Student Services, Department of Architecture

The turn of the year at exactly 12:00 a.m. and the days “between the years” mark a societal threshold between a state of emergency and a moment of pause. While New Year’s Eve is characterized by noise, particulate matter, and consumerism, it simultaneously intensifies the feeling of isolation among people without social connections. For this reason, this impromptu project aims to develop a transitional space that translates the temporal moment of 12:00 a.m. into an architectural experience.
The focus is on designing a temporary pavilion at a prominent vantage point or hub in Siegen (e.g., on the bastions of the Upper Castle or on the banks of the Sieg River). The design should address the theme of the threshold and create spaces that work with the interplay of light, shadow, acoustics, and visual relationships. On New Year’s Eve, the structure serves as a shelter and gathering space, offering a meaningful, low-stimulus, and consumption-free alternative to the traditional New Year’s Eve festivities.
In addition, the plan incorporates a dramatic narrative of passage: The path through the building symbolizes a farewell to the past and an entry into the new. Materials and construction are chosen so that the structure functions as a temporary installation and creates a powerful symbolic impact within the urban landscape.
The goal of the design is to develop an architectural solution that gives physical form to the fleeting moment of transition at 12:00 a.m., facilitates social participation on New Year’s Eve, and creates a critical counterpoint to superficial festive culture.

Public restrooms are a fundamental part of public services, yet their absence gradually drives people out of public spaces. For this reason, this workshop aims to develop a needs-based and accessible restroom infrastructure for Siegen.
The focus is on planning a freestanding small structure with 10 to 20 square meters of usable space, derived directly from an autoethnographic mapping of physical experiences. The design addresses emotional and social aspects such as privacy, shame, gender, accessibility, and hygiene.
In addition, the planning includes the selection of an underserved location within the city as well as the design of access, lighting, visibility at night, and operational procedures.
The goal of the design is to develop a spatial solution that eliminates exclusion from urban space, strengthens participation in public life, and creates a dignified and safe service offering.

Fashion and architecture share the common principle of shaping protective shells for the human body—a symbiosis that historically culminated in the constructivist costumes of the Bauhaus and the legendary Beaux-Arts balls, where architects appeared as their own architectural creations. For this reason, this impromptu project aims to develop a wearable micro-architecture in which the built model, on a 1:1 scale, is worn directly on the body and presented as part of a performative costume party.
The focus is on the design methodology of pattern-making and assembly: architectural elements such as folding, framing, support grids, or membranes are translated into a wearable envelope system. The object must function both in motion on the body and possess the ability to define an independent space within the venue through unfolding, removal, or stretching.
In addition, the design includes the dramatic staging of the object within the party venue. The interplay of light, tactile sensation, body posture, and spatial effect is coordinated in such a way that the boundary between the identity of the wearer and the identity of the space becomes blurred.
The goal of the design is to make the liminal space between fashion and architecture tangibly experiential, to transform the traditional presentation format into a collective spatial experience, and to make the body itself the primary scale of design.

Cultural institutions face the challenge of reaching new audiences and bringing culture directly into everyday urban life. For this reason, this impromptu project aims to develop a flexible, architecturally and scenographically designed spatial concept for a mobile theater housed in a truck.
The focus is on transforming a standard truck cargo bed into a versatile performance space for the Bruchwerk Theater. The design encompasses both the interior layout of the cargo area and its spatial extension into the outdoor space. Through the use of hinged, folding, or sliding elements, the truck is intended to quickly form a visible spatial boundary at the performance site (e.g., a market square or parking deck), defining the boundaries between the stage, backstage, and the audience area.
In addition, the design addresses the materials and lighting of the structure to create an intimate, atmospheric theatrical setting using simple means, while also meeting transportation requirements.
The goal of the design is to develop a spatial design solution that achieves maximum impact in public space with minimal logistics and transforms the truck from a mere means of transport into a temporary venue for cultural encounters.

The transformation of city centers is increasingly leaving behind large, vacant structures, while architectural education and construction practice urgently need practical models for circular construction. For this reason, as part of this four-week short design course, each student develops and builds an independent golf station realized on a 1:1 scale using reused building materials (urban mining).
The focus is on the physical construction of the module: using materials such as reclaimed wood, metal profiles, scaffolding parts, or construction debris, students create a fully playable station constructed with circular joining techniques that allow for non-destructive disassembly. Only through the arrangement and spatial interplay of all the students’ individual projects does the project evolve into a cohesive, public mini-golf course within a selected vacant space.
In addition, the planning involves coordinating the interfaces between the individual stations, making use of the existing building topography (ramps, niches, differences in elevation), and developing a simple logistics and dismantling concept.
The goal of the design is to make the principle of the circular economy tangibly experiential through 1:1-scale construction, to playfully reactivate vacant spaces, and to transform collaborative design into a visible building block of the city.

What if a bridge didn’t just connect two banks, but became a place in its own right—a place to live, work, and linger? The Ponte Vecchio, the Rialto Bridge, and the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt show that inhabited bridges have been part of European cities for centuries. In the 20th century, the bridge became purely a transportation structure—something you cross, not a place you visit. 

Design a livable bridge for the site of the Severinsbrücke in Cologne. The initial assumption is the demolition and reconstruction of the bridge; renovation and expansion of the existing structure are also conceivable and must be justified. You decide what remains of the supporting structure, location, and history, and transform the bridge from a passageway into a place to linger.

For more information, visit https://moodle.uni-siegen.de/course/view.php?id=41161
(Available starting November 9, 2026)

Skyscrapers are every architect’s ultimate dream: soaring high above the city, offering a view, and serving as a landmark visible from afar. High-density building designs have many advantages: they take up a minimum of space and create a sense of urbanity that would be almost unimaginable on a larger scale. Traditionally, however, high-rises are conceived only on a large scale and with a large footprint. 

With the Stegreif Mini Highrise, you will design a residential high-rise for the vacant lot at Holzmarkt in Cologne that blends into the established fabric of the historic city center. There are no restrictions on height: it depends on your design and must be justified by you. You will not be working with a typology or a predefined, static concept, but rather with AI as an iterative design method: You will specifically translate design ideas, urban planning and architectural concepts, and design principles into visuals, evaluate the results, and refine the design step by step.

For more information, visit https://moodle.uni-siegen.de/course/view.php?id=41161
(Available starting November 16, 2026)

Living in the city and owning a home: For many, having both is a dream that only a few can make a reality. New developments are usually built on the outskirts of town, yet many people prefer the vibrancy of the city center to the uniformity of the suburbs. The mini-house combines the best of both worlds: a small, private home on a vacant lot right in the heart of the city. The small footprint turns a necessity into a virtue: quality is achieved through the vertical layering and unfolding of the spaces; what is spread out horizontally in multi-story apartment buildings is developed vertically in the mini-house. The missing garden is replaced by a rooftop terrace, loggia, or courtyard. 

With the impromptu “Minihouse My Love” project, you will design a mini-house on a vacant lot in Siegen’s Oberstadt district, with a maximum buildable footprint of 60 m². You will identify the vacant lot yourself (vacant-lot safari; see “Where?”) and design a house that blends into the established fabric of the old town and takes its neighbors, the street, and the slope seriously. You will not be working with a typology or a predefined, static concept, but rather with AI as an iterative design method: You will specifically translate design ideas, urban planning and architectural concepts, and design principles into images, evaluate the results, and develop the house step by step.

For more information, visit https://moodle.uni-siegen.de/course/view.php?id=41161
(Available starting November 23, 2026)