Skip to content

Critical Materialities
Exhibition
WED, 11.11.2026, 18:00-20:00 – Reallabor, TU Wien, Gusshausstraße 28

Through material experimentation and critical reflection, students investigate materials, their properties, origins, and broader contexts, contributing to the ongoing transformation of Vienna’s material culture and reality.
Architecture is shaped by the materials we use, the ways we work with them, and the conditions under which they are produced and transformed. Materials are never simply neutral resources available for design. They carry histories, emerge from specific landscapes and processes, and are connected to people, places, and systems of production. Understanding these relationships requires both direct physical engagement and a critical examination of the contexts in which materials exist. Critical Materialities brings these perspectives together, approaching material research as a process of making, observing, questioning, and reflecting. Through touching, testing, combining, and transforming materials, students investigate their physical properties, behaviors, and limitations. Working directly with materials allows unexpected qualities and possibilities to emerge. Rather than imposing predetermined forms, the process becomes a dialogue in which materials themselves influence decisions, challenge assumptions, and suggest new directions. At the same time, material experimentation extends beyond the immediate physical experience. Every material is connected to broader ecological, social, economic, and spatial conditions. Questions of origin, extraction, processing, availability, and transformation become part of the investigation. Where do materials come from? Which landscapes and processes are involved in their production? What relationships and dependencies do they reveal? And how might these conditions influence the ways we understand and practice architecture?

Students
Sebastian Brantner, Divad El-Komos, Natenael Eshaw Abebe, Sarah Anastasia Gerguis, Michaela Glaser, Gil Philipp Grassmann, Caspar Halswick, Datkayim Ibraimova, Luc Kempgens, Moritz Kreft, Benjamin Kuhr, Lisa-Marie Lambauer, Aleksandar Lazic, Jakob Legenstein, Emma Mucha, Tobias Perschl, Johanna Ploder, Florian Rabl, Rabia Sahin, Stephan Sammer, Lea Schneeweiss-Worel, Patrick Schneider, Lea Schröder, Ildikó Sofia, Tello Pálfy, Bernhard Weiss, Lukas Wellhausen, Jonas Wieja, Tamara Wollny

Mentors
Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler (mischer'traxler studio, Vienna), Thomas Amann (Institute of Architectural Design, TU Wien)

Courses
Modul Gebäudelehre: VU Spezialgebiete der Gebäudelehre, VO Gebäudelehre als kritische Architekturpraxis

gbl.tuwien.ac.at
mischer'traxler studio