Building construction and design

Mission statement: Building construction and design

Structural design methods

Designing and constructing is a process. Construction is not only the continuation of design, but an essential component of design, in that architecture, spaces and uses are also conceived in terms of material presence, structure and joining, as well as in the processes of construction, maintenance and deconstruction.
The basis for research and teaching in the field of 'Building Construction and Design' is a building construction design method that leads from the specific to the general, i.e. from the material, its joining and the resulting structure and spatial formation, to the building form. This approach is an alternative to the widespread design methods that derive conclusions from the large scale (urban planning, building form) to the small scale (construction, details, material). In architectural discourse, the term 'design' refers to an activity with a high creative component. In general usage, the term 'draft' is used in a broader sense, similar to the English word 'design' or 'draft', which denotes something unfinished (in English, 'draft' is not covered by the term 'design'). For the architect, it can also have this meaning of 'unfinished', but at the same time the draft is also the (finished) result and therefore the highest stage of development in the process. Accordingly, the widespread design process begins on a large, urban planning scale and works its way through ever smaller scales to the precise formulation of the spaces and finally the construction and details.
This approach is not only found in the design projects at architecture schools around the world, but is also anchored in the process descriptions of professional associations, fee regulations and statutes that govern the procedure and scope of architectural practice. The progression from large scale to small detail is probably the most widespread model for structuring complex work processes beyond architecture. It provides an overview of possible solutions and allows their value to be assessed, compared and, if necessary, corrected before the entire process has to be completed. However, this pragmatic procedure has consequences for the planning processes and the discipline as a whole: in general, the grand urban gestures and impressive images of the projects are usually valued from the outside. This perception often neglects the issues of construction, durability and sustainability, but also the inherent qualities for the users of the cities and buildings. It is even more pronounced in the general public than in specialist discourse. Only in exceptional cases are projects picked up by the media that do not make use of a corresponding visual language, but stand out through construction, material or even social processes.

Holistic approach to sustainable design and construction

It is up to us and future generations to solve the biggest problem humanity has ever faced: our way of life and economic system are not only leading to the destruction of nature and our own livelihoods, but also to the ultimate destruction of the habitats of many other living beings with whom we share the planet. For architects researching and practicing, this means that we have to radically rethink and rework the way we build every day. The goal of university education as a whole, but especially in the field of building construction and design, must be to prepare the coming generations of architects for this great task and to equip them with the right questions and methods with the knowledge that will allow them to work on future-proof solutions for sustainable cities and buildings throughout their careers.
The challenge of architecture is to reconcile the increasing demand for living space, production areas and infrastructure with the limited resources and regenerative capacity of ecosystems. Due to the large proportion of resources consumed and the high potential for optimization in the construction sector, the discipline can make a major contribution to defusing the conflict of objectives between the growth paradigm and sustainable development.
For the future, it is therefore necessary to research how existing cities and infrastructures can be transformed in the 21st century in such a way that they meet the demand without endangering the basis of life on the planet. To this end, the 'Building Construction and Design' department develops technical solutions (new construction methods) and new design methods, building and usage typologies that enable new forms and practices of working, living and urban culture. Sustainability means living up to our responsibility towards the environment and future generations.
Building construction is underestimated as a factor in the sustainability of buildings. The energy consumption of older buildings is mainly a result of their operation, the optimization of which has dominated specialist discourse and legislation. But even today, the construction of most new buildings contains more energy than their operation consumes over their life cycle. This is why building construction is the future topic of sustainable building. This results in the following requirements:

Reduction of emissions and the impact of the materials used,
increasing the proportion of renewable raw materials and / or recycled materials,
durable, robust and adaptable constructions and buildings,
circular construction, dismantling capability, separation by type and reusability of components.

The question of how to integrate aspects of sustainability into design and planning processes is the most important and interesting challenge in the current architectural discourse. The issues of structural sustainability, such as how buildings can be planned in such a way that they can be dismantled in a non-destructive and economical manner and the raw materials can be reused, have so far been dealt with too little in research and teaching. Energy consumption and sustainability can often be optimized more effectively with low-tech design and construction strategies based on the building design and a suitable building structure than with technology-driven high-tech solutions.