About

/Petra Gruber

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Petra Gruber
Head of Department, Professor
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Petra Gruber is a researcher and educator in architecture and biodesign. She holds a PhD in “Biomimetics in Architecture” from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria and worked internationally on three continents in inter- and transdisciplinary design, research, and education, at the intersection of biology, architecture, and art. She taught CAD, studio design, building construction and vernacular architecture at the Vienna University of Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At the University of Applied Sciences in Villach she co-designed and taught in the program “Bionics in Energy Systems”. She was a research fellow at the Center for Biomimetics at The University of Reading, UK. In her own office “transarch” she has been leading research projects in traditional architecture and on spatial and functional aspects of biological structures for biomimetic innovation in architecture and the built environment.

From 2012-2015 she held a long-term visiting professorship at the Ethiopian Institute for Architecture, Building Construction and City Development EiABC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, leading the Chair for Architectural Design, and designed and implemented the first master program in architecture in the country. From 2016-2021 she was Associate Professor for Biodesign at the Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center BRIC at The University of Akron, US. Since her return to Austria in 2021 she was a senior researcher at Hochschule Rhein-Waal in Germany and the University of Applied Arts, Vienna with the project “Biocool” on self-cooling biomimetic building facades. From 2021-2023 she was program expert for the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG. Her work has been published widely in books, journals, exhibitions, and documentary films. She holds lectures and workshops worldwide and acts as reviewer for scientific journals and funding organizations. In October 20223 she joined the University of Applied Arts in Vienna as a professor and department head for building construction. Complete list of publications: ResearchGate ORCID

Research Projects

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24. November 2024
New Publication
Auditorium of the University of Applied Arts Vienna Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, 1030 Vienna Circular Strategies Symposium happening on October 10th & 11th 2024. The Fifth Circular Strategies Symposium addresses the timely, critical theme of post-disaster contexts
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New Publication
Auditorium of the University of Applied Arts Vienna Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7
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New Publication
Auditorium of the University of Applied Arts Vienna Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, 1030 Vienna Circular Strategies Symposium happening on October 10th & 11th 2024. The Fifth Circular Strategies Symposium addresses the timely, critical theme of post-disaster contexts
Bild 1
24. November 2024
New Publication
Auditorium of the University of Applied Arts Vienna Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, 1030 Vienna Circular Strategies Symposium happening on October 10th & 11th 2024. The Fifth Circular Strategies Symposium addresses the timely, critical theme of post-disaster contexts
Books
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
Articles
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
Lectures
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
Exhibitions
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014
January 2024

Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design, 2024

Petra Gruber (book chapter), P. Gruber: "Survival Perspectives on Cohabitation by Design" in: B. Imhof, D. Mitterberger and T. Derme (Eds.) Co-Corporeality of Humans, Machines, & Microbes. De Gruyter, 2022, DOI: 10.1515/9783035625882-014