The Institute's teaching and research focusses on architecture as material culture in a historical dimension. The focus is not only on the building itself, but also on all instruments for conveying architecture, i.e. architectural drawings, photography, models and other new media. Basic historical knowledge of the history of building and urban development from antiquity to postmodernism is taught. Buildings and cities are understood as artefacts that have an aesthetic life of their own as well as being shaped by a variety of influences. The social, political, economic, socio-cultural, material and technical conditions to which architecture and urban planning are subject to, are understood as factors that influence architecture in various ways. Such conditions reflect in architecture and urban development as well as have a retroactive effect on the built environment. The task of the subject is to visualise these processes using historical examples.