The Research Unit of Local Planning at TU Wien has a long-standing tradition of practice- and action-oriented research foci relating to:

• the development and qualification of methods and instruments, processes and strategies in the field of regional and urban development and the planning theory underpinning them
• the design and control of inward development and spatial transformation/renewal processes in urban as well as in rural and village contexts
• the elaboration and evaluation of strategies and approaches aimed at sustainable energy- and resource-efficient regional development
• the development and qualification of urban design modules and their associated implementation and quality assurance strategies
• the development of spatial simulation and multimedia communication and visualisation methods to support planning and decision-making processes

The staff of the research unit run and coordinate research and teaching projects, set up knowledge platforms, work on publications and supervise diploma theses and dissertations that are centred around these research foci. By way of illustration there follows a selection of current research topics, starting with an overview of completed and ongoing dissertations addressing fundamental questions of local planning: planning processes as learning processes, the provision of open spaces (in the widest sense), visual modelling and strategic visualisation of planning issues, and inward development of urban settlements.

Find out more about the current and completed research projects as well as the Spatial Simulation Lab on the following pages: