The Urban Sustainability Living Lab (USLL) serves as an exchange and communication platform focused on sustainable urban development. It actively supports the transition to sustainable city societies by integrating knowledge generated through research, teaching, and collaboration with various urban stakeholders.
The USLL is part of the Urban Studies working group at the Institute for Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna. The focus is on the analysis and design of interactions between social, ecological and technical processes in the city.
The city is viewed and understood as a system. The thematic focus is on urban sustainability transformations, urban social-spatial transformations, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), transdisciplinarity, smart and circular cities and urban ecosystem services.
Together with a wide range of actors from the urban context, such as city administrations, private and non-profit companies and civil society, we develop integrative solutions for the development of sustainable urban societies. The focus is on context-specific challenges and the potential of cities to contribute to global sustainability. Both research and teaching are inter- and transdisciplinary. Comparative studies are carried out in European and Latin American cities.
The work of the USLL
The approach of the USLL is inter- and transdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary addresses the multi-layered human-environment-technology interactions in urban spaces by bringing together complementary scientific fields. Transdisciplinary means identifying and addressing real-world problems together with urban stakeholders from politics, administration, the private sector and civil society through co-creative and co-productive processes and activities. The methods and approaches required for this are constantly being developed in close interaction between research, teaching and practical application.
The focus of the USLL is therefore on networking, the mutual learning of actors and processes, and the development of concrete solutions. The USLL is based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The USLL is implemented and further developed by the “Urban Studies” working group. It is an active knowledge platform at the Department for Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna (Austria).
USLL researchers work with students on the sustainability of cities around the world in various courses. This continuously updated map shows the cities that have been represented by students in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Urban Studies (4CITIES) in recent years and were the subject of their sustainability analyses.
By clicking on the individual city icons on the interactive map, you can find out what the students have discovered about the current challenges facing cities, their transformation processes and the SDGs.
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May 18, 2026Excursion: Housing in the Context of Social Transformations
As part of the field trip for the semesters' topic, “Housing in the Context of Social Transformations,” in May 2026, 23 bachelor's and master's students in geography discussed current trends in the Vienna housing market with course instructors Yvonne Franz and Elisabeth Gruber. Through on-site visits and input from experts, Vienna was analyzed as an international showcase for social housing. -
April 21, 2026
Circle U. Climate Day 2026
This year’s Circle U. Climate Day on April 22 at University of Vienna focuses on climate adaptation. The Circle U. Climate Day is an initiative of the Circle U. Knowledge Hub on Climate and takes place simultaneously across all nine partner universities of the Circle U. Alliance. At the University of Vienna, the event is organised by Circle U. Climate Chair Kerstin Krellenberg and the Urban Sustainability Living Lab (USLL). The second edition of the Climate Day highlights a diverse range of student perspectives on how climate adaptation is currently experienced at the University of Vienna and how it could evolve in the future. These perspectives were collected in the lead-up to the event by engaging with students across different study programmes and university locations. -
April 8, 2026
Visiting Now: Guest Professor Harutyun Vermishyan from Yerevan State University – Afterlives of Soviet Industrial Urban Structures
The Urban Sustainability Living Lab is proud to announce that Dr Harutyun Vermishyan (Yerevan State University YSU) will join the Department of Geography and Regional Research as a Guest Professor (Research) in April and May 2026.
