The many housing estates of detached houses in Austria built in the times of economic crisis between the wars and post-war as part of publicly funded housing programmes are the starting point for this research project. The aim is to offer detailed guidelines with basic planning principles for the renovation of these housing estates with detached houses, aiming to reach the standard of a low-energy house or a passive house.

theoretical topics: Optimization of natural light, ambient humidity and of private exterior space, planted over buildings, evaluation of the energetic performance and special challenges of large volume "Passivhaus" residential buildings. applied research: concept for the renovation of a 13 storey residential building for senior citizens built in 1974 to PassivHaus standards, applying the results attained in the theoretical part.

Project on research and implementation for ecological and energy efficient concepts, urban redevelopment and building refurbishment. Performance of a routing project on a former ter-ritory of the Austrian armed forces in Steyr.

Potential of future development for industrially produced residential dwellings Enquiry on international tendencies in automated manufacturing and assessment of viable strategies for their implementation into the Austrian building sector

Detailed clarification of the base parameters of thermodynamic simulation calculations by means of on-location measurements on the five-storey double-skin facade of the Federal Institute of Social Education in Baden bei Wien

Evaluation of existing ventilation systems in Austria considering technical quality and practicability.

Designing quality standards for ecological refurbishment (based on E. Panzhauser's proposals, 2001); applying them to characteristic types of buildings systematically selected in diverse municipalities; the achieved results shall serve as good practice examples for future refurbishment and as basis of discussion on subsidy regulations.

Evaluation of best-practice models and recommendations to support dissemination

Research project on comfort and on the health and recreational value of passive houses

Commercial buildings of basic to medium standard are hardly ever designed by a high quality of innovative building services engineering. In the project Sunny research! a sustainable building design with high energy performance was developed. The aim was to adapt the aspects of Renewable Energy, thermal comfort and wellness in work.

Façade and Open Space Modernization with Standard Building Components in Housing of the Fifties und Sixties.

The purpose of the work is to analyze the possibilities of the reduction of the energy demand of residential buildings by using telecommunication technologies such as mobile phones or Internet. Lowering room and water temperature during the absence of the inhabitants are of particular relevance.

The aim of this study is to investigate the international research context of the programme "Building of Tomorrow" (with a focus on central, eastern and southern European countries) and to identify co-operation potentials.