The presentation will reflect the workshop „A…is for Magical Realism, opens an external URL in a new window“ - framed as design research in the setting of the independent Vienna Architecture Summer School 2026. Thereby focusing on Magical Realism, as a methodology blending the fantastical with the everyday, integrating the impossible into the realistic, and making planetary futures a matter of course. Through conversations with present activists, architects and researchers, as well as through examining articles and texts tied with the Red Vienna past, and studying the future perspectives of Africanfuturistm writers, we explored the possibility of transgressing the universalised western understanding of space and time: we build a portal, an ancestral device and an offering to access and to participate in the making of collective memories and alternative futures.

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Marlene Wagner, opens an external URL in a new window practices, researches and teaches in the framework of "Social Architecture". Transdisciplinarity and transformation guide her work on space and design at the intersections of theory and practice, design research, feminist and postcolonial critique. As a co-founder of the non-profit architecture practice buildCollective she realised transnational projects of educational, social and technical buildings and infrastructures. She has been teaching at the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, Vienna University of Technology, University of Art and Design Linz, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences a.o. Marlene has been instrumental in the set-up of an urban mobility lab and designs and develops diverse formats of learning and tools engagement. Her work has been internationally published, exhibited and awarded. She is part of the Claiming*Spaces Collective at TU Wien, international research projects, and co-founder of the Vienna Architecture Summer School.

Beatrice Aimée studied architecture in Venice and graduated with distinction at Vienna University of Technology. As a young practitioner her emphasis is based on regenerative material practices, vernacular knowledge and culturally rooted forms of spatial production. Her work is guided by a holistic understanding of space, grounded in the earth and its materials. She has been involved in sociocratic cooperative housing projects and social housing projects in Vienna with WUParchitektur. Beatrice implemented educational projects with the non-profit architecture practice Archifair and leads building and material workshops with the association YEB – Young Earth Builders. Personal interests have led her to mix her hands in various small to medium construction projects, in artistic and agriculture projects

Quantum physics is often seen as a challenging topic, associated with new concepts such as cats that are dead and alive at the same time (superposition) and spooky action at a distance (entanglement). However, discoveries in the fields of quantum materials and quantum computation have been driving technological innovation, with tangible impact on our ability to adapt to climate change. It is, therefore, critical to communicate these concepts, innovations, and their impact to the broader public. In this lecture, we present examples of novel materials’ properties and computational advantages based on quantum physics, put them in perspective with their “classical” counterparts, and highlight how these can potentially accelerate or halt climate change.

Light-based 3D printing is a specialized additive manufacturing method that uses light to transform a liquid into a solid during the 3D printing process. It offers great potential for circular value creation but is often carried out within linear material flows. This work describes the basic research aimed at keeping materials in a circular cycle: At the Advanced Technologies for Light-Assisted Synthesis (ATLAS) Lab, we are working on circular design concepts for 3D printing. We are exploring both the reuse of the materials used—either in other applications or in a truly circular manner within the same process—and novel “multi-material” design principles in which the modular use of a single building block is intended to produce multiple material properties.

Climate change comes with frequent and severe weather extremes, which pose significant threat to global food security and ecosystem stability. Our research unit (CLIMERS) uses advanced satellite technologies to investigate how climate change affects Earth’s resources, with a particular focus on water and vegetation.

This talk will introduce:

• The technological principles behind satellite remote sensing, specifically how sensors measure reflected light and thermal radiation to track leaf water content, soil moisture, and plant stress.
• How satellite missions such as Sentinel-1, SMAP, MODIS and Landsat help us monitor and predict natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and wildfires, and how the “view from the sky” is necessary for global environmental monitoring.
• The importance of water cycle and the role of soil in maintaining agricultural resilience in the face of climate change.
• The application of satellite-derived indices,  such as Soil Moisture Index Anomaly, NDVI, and VOD for agricultural and ecological assessments. 
   

The ongoing climate crisis drives rapid environmental changes that urgently demand precise observation and measurement. In our research unit, Geophysics, we use geophysical methods to look from the surface deep into the subsurface of the Earth and its processes. In this talk, we will focus on how we can improve our understanding of temperature and ice content in high-alpine environments using geophysical methods with a particular focus on:

• The technological basics behind the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), which is a method to measure the electrical conductivity of the subsurface in an imaging framework.
• How the electrical properties of rocks and sediments change under freezing conditions and the formation of ice.
• How the ERT method can be applied to image the inner of permafrost features, like ground ice found in frozen bedrock and active rock glaciers, or to map variations in water content and other hydrological properties.
   

Based on the well-known situation—namely, the sharp rise in carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution—this paper discusses the decarbonization of industrial process heat supply. After presenting various heat storage concepts (sensible heat storage, latent heat storage, and thermochemical heat storage), the latter is examined in greater detail, and current research in this area is reported. Drawing on several ongoing research projects on heat storage, the discussion addresses the challenges of international interdisciplinary research initiatives while also highlighting the enormous potential for innovation.