EXCITE 2022
In the third year of the EXCITE programme of the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning, the focus once again was on supporting outstanding research-based initiatives. The programme sought projects distinguished by a high degree of innovation and the potential to make lasting contributions to the further development and profiling of the faculty.
Eligibility to apply was limited to early-career researchers (PreDoc, PostDoc, Senior Scientist, Senior Lecturer, or Senior Artist) of the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning. Coordination with the heads of the respective research units was mandatory. Collaboration with external researchers and colleagues from research and professional practice was possible. Female colleagues were particularly encouraged to submit proposals.
Proposals were expected to relate to the faculty’s current research and funding priorities in the areas of resilience, social infrastructure (health/education/housing), and digitalisation. These thematic priorities allowed for a broad range of project proposals, making a clear and well-argued thematic focus both possible and necessary.
The total funding volume amounted to EUR 50.000. The following projects were funded:
Applicant: Dr. Ing. DI. Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger
Team: Burcu Ateş, Predrag Milić, Laura Sobral, DI. Marilies Wedl
Involved Institutions: Institute of Architecture and Design, Building Construction and Design 2 (E253-05), Institute of Architectural Sciences , Structural Design and Timber Engineering (E259-02), Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (E285-02)
Architects, Structural and Urban Designers need to join forces to overcome today’s challenges as well as prepare for new advances to enable sustainable city and building design. By unravelling the exceptional quality of the multidimensional expertise distributed across the three different research units, Architecture, Structural Design and Urban Studies of TU Wien, this project aims at contributing to a sustainable and resilient development. The ideas is based on expanding the activities related to the field of ‘emerging fields in architecture’ through benefiting from perspectives of technology and social sciences. The project also transports the role of higher education institutions into the city and society and further aims at creating encounters to connect. The strength of this collective learning attempt is in unravelling and weaving together the two unique existing capacities—the capacity of the University and the capacity of the City.
The main catalyst of this joint research-based project derives from previous master design studios on ‘Trespassing grounds - creating versatile spaces’ wherein students co-develop a multifunctional transformative pavilion for Vienna’s open public spaces. Starting at Karlsplatz, as a site of strong symbolic, cultural and political representation, in the immediate surrounding of TU Wien, the project will offer a chance for context-specific, embodied symposia on urban co-production hosted by the university. It is through the process of intersecting everyday life spatial practices with the students in the open public space that the pavilion will evolve and go further, choosing the new sites following critical insights that will emerge from these encounters.
The pavilion is envisioned as a performative space connecting encounters and debates around emerging fields of architecture with the city and the dedicated urban site. The program will impart knowledge about the latest research, design and development in the three research disciplines, encourage discussion and criticism, triggering processes of co-production in an interdisciplinary approach. As an overarching visible element, the structure itself - by its versatility - communicates the intersection of Architecture and Structural Design in relation to Urban Design and to the (changing) context. It is self-explanatory for the beholder and invites, triggers even, to discover alternative forms of communication, learning and teaching, as well as co-production, thus contributing to a transparent decision-making process in all fields of design, building and city-making.
Applicant: Senior Scientist Dipl.-Arch. Dr.techn. Lorenzo De Chiffre
PROJECT SUMMARY:
The overarching goal of the project is to give refurbishment and transformation (“Umbau”) greater visibility and acceptance in architectural education. Currently, design teaching in general—and at the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning at TU Wien in particular—is still largely oriented toward new construction projects. As a result, most students have little exposure to projects involving existing buildings, even though refurbishment will inevitably become a central focus in the future due to the climate and energy crisis.
From a didactic perspective, refurbishment presents a more challenging task compared to new construction: it typically requires more time and preparation, and design interventions must work within tighter constraints. The discussions and evaluations of student refurbishment projects are also more complex, because they must engage with pre-existing conditions that first need to be understood before meaningful interventions can be considered.
At the same time, refurbishment projects have the potential to produce interesting and sometimes unexpected spatial qualities that would be disproportionately costly to achieve in new constructions. The approach demands heightened sensitivity and attention from students toward the existing context—skills that are increasingly required of future architects.
PROJECT DETAILS:
The “Umbau Lehren” project is explicitly linked to design teaching at the faculty. It focuses on a series of coordinated initiatives during the current summer semester and the upcoming winter semester:
Parallel design studios accompanied by a common framework program.
A full-day semester-end event involving international experts and TU Wien teaching staff.
Analysis and evaluation of didactic best practices for teaching refurbishment at other universities to explore a wide range of approaches and establish a shared foundation.
The experiences gathered will be compiled into an international publication intended to serve as an inspiration for reorienting design education toward refurbishment.
Further information can be found here.