Basehabitat

BASEhabitat is a studio and branch of study at the University of Art and Design's department of architecture, located in Linz, Austria. Founded in 2004, it is committed to planning, designing and building with sustainable, locally available materials and building techniques. A likewise focus of BASEhabitat is a close cooperation with local communities, NGOs and experts from the field. Overall, the studio pursues a socially responsible approach to planning and architecture, tackling inequality, injustice and exclusion form local to global scales. Many of BASEhabitat's projects are placed in rural areas of the Global South. However, the studio's efforts are also directed to respective challenges in urban areas as well as to Europe. Rather than merely training development architects, BASEhabitat intends to raise awareness among young architects for the processes communities' and individuals' environments are affected by. As much as sustainability, functionality and aesthetics are important, an understanding of different socio-economic circumstances and various influences on space-producing processes are central to BASEhabitat's work. Since October 2018, BASEhabitat offers a Master in architecture with a focus on the priorities outlined above. In addition, Prof. Dr. Atteneder also offers supervision for PhD research projects in the respective fields. BASEhabitat also offers a Postgraduate Master in architecture, accepting professionals from the field of architecture, who have already gained working experience but would like to commit themselves to the challenges addressed by BASEhabitat.