Abstract
The former University of Economics (UZA1) in Vienna represents one of the city’s most ambitious megastructures of the late 20th century. Today, the complex stands at a turning point: too large and rigid to function as intended, yet too significant to ignore. This studio will investigate strategies of architectural transformation through volumetric and structural interventions. Instead of replacing the existing, students will explore how new insertions can coexist with the old, generating a layered and symbiotic patchwork of spaces, programs, and atmospheres.

Design Proposal 
“Symbiotic Patchwork” describes an architectural approach in which new spatial systems coexist with existing structures, forming layered and interdependent environments. In this studio, patchwork is not understood as collage or decoration, but as systematic occupation: working within an existing grid, extending it, interrupting it, and transforming it through architectural means.

Students will explore how architectural space can be generated by:
● inhabiting repetitive structural systems
● working through subtraction, infill, and connection
● negotiating between old and new spatial orders

 Design Methodology
● Structural and Spatial Analysis: mapping existing grids, volumes, flows, and latent potentials.
● Programmatic Integration: Introducing simple collective programs (such as learning, working, or making) that support spatial clarity and architectural legibility.
● Spatial Occupation: Exploration of architectural interventions through subtraction, infill, layering, and connection within the existing framework.
● Iterative Development: Refining proposals through continuous feedback, moving from conceptual models to precise architectural definition.
● Synthesis: Embedding the intervention within the existing building as a symbiotic architectural system, where structure, space, and program are inseparable.