GBS 2024 – it’s a wrap!

Green.Building.Solutions. Summer University 2024 has come to an end on Saturday August 3 with a wonderful final celebration in TUtheSky in Vienna! This edition was hosting the highest number of GBS students ever – with 60 participants from 28 nations such as France, Canada, Serbia, Italy, China, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sweden, Ireland and many more.

For the past three weeks the students have immersed themselves into sustainable architecture, passive house technology and green building design, ending with presenting their final designs for an energy efficient, circular and sustainable residential housing development near the Danube. After the graduation ceremony the students, team and guests celebrated with wine and seasonal organic food. Congratulations to all for successfully taking part and for creating excellent results under very tight conditions!

GBS kicked off on Sunday, July 14 with an introduction, a brunch and some get-together activities in Prater. The Grand Opening Event of GBS and AEMS has taken place in the Kuppelsaal at TU Wien – it was a great celebration with more than 200 guests! Read the full article here.

This year’s program included a high range of different topics: We gained insights into passive house development, learned about energy planning and positive energy districts as well as about social sustainability. We were taught about circular building and gained great insights into photovoltaics, solar technologies, heating & cooling and more! We had a lecture on BIM, smart cities and geothermic energy and its application. Other topics included climate adaptation, LCA and indoor & outdoor comfort. Also, we deep dived into alternative building materials, wood construction and greening of buildings, as well as a special topic was greywater reuse in residential buildings.

Highlights included excursions such as the passathon ending up in Aspern Seestadt after a visit of OeAD student housings’ GreenHouse and Popup dorms, the City Intelligence Lab at Austrian Institute of Technology, a guided tour in Bike and Rails passive house in Sonnwendviertel as well as the unique light lab at Danube University Krems and the community housing project Auenweide in St. Andrä-Wördern. Students enjoyed offers such as sports evening, waltzing lessons and a typical Austrian dinner at a “Heurigen”.

Together with the AEMS a panel discussion about “What are the leverages for a social-ecological transformation?”, and a movie night screening "Outgrow the system" by Cecilia Paulsson were organized. Read more about the public events.

Finally, our students now have some time to stay in Vienna and do sightseeing – before they go back to their home countries with fresh insights, new experiences and a lot of know-how to apply!

We are grateful for every single expert and lecturer, sponsor and university partner, who contributed. With your support, we are able to highlight important issues and work towards innovative and sustainable solutions for a better built environment. Thank you for your dedication and for a wonderful collaboration - also to all our students! This made the 14th GBS a unique summer experience for everybody!