The Media Architecture Institute is a non-profit organisation designed to complement the work of established universities and research institutions with a flexible but very focused research activity linking industry, education and academia together.

Founded in fall 2009 by Dr Gernot Tscherteu, Dr Oliver Schürer, DI Wolfgang Leeb and Dr Martin Tomitsch, the Institute continues the work of the Media Architecture Group that co-organised theMedia Architecture Conference London 2007 and the Media Facades Festival Berlin 2008 – in particular the conference and the exhibition.

In 2010 the Media Architecture Institute organised the Media Facades Summit 2010 in Frankfurt and the Media Architecture Biennale 2010 in Vienna.

In 2011 the Media Architecture Institute was expanded from its European base in Vienna to a second office in Sydney where Dr M. Hank Haeusler and Dr Martin Tomitsch are responsible for the Australasian region. Vienna remained responsible for the European / American region with Ben Stricker and Tobias Ebsen joining the Institute in 2012.

In April 2012 the Media Architecture Institute organised the 2nd Media Facades Summit 2012 in Frankfurt as part of the Light and Building Exhibition hosted at the Städelschule. In November 2012 the Institute together with Aarhus University’s CAVI organised the Media Architecture Biennale 2012 in Aarhus.