(b Wolfsberg, 2 March 1931). Austrian architect and theorist. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, where he attended Lois Welzenbacher’s masterclass (1950–53). During this period Uhl designed a room for worship, in which worshippers would be able to arrange the Catholic liturgy according to their needs. Processes such as this, whereby fixed hierarchical structures are broken down, subsequently became important in his work, for example the Demontable Kirche (1963), Siemensstrasse, Vienna. The restorational development following the second Vatican Council in 1963 resulted in the ending of a series of commissions of this nature. Thereafter he turned his interests more to housing. Here he had the opportunity of publishing works on participatory processes in architecture, supported by the Austrian government, which passed a law (1968) requiring the approval of designs by future occupiers of buildings. In 1973 Uhl became Professor of Planning and Design in the Architectural Faculty of Karlsruhe University, but he retained his architectural office in Vienna and links with the SAR Team in Eindhoven and Austrian colleagues in order to study the possibility of building flats and even designing towns with a minimum of predetermined structural elements. Uhl was convinced that an architectonic response to the changing needs of the users, in other words process-oriented planning, is a socio-political necessity for the emancipation of the underprivileged. Two examples of his work in this field are the residential developments ‘Wohnen mit Kindern’ (1984), Jeneweingasse, Vienna, and Gemeinschaft BROT (1990), Geblergasse 78, Vienna. His rejection of authoritarian methods echoed the work of Emil Steffann (1899–1968) and Josef Frank (1885–1967) and his use of structural systems that of Konrad Wachsmann, whom he met at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg. Unlike the latter, however, he did not wish to make decisions himself but to leave planning and responsibility to others. This reflected his view of a new role for architects, involving mainly delegation and publication. He received several awards, including the Preis der Stadt Wien für Architektur (1973).