Master’s Thesis Projects

The semester-long thesis projects seek answers to relevant and pressing questions of our time through the medium of architecture. Our mission is to foster and facilitate a free, creative, and independent design process (conceptual, programmatic, structural, and practical) that operates within the context of building construction using well-founded, up-to-date knowledge. Our approach is interdisciplinary: integrative design projects are carried out in collaboration with the Institute for Architectural Sciences—Research Division Structural Engineering and Timber Construction (ITI) and Building Physics and Building Ecology—or with other departments as required by the specific task. The assignments vary both thematically and in scale, but always seek a challenging level of complexity and spatial and programmatic tension. Experimental and construction-oriented design projects are offered cyclically as “design-build” projects.

Objectives:

• Cultivating a comprehensive understanding of architecture that integrates architectural and structural considerations
• Composing intelligent architectural arguments (based on resource conservation and sustainability criteria) as the driving force behind the design process
• Establishing conceptual and structural design ideas across all relevant scales of an architectural project—through to the detailed design
• Developing independent, critical positions within the discourse on building culture that can provide sustainable answers to current societal issues