After successful completion of the course, students are able to understand, reflect and critically assess the complex relationships of material cycles and processes in theory and experimental practice.

Biofabrique Vienna is a pilot project of the Vienna Business Agency and Atelier LUMA, a programme of LUMA Arles, in partnership with TU Wien. Based on its methodology of the bioregional approach; finding, connecting, implementing and sharing – the Biofabrique operates as a network as well as a knowledge and production platform that processes raw and repurposed materials which are tailored to each bioregion’s resources and needs. Bioregional design practices give us a framework for asking useful questions: what resources are available and how can we use them in a way that makes local environmental and social systems stronger? By building alliances within Viennese industry, academia and creative professionals, Biofabrique Vienna aims to strengthen the bioregion itself. The design studio will act as a principal partner of Biofabrique Vienna and help demonstrate its first public participatory test phase in 2024 as part of major cultural events like the Klima Biennale and the Vienna Design Week.

Today‘s extractive material practices demand a paradigm shift in the resource consumption within the construction industry. Our built environment must now be regarded as a resource and strategies of adaptive reuse and alternative material production processes perceived as a viable architectural approach. Transitioning towards circular building practices commands ‚new‘ values, characterised by the use of local material waste streams paired with a circular understanding of material sourcing, processing, assembly and disassembly in the context of the territories they ultimately depend on.

Through identifying, mapping and collecting local resources, industrial and agricultural by-products and waste streams in and around Vienna, we aim to understand, test and analyse the physical properties and logistical implications of such raw materials, simultaneously reflecting on their value on a social, cultural and political level. With the help of local and international experts, and by employing various techniques and tools, we will experimentally develop recipes and samples, and produce a small-scale series of selected materials that would ultimately point out directions for concrete applications in architecture and design. As in any truly experimental process, we will embrace uncertainty and openness to failure, understanding „Material Assemblies“ as a collective maker-space, which is fostering exchange, agency and responsibility for everyone and everything involved.

Key dates:
- Site Visit @ Klima Biennale Wien: Friday 1.3., 09:00-11:00
- Kick-Off: Monday 4.3., 14:00-16:00, Office Gebäudelehre
- Regular meetings @ Klima Biennale Wien: Thursdays 14:00-20:00
- 3-day Research Workshop @ Klima Biennale Wien: 7.-9.4.
- 10-day Hands-on Workshop @ Klima Biennale Wien: 16.-25.5.
- Presentation, Discussion @ Klima Biennale Wien: Friday 28.6. (tbc)
- Presentation, Discussion @ Vienna Design Week: Friday 20.9. (tbc)

A design studio 5 ECTS ("Biofabrique Vienna: Material Assemblies / Vertiefung“) is additionally offered to give students the opportunity for individual specialisation and thematic focus.
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Link to Video Presentation

Research, Mapping, Excursions, 1:1 Experimentation, Documentation

Process Documentation