Department of Digital Architecture and Planning, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Founded in 1815, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) was the first University of Technology within present-day German-speaking Europe. Today, it comprises eight faculties including Architecture and Planning, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Sciences, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Mathematics and Geoinformation, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Physics. The research department of Digital Architecture and Planning is part of the institute of architectural science at the faculty of architecture and planning. The department links architecture, urban planning and computer science. This includes research foci on performance-oriented design and on architecture and environment integration

Michael U. Hensel (Dip. Ing. Grad Dip Des AA PhD) is professor and head of the research department Digital Architecture and Planning at Vienna University of Technology, as well as board member of the Centre for Geometry and Computational Design. Hensel and his team focus on developing an approach to architecture and environment integration entitled Embedded Architectures, which is located at the intersection of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, climatology, ecology, and computer and data science. He is a registered architect and partner in OCEAN Architecture | Environment. He was a co-founder of the international network practice OCEAN in 1994, and was partner in OCEAN NORTH and founding and acting chairperson of OCEAN Design Research Association. He is steering board member of LamoLab Research Center and series editor of the Springer Nature Series Designing Environments. He authored numerous books including Performance-oriented Architecture (Wiley, 2013), Grounds and Envelopes with Jeffrey Turko (Routledge, 2015), The Changing Shape of Architecture and The Changing Shape of Architecture with Fredrik Nilsson (Routledge, 2016, 2019).
Contact: michael.hensel@tuwien.ac.at

Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel (BA Hons AA Dip MSc EmTech PhD) is currently post-doctoral researcher at Vienna University of Technology. She is a registered architect and partner in OCEAN Architecture | Environment. She is coordinating manager and steering board member of LamoLab Research Center and series editor of the Springer Nature Series Designing Environments. Previously she worked at renowned practices, including Tabanlioğlu Architects in Istanbul and Buro Happold’s Generative Geometry Group in London. Her work and research focuses on integrative and adaptive architectural design aiming for novel and hybrid building types, especially in green construction with focus on urban ecosystem functions and urban food production. Furthermore, she focuses on design methodology, especially on design computing, data-driven design and innovative design decision support systems.

Jakub Tyc is an architect, university assistant and doctoral candidate at the Department for Digital Architecture and Planning at Vienna University of Technology. Coming into academia from practice, he worked previously on diverse projects in Europe and Asia, many of which have been constructed. Jakub studied at the Technical University in Kraków and Technical University Delft. He completing internships at CoopHimmelb(l)au and L-A-V-A Berlin during his studies. After practicing at Ingenhoven architects for three years and completing his architect license in Germany, he moved to Vienna to join the team of Delugan Meissl Associated Architects. In 2019 he joined the Department of Digital Architecture and Planning of Vienna University of Technology, teaching design studio with Professor Michael Hensel. He researches the relations between architecture and photogrammetry in the context of data-driven design, investigating data-driven processes to evaluate relations between buildings, their surroundings and the environment.