Instructor(s): Prof. Christiane Weber

The lecture, which extends over 2 semesters, offers an introduction to the history of European architecture.

Instructor(s): Christian Vöhringer, Baris Wenzel

Frei Otto, one of the most important architects of the 20th century, has left a lasting mark on the world of architecture with his innovative and visionary buildings.

The Pritzker Prize winner and his team demonstrated 70 years ago with lightweight constructions how material-saving, precise and efficient construction is possible - a topic that seems more important than ever today. On the occasion of the upcoming 100th anniversary of his birth, his work will be re-examined and suitable, creative and effective communication strategies will be sought for next year's celebrations.

This seminar examines selected Frei Otto projects and their potential relevance to current challenges. In developing strategies for publicising the results, we would like to develop concepts for - for example - social media, websites, QR codes and apps, and work them out in an impromptu manner.

Instructor(s): Simon Paulus

With the title ‘World Heritage Site’, UNESCO recognises evidence of human cultural achievements that are particularly worthy of protection and preservation and that have an exceptional universal value for the whole of humanity. In most cases, these are architectural achievements that mark artistic or technological highlights in the history of human civilisation. It is therefore all the more remarkable that in the last two nomination rounds, two new World Heritage sites were added to the list, both of which are rather inconspicuous architectural testimonies: The relics of the once flourishing medieval Jewish culture in ‘Ashkenaz’ (the Jewish term for the original central settlement area of the communities in Germany), which have been preserved in Erfurt and in the so-called ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz.

Against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism, such cultural artefacts are particularly well suited to understanding and communicating Jewish history and culture as an integral and shared part of our society. Especially from the perspective of architecture and urban planning history, the examination of these cultural artefacts provides new perspectives on the development of our cities and the protagonists, mechanisms and processes that determined the development of the city and the emergence of the respective architectural phenomena. In the seminar, these phenomena will be examined and analysed more closely in the context of their development. Excursions are planned to Schwäbisch Gmünd and a visit to the World Heritage Sites in Erfurt, where it will be possible to vividly convey the close links between Jewish settlement and cultural history and the structure, architecture and topography of the city. Against this background, aspects of the ‘Critical Heritage Studies’ currently propagated in the specialist community will also be critically reflected upon and discussed.

Instructor(s): Dietlinde Schmitt-Vollmer

The aspects of collecting and exhibiting have changed over the course of history from the cabinet of curiosities, the private cabinet of curiosities, manorial collections to the bourgeois educational centre of the 19th century and today's event venue.

The seminar deals with the historical development of museum construction in the context of social changes and looks at the demands and possibilities of the conversion and further utilisation of existing architecture.

Museum buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries will be analysed under typological and technical aspects. How did these early ‘prototypes’ function and what social factors were behind the museum building boom of the late 20th century? Which developments are still relevant today?

Another focus is on the conversion of existing buildings into museums and the expansion of exhibition complexes. Examples include the Castelvecchio Museum by Carlo Scarpa, the Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, the Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron in London and the Ruhr Museum in the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex.

The seminar will also discuss spatial experiences, visitor guidance and exhibition concepts. 

Instructor(s): René Heusler, Maria Saum

The building turnaround challenges us to stop constructing new buildings and instead to utilise the potential of existing buildings. This presents architects with major challenges: How can we assess what a historic building can still achieve? What information do I need? Where can I find it? How do I organise the planning material? How do I recognise damage and what renovation measures are appropriate? In the seminar, we will try out methods of contemporary inventory recording (from Disto to 3D scans, from hand sketches to point clouds) and apply them to a historical building as part of a workshop lasting several days.  Excursions and guest lectures will provide an insight and overview of the current state of the art technology available to us today for recording existing buildings.

Instructor(s): Dietlinde Schmitt-Vollmer

The seminar deals with concepts of utopias in an architectural and urban planning context and looks at outstanding visionary architectural projects. The different approaches of these unrealised or built plans, which were intended to liberalise the coexistence of people in future communities or to regulate and control them more strongly through urban planning, will be discussed.

Beginning with the literary origins of Plato and Thomas Moore's ‘Utopia’, the seminar will focus on actually built planned cities of the Renaissance, such as Palma Nova, utopian living communities such as Charles Fourier's Phalanstère in the 19th century, the garden city concept of Ebenezer Howard, the Monte Veritá of the life reformers, Buckminster Fuller's plan to dome over Manhattan, The Walking City by Archigram, the Clusters in the Air by the metabolist Arata Isozaki and others.

Purely technically motivated visions of the future, dystopia and science fiction are also addressed and an attempt is made to relate them to current utopian approaches.

The lecture, which extends over 2 semesters, offers an introduction to the history of European architecture.

Prof Christiane Weber
Thursdays, 9:45 - 11:15 a.m.
Exam number: 49041

Breitscheidstr. 2A M202

1st date: 11.04.2024

Ulrike Plate, Stefan King, Stefan Uhl
Mondays: 3:45 - 6:45 p.m. Room 3.02
1st date: 08.04.24   

What is a monument? Why do we deal with it and how? Why is monument preservation a state task? What are its goals, what can we expect from it? What does it have to do with us? What contribution can heritage conservation make in a changing world? What does it have to do with building culture, environmental protection and sustainability? And how does it actually work: maintaining monuments? How do we as architects prepare a measure, what special features need to be taken into account?

We approach these and other questions from different angles in the seminar. We will look at the development of the concept of a monument, important manifestos of monument preservation, as well as legal and organisational issues. Recognising the construction, function and significance of a building is the ideal starting point for architects to repair or convert it. How do I research a monument? What methods are there for this? What special authorisations need to be observed, what funding is available? What can the actual handling of a listed building look like? Many questions relating to monument preservation are worked out and discussed together.

Dr.-Ing. Dietlinde Schmitt-Vollmer
Tuesdays 2:00 - 5:00 pm  Room  7.01
1st date: 09.04.24    

Dipl.-Ing. Benjamin Schmid
Tuesdas 09:45 a.m.  - 1:00 p.m.    Room 5.17
1st date: 10.04.2024

Dr.-Ing. Dietlinde Schmitt-Vollmer
Thursdays 9:45 a.m.  - 1:00 p.m.  Room 5.17
1st date: 11.04.24  

Dr. Roman Hillmann
Fridays 2:00  - 5:00 p.m. Room 5.17
1st date: 12.04.2024

The Berlin buildings of the Wilhelmine Empire and those of Neues Bauen after the First World War display a wide variety of genres and styles. They range from historicism to art nouveau and modernism. The seminar looks at the characteristics of these stylistically diverse buildings, which Posener described as ‘on the way to a new architecture’.

The course begins with learning analytical methods of description. These are suitable for coming much closer to the characteristics of the buildings than if one immediately says: ‘This is an Art Nouveau apartment block’ or jumps to conclusions.

The point is rather

to analyse the perception of the buildings
to analyse the effect of material, form and colour
for the composition of the components and the whole

which can then be used to analyse the architectural interpretation.

The seminar will initially deal theoretically with methods of analysis; the architectural analyses will be carried out on site. Each student will prepare for the excursion to a building. Both levels will be linked in the presentation and seminar paper: The object description with analysis of the effect of the buildings is followed by the architectural-historical contextualisation.

The seminar comprises four blocks:

The method is developed in Stuttgart.
Online excursion preparation
Friday-Sunday in Berlin with practical building analyses on site.
Online presentations to discuss the results.

Recommended literature:

- Julius Posener, Berlin auf dem Wege zu einer neuen Architektur. Das Zeitalter Wilhelms II., München und New York 1979

- Roman Hillmann, Detail – Bau – Raum. Fragen zur Erkenntnis moderner Architektur, in: Thorsten Scheer, Neues Bauen im Westen. 100 Jahre Bauhaus- Beiträge zum Verhältnis zwischen Avantgarde und Bauen in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Köln 2019 S. 117-155.

- Dickerman, Lea: Bauhaus Fundaments, in: Berry Bergdoll u. a.: Bauhaus. Workshop for Modernity, Ausstellungskatalog New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2009