He was born in Dölsach, East Tyrol, initially trained as a carpenter, and studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Wolfgang Tschapeller has taught as a visiting professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, the University of Art and Design in Linz, Austria, and the State University of New York in Buffalo, as well as other academic institutions. In 2004/2005, he was the McHale Fellow at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Since 2005, he has been a professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and as of 2012 he is the head of the Institute of Art and Architecture.