Research

The Department's research focuses on the discourses of the building, land and resource turnaround, climate-protecting and climate-adapted planning and building and is located at the interface of architecture and Urban Design, on a neighborhood scale.

Themes

• Circular City - Circularly organized neighbourhoods

• Sufficiency-oriented architecture and neighborhoods

• StadtLandQuartiere - Urban development in suburban and rural areas

• Transformation of inner cities

• Urban mining + recycling architectures

• Land recycling | redensification strategies + typologies for "more city in the city"

• Settlement level 2. brownfields above the rooftops of the city

• Updates. Climate Conversion of 1950-70s residential ensembles

• Co-living / tiny living. Shared forms of living

• Caring communities. Neighborhoods for caring communities

• Urban production. Spaces for co-productive work in the neighborhood

• C2C-designed commercial parks

• Mobility architectures. Buildings + urban spaces for the transport transition

Circularity and sufficiency as guiding themes for future-oriented neighborhood development

The (further) construction of districts and buildings causes considerable CO2 emissions and waste, consumes resources and energy, is responsible for soil sealing, interferes with water cycles and habitats and influences mobility behavior. In addition to the adaptation of laws, planning and building regulations and funding conditions, planning and construction also require the serious implementation of forward-looking guiding principles (circularity, sufficiency, resilience, etc.) and planning principles (conversion instead of new construction, recycled construction methods, etc.).

In this subject area, the Department is researching how circularity and sufficiency concepts can be implemented in neighborhood and building development. It is less about the mostly technology-based solutions of resource-conserving and energy-efficient construction and more about urban planning, building typology and spatial design solutions as well as the effects of architecture and urban space on social practices and human action to promote socio-ecological transformation.

Compendium "Sufficiency and circularity in the neighborhood"

Practical examples of circularly organized and sufficiency-oriented architecture, urban spaces and districts in Europe (under construction)

Development of a systematized best-practice collection; description and graphic analysis of existing strategies, building and open space structures, mobility, energy and material concepts, building types, forms of living and working, etc.; determination and comparison of urban planning key figures (density, space requirements, etc.); reflection on (recurring) planning themes and guidelines, Urban Design building blocks and design principles

Mara Benteler

Living in the city centre
An investigation of the building type 'retail store' on the city centre ground floor and its transformative effect as living space on the development of a mixed-use quarter

Katharina Nahser

Rural future
Investigation of the spatial-structural and architectural-typological development of villages in northern Hesse under the influence of the emergence of single-family housing areas and the identification of transformative potentials