes and policies but, also, an ideological and epistemological component. Housing studies at the intersection of basic and applied research require new transdisciplinary methodological approaches and perspectives across positions of Global North and South. In view of these challenges and demands, the following questions arise: How do we as housing researchers/designers approach the research–practice gap in housing and develop methodologies across disciplinary boundaries? What are the necessary forms of knowledge in housing design, policy, and everyday life that need to be considered in housing research? How do we engage in a global comparative approach across Global North and South addressing the specificity of housing to advance in housing studies?

Coordinators:
Dr. Judith M. Lehner, Research Center for New Social Housing, future.lab, E285-01, TU Wien
Dr. Bernadette Krejs, Research Unit Housing and Design, E253-2, TU Wien

You can find further information about the Research School here.