In the summer semester of 2024, the department of 'Digital Design Methods' in collaboration with the department of 'Building History' is offering the project 'Modification and Extension - Excavation House Petra'. The project focuses on the existing excavation house located on the site of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, which is to be expanded with an extension. The house is situated on a slope, directly next to the main temple of the former Nabatean city, and after a period of being unoccupied, is intended to again serve as a base for scientists researching the archaeological site. The original building was constructed by the British archaeologist George Horsfield and Agnes Conway in the 1930s, later renovated and expanded over the years. It was primarily built using local building materials and offers an impressive view of the excavation site. The project also includes the planning of an adjacent open space that harmoniously integrates into the hilly landscape.

Two students are envisaged to work on the thesis topic. They will have the opportunity to visit the excavation site in person for four weeks in March and actively participate in the excavations and surveys. During this, digital methods of location and building survey will be applied. All costs for accommodation, meals, and travel will be covered by the department of Building History.

If interested, send an email to Prof. Vukorep with your previous projects in a PDF.

From 12-19 April, Anatolii Kotov and Rolf Starke held a tutorship at the Kotydz Mood of Wood workshop in Poland. The aim of this year's workshop was to give students from Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and other countries the opportunity to design and build wooden cat houses. The designs of the houses incorporated both, a sustainable material/production approach and sufficient temperature/weather protection for the cats.

This WiSe 2022/23 semester, our department explored the concept of "Sentient Architecture." Emphasizing the blend of machine learning and design, the course introduced students to the application of intelligence in architecture.

The main focus of the course was to impart the idea of integrating 'intelligence' into common architectural elements. Students experimented with providing intrustic behaviour to walls, furniture, stairs, and more. The goal was to shift the perception of these elements from mere static objects to dynamic, learning entities internal requirements and capabilities of transformation.

The architecture students of the first semester took part in a one-week workshop at the beginning of the winter semester 22/23. Our studio dealt with frottage, folding and plaster casting. They learned to experiment with different textures and surfaces, to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface, to create complex shapes with simple materials, to abstract spatial structures in two dimensions, to deal with plaster, formwork and solid and void. We would like to thank Stephan Kaiser from the Department of Fine Arts and Kay-Alexander Michalczack from the Medienwerkstatt for the support.

On November 9th we visited the largest European system construction company "Goldbeck" at their location in Bielefeld as part of the master design project "Analysis-based design of a housing settlement". In addition to the company tour and specialist lectures on the system construction of residential buildings, we were also able to visit a construction site nearby and get a direct insight into system-based construction site processes.

As part of the annual summer tour and the 30th anniversary of the Institute for Architecture, students built a dome with the help of robots. Two robots for the beverage service were parked in the dome.

In the Fürst-Pückler-Park in Bad Muskau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004, a contemporary exhibition building is to be built in addition to the historic castle ensemble. For this purpose, students developed several designs that were to be embedded in the historic castle ensemble and in the park landscape.

In September 2021, a one-week excursion took 25 students and Prof. Ilija Vukorep to Wroclaw, Prague, Brno and Vienna on the trail of modern architecture from the 1920s to the present day. All cities marked important steps towards an innovative and worldwide new definition of architecture. The students created a brochure and presented individual projects by Erich Mendelson, Hans Scharoun, Adolf Rading, Max Berg, Joze Plecnik, Stanislav Bechyne, Adolf Loos, Bochuslav Fuchs, Mies van der Rohe, Ernst Wiesner and many more.

In order to explore space for scientific and economic purposes from German territory, a spaceport on Helgoland is planned as part of the master's thesis. The building is intended to serve as the base for floating launch platforms in the sea and accomodates offices, a missile hall, a control station and a viewing platform.

The irst semester design project dealt with the architectural interpretation of a self-chosen art-related topic. A room should be designed whose effect deals with a previously analyzed topic of art.

This course is focused on the basic and intermediate knowledge base on parametric modeling with Rhino/Grasshopper and Python in the architecture field. One of the key goals of this semester was to develop a tool, that can be used in other applications such as other courses, competitions, etc. 

This workshop was held online on eCAADe 2020 by Anatolii Kotov. Its main topic was a complex interaction between IoT connected systems such as robots, computers, and hardware components.

This course was aimed to provide a basic and intermediate knowledge base on parametric modeling with Rhino/Grasshopper and Python in the architecture field. Students will develop knowledge of the pros and cons of each tool.

The work deals with a structural design for a pavilion with a convertible, bending-active roof structure. The space-forming supporting structure should demonstrate stable load-bearing behavior in the open and closed state as well as a stable movement sequence during the transformation.

A competition on the topic of floating settlements on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam was organized in cooperation with the Institute for Floating Structures and Ho Chi Minh University. At the end of September, a series of events on the topic of floating structures and the final jury were held in several cities in Vietnam.

The master's thesis of Alexander Melcher develops a rule based system for the construction of a spatial structure based on the model of bone growth. This has been examined for its load-bearing capacity using simulation studies and further optimized using the control system. The development is implemented with the help of Rhino 3D, Grasshopper, Karamba and own scripts.