From temporary to timeless: TU Wien thesis features RAVE.SPACE as a case study
A 135-page master's thesis at TU Wien analyses how temporary educational exhibitions can be sustainably extended into the digital realm — with RAVE.SPACE and our founder Frank Hahn as a core interview partner and industry reference for browser-based 3D learning environments.
When one of Europe's most prestigious technical universities publishes a 135-page master's thesis on how temporary exhibitions can be turned into lasting digital learning experiences, that is exciting in its own right. When that thesis picks Frank Hahn, founder and CEO of RAVE.SPACE, as one of two core interview partners and analyses our technology as an industry case study, we are particularly pleased.
Today we are sharing the master's thesis From Temporary to Timeless: Future Scenarios for Educational Exhibition Spaces by Raman Levoshka, submitted to the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at TU Wien, supervised by Senior Scientist Dr. Ulrike Herbig at the Institute of Art History, Building Archaeology and Restoration.
The full thesis is available for free download at the end of this post.
What is the thesis about?
Educational exhibitions have long been a central medium for transmitting knowledge, especially to young people. They make complex topics tangible, spark curiosity and create learning experiences that everyday school life often lacks. The problem: exhibitions of this kind are temporary. Once they are dismantled, the content, the experience and the carefully assembled didactic material are lost.
Levoshka frames the central question of his work as follows:
"How can temporary educational exhibitions be carried forward digitally in a way that keeps them effective beyond their physical lifecycle while meeting the expectations of a generation that grew up digitally?"
The case study is the Viennese programme Cultural Collisions, a five-year exhibition series at the intersection of science, technology, art and pedagogy, initiated by Michael Hoch and supported by institutions including the University of Applied Arts Vienna, mumok and the Technisches Museum Wien.
In the practical part, Levoshka develops a prototype that translates a physical exhibition station into a digital, gamified learning environment, including 3D scanning, interactive design and reward mechanics such as scoreboards and badges.
Why are we featured?
The work draws methodologically on two expert interviews. One with Michael Hoch (Cultural Collisions) and one with Frank Hahn (RAVE.SPACE). While Hoch contributes the didactic-curatorial perspective, Frank was asked to provide the industrial, technological view: how do browser-based virtual spaces work in practice? What is possible, what is not? Which methods suit which use cases?
The interview was conducted in a semi-structured format and coded thematically. In the main part of the thesis, Levoshka extracts the key insights from the conversation in chapter 4.2; the appendix carries the full Q&A across 13 questions (Q1 to Q13).
What the thesis pulls out of the interview
Browser-based technology as a sustainability strategy
Levoshka identifies RAVE.SPACE's strict commitment to browser-based rendering as a central differentiator. The proprietary RAVE ENGINE, built on WebGL, shifts the entire render load onto the user's device. From the thesis:
"From a methodological perspective, this design choice directly addresses issues of sustainability, accessibility, and scalability. The browser-based approach removes hardware barriers, functions across devices (desktop, mobile, VR), and avoids the environmental costs associated with continuous server-side rendering."
These are exactly the points we have been making in client conversations for years. Seeing them traced back and independently validated from an academic distance is worth a great deal.
Photogrammetry versus Gaussian Splatting
Levoshka dedicates a separate sub-chapter to a careful side-by-side of the two reconstruction methods, based on Frank's explanations of concrete projects (Skatehalle Berlin, outdoor skatepark). The methodological core insight he derives for his own work:
"The choice of reconstruction method must be driven by the intended interaction model, not by visual quality alone."
A statement the industry often weights incorrectly. If you need multiplayer with physics, photogrammetry serves you better. If you are after visually striking but static spaces, Gaussian Splatting is the more efficient route. The thesis helps structure that decision cleanly.
Real-world cases: DEKA, OnArt, Tiny House
Three of our projects are discussed in detail and documented with figures of their own (Figure 21 shows the DEKA HR case, Figure 22 the comparison of reconstruction methods using actual RAVE.SPACE data, Figure 23 the OnArt.io platform, Figure 24 the DEKA onboarding).
The DEKA Career Day in particular is cited as a sharp example of how immersive environments can serve entertainment, marketing and HR at the same time. Levoshka writes:
"The project illustrates how immersive environments can simultaneously serve entertainment, marketing, and HR objectives. Virtual spaces become multifunctional platforms, where engagement, information transfer, and evaluation processes coexist within a single spatial framework."
Content is king
The thesis picks up a Frank quote that has by now become something of an internal mantra:
"Something meaningful has to happen in virtual worlds. Content is king."
Levoshka distills one of his most important conclusions for his own prototype from this: passive exploration is not enough. Successful virtual learning spaces need active interaction, gamification and relevant content. Otherwise the experience stays on the surface.
Structural obstacles on the museum side
With unusual clarity for an academic work, Levoshka also surfaces our critical position on publicly funded museums. Institutional inertia, missing innovation incentives and risk aversion are named as the central barriers that have so far prevented real multiplayer art experiences in the museum context. It is not a comfortable statement, but it mirrors our lived experience.
Outlook: AI and modular infrastructure
In the future outlook, Levoshka quotes our position on AI integration:
"Anything that has an API can be integrated."
From this he concludes that browser-based immersive environments are well suited as flexible infrastructure for the future of digital learning, cultural mediation and collaborative work. This is exactly the direction in which we are systematically evolving the RAVE ENGINE.
Why is this interesting for you?
For cultural and educational decision-makers: The thesis is one of the few recent, methodologically rigorous treatments of how temporary exhibitions can be sustained digitally. Anyone working in museums, schools or science communication will find concrete workflows, tool comparisons and lines of argument here.
For tech leaders: Levoshka delivers a well-founded, independent assessment of the trade-offs between cloud rendering and browser-based client-side rendering. The ecological, financial and user-side implications are worked out in nuance, backed by industry experience and academic sources.
For the industry: It is rare for a thesis at a top university to use a German mid-market tech company as an equal industry reference alongside an established science programme. That is a notable signal that browser-based 3D experiences have arrived in serious academic discourse.
For us personally: It is a meaningful piece of external validation. When someone who does not work for us spends months engaging with our technology, our arguments and our projects, and arrives at conclusions that closely match our own convictions, that reinforces the path we are on.
Congratulations and thanks
We would like to congratulate Raman Levoshka warmly on the submission of his master's thesis. The work shows that the next generation of architects and designers understands educational spaces as hybrid, technologically considered and sustainably designed experiences. Exactly the kind of minds we need to seriously build the bridge between the physical world and digital deep dives in future.
Thank you, Raman, for the in-depth interview, the careful write-up, and the trust placed in our perspective.
Download
The full thesis (PDF, 135 pages, approx. 21 MB) is available here for download:
Author: Raman Levoshka, Matr.No. 11714931
Supervisor: Senior Scientist Dipl.-Ing.in Dr.in Ulrike Herbig
Submitted at: Vienna University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Planning
If the work resonates, a like, a repost or a comment would be very welcome. And if you are thinking about how your own educational, cultural or brand experience could be carried sustainably into the digital realm, get in touch.
Book a call directly: calendly.com/frankravespace