announcement_News

News from the teaching area

46th Aachen Monday Evening Talks "Architectural criticism"

The Monday Evening Talks are a highlight in the university life of our architecture faculty and are appreciated by many people interested in architecture in the region. In the coming winter semester 2023/24, the Montagabendgespräche will take place for the 46th time. This year we are inviting internationally renowned architecture critics under the title “Architecture Criticism”.

For more information, simply click here.

International Academy Certificate Course – Designing for sustainability

In the upcoming Summer Semester, the Department of Architectural Theory will join forces with the Chair for Building Technology, the Chair for Structures and Structural Design and the Junior Chair for Reuse in Architecture to teach a certificate course for post-graduates on Architecture and Responsible Building Practices.

Further information and details can be found on the official course website.

Experiments with Clay

In this year’s “Experimente mit Lehm”, which took place over four days each in June and July, the students once again faced the challenges of building with their own hands and feet.

4TH CANDIDE CONFERENCE

“THE ARCHITECTURES OF CATALOGS | THE CATALOGS OF ARCHITECTURES”

4th Candide Conference organised by RWTH Aachen University, Faculty of Architecture, Teaching and Research Area Architectural Theory

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

For more info click here

1st archireg symposium

„Sustainable Euregio – Care, Ecology, Recycling ” is the progammatic title of the first ARCHIREG symposium. ARCHIREG, a federative network of the architecture schools of Aachen, Hasselt, Liège, Maastricht and the Academy of the Chamber of Crafts Aachen, unites teachers and students of the Rhine-Meuse region in the search for innovative and ecologically sustainable building practices.

For more info click here

Registration under the following link*:

www.registrierung_symposium.de

* Due to constraints arising from the containment of the Covid 19 pandemic, room capacity is limited. Participation in the symposium is limited to those who register, subject to availability.

Organisation: Teaching and Research Area Architectural Theory, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen University

"Dear Hunter" as a guest in the Bachelor project: The Political in Architecture

On 27.04.2021, from 14:00, students of the architectural theory bachelor thesis “The Political in Architecture” will meet the “Dear Hunter”, a research practice that produces alternative maps through qualitative fieldwork.

As well as providing feedback on students’ maps, the Dear Hunters will share some useful tips on the practice of Situated Mapping and the production of critical maps.

Dear Hunter creates alternative maps and atlases through qualitative fieldwork. In return, they usually live and work on site for relatively long periods of time. An insight into Dear Hunter’s projects can be found on their website: https://dearhunter.eu

Presentation video of the teaching and research area of architectural theory

42nd Aachen Monday Evening Talks - "Indian Modernity"

In June 1977, the Aachen Monday Evening Talks were founded by Prof. Manfred Speidel. The list of all those who came to Aachen to enrich the academic life of the architecture faculty through their lectures and in the subsequent discussions reads like a “Who’s Who” of contemporary architecture.

In the coming winter semester 2019-20, we will again be hosting a series of 6 lectures and talks. Sustainability, social design, craft and materiality, but also the search for urban solutions are the core themes of many practitioners and theorists from India. These current trends will be the focus of the upcoming series. Invited are prominent Indian architects and teachers such as Anupama Kundoo, Revathi Sekhar Kamath, Rahul Srivastava, Ambrish Arora, Samira Rathod, Samuel Barclay.

Courses offered in the Winter semester 2023/24

CIRCULAR BUILDING PRACTICES: A JAPANESE-GERMAN PERSPECTIVE

The transformation of the construction sector is one of the major tasks of the coming years. Planned with a practical and bi-cultural perspective, the event will demonstrate how research results and innovative construction methods can be transferred to local contexts in Japan and Germany.

For more information, simply click here.

TRAVEL REPORT UZUNYAYLA RURAL RESEARCH

The excursion took place in the summer semester 2023 as a Master’s elective of the teaching and research field of architectural theory at RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture at Abdullah Gül University Kayseri.

Pop-Up Campus with Louisa Hutton

As part of POP-UP Campus 2022, the postponed date of the Monday evening talk with Lousia Hutton will be made up on 08.09.2022 at 19.00 in the R5.

You can find the full programme of the day here.

Bamboo Workshop Hoogcruts Part III

During the Whitsun excursion, the bamboo workshop from the previous winter semester was continued in Hoogcruts. Despite rainy weather conditions, the RWTH students managed to almost complete the roof construction for the rammed earth walls.

Pre-registration Elective Master - Uzunyayla Travel Workshop

vollständige Kursbeschreibung siehe Lehre Aktuell und Lehre Vorschau.

Info event: 04.02.2022 10am via Zoom: Meeting ID: 934 0145 0549, ID code: 111226

Registration for the information event: For further questions please send an email to: altiok@theorie.arch.rwth-aachen.de

Binding registration until 14.02.22 by email to: henning.storch@rwth-aachen.de

Dates Preparation: Thursdays 07 April 2022, 28 April 2022, 19 May 2022, 14.30 -16.00, Location: C.A.R.L. Claßenstraße 11, 2nd floor, room 213, 2nd floor

Date travel workshop: end of July, travel costs: excess approx. 250€

Bambus-Workshop Hoogcruts part I

From 22 to 25 November 2021, the teaching and research area of architectural theory organised an euregional bamboo workshop at the Hoogcruts monastery. Students from the Academy of the Aachen Chamber of Crafts “Gut Rosenberg” and Master’s students from RWTH Aachen University were involved in the construction of the bamboo structure. The bamboo structure extends the earthen building that was created in the course of the DAAD Summer Academy in August 2020.

For more info just click here.

Opening of the exhibition: "Sustainable Hoogcruts"

On 22.10.2021, the two research assistants of the chair Elena Wittbusch and Ramona Schaefer opened the exhibition “Sustainable Hoogcruts” during the first Archireg Symposium in Hoogcruts. On display are projects by Master’s students from RWTH Aachen University and the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, which are dedicated to the question of how we will eat, build and live in the future and to what extent we can and must face the coming ecological and economic crises.

The exhibition can be seen in the open air in the chapel of the former monastery in Hoogcruts. Inside, there are also 3 detailed models on display, which give a suggestion for a sustainable roof design for the rammed earth walls in the garden of the monastery.

The monastery grounds will continue to be an important part of the Chair’s collaboration, so we have already planned the next intensive phase of work on site in November.

For more information on the exhibition simply click here.

43rd Aachen Monday Evening Talks - "Architecture and Politics

For more than forty years, the Aachener Montagabendgespräche have been a highlight in the university life of the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University and are appreciated by many people interested in architecture in the region. In the winter semester 2020/21, the lecture series deals with the idea of the political in architecture as a part of the res publica, public affairs. The focus is on public debates, conflicts, negotiation processes and the clash of opinions through which the political becomes tangible in architecture.

This year’s Monday Evening Talks look for such antagonisms in the fields of urban ethnography, urban planning, structural change and democratisation of societies. For this lecture series, we would like to cordially invite you to RWTH Aachen University as a discussion partner.

Organisation: Teaching and Research Area Architectural Theory, Faculty of Architecture, RWTH Aachen University

Candide No. 11 now available

Candide No. 11 now available The new issue brings together contributions from the DFG – funded conference on the topic of “Contentious Issues” and makes visible parts of architectural knowledge that are acquired in the course of conflicts.

What buildings, city quarters or entire landscapes should mean, represent or achieve is not infrequently the subject of bitter dispute. Architecture intervenes in existing milieus and living environments. The five articles in this issue show that this can lead to drastic but also constructive distortions and confrontations. They deal with squabbles in the form of ecological urban redevelopment, the exhibition of identity-forming cultures of memory, the fight against the destruction of natural living environments, as well as the creative use of everyday objects and digital tools.
Candide N° 11 can be purchased in bookshops or directly from www.hatjecantz.de

Candide – Journal for Architectural Knowledge No. 13

The Department of Architectural Theory at the RWTH Aachen University is pleased to announce the release of Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge No. 13Candide 13 results of a joint effort of scholars, researchers and students who address the theme of “Experimental Architecture and Material Culture” from different perspectives.

The issue reports on the outcomes of a transnational cooperation between the RWTH Aachen University (Department of Architecture) and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (Department of Architecture and Planning). It gives voice to students and researchers who, traveling in Germany and India, have stored up intercultural experiences of intellectual and human growth. The issue features also scholarly contributions on experimental architecture, design-build procedures, and sustainable construction.CANDIDE NO.13 LAUNCH: 08. September 2022, 14:30 at the Pop-Up Campus, Theaterstraße 92-94.

45th Aachen Monday Evening Talks "Architecture in the Collective"

We are sorry to inform you that the Monday evening talk with Atelier 5 on Monday, 30.01.2023, unfortunately cannot take place.

The 45th Aachen Monday Evening Talks will be held in the coming winter semester 2022/23. The series forms a highlight in the university life of our architecture faculty and is appreciated by many people interested in architecture in the region. The talks will focus on the title “Architecture in the Collective” and therefore on a special form of collaboration in architecture.

Bambus-Workshop Hoogcruts part II

From 22 to 26 March 2022, the teaching and research area of architectural theory in the Hoogcruts monastery continued the euregional bamboo workshop that started in November last year. Once again, the students of the Academy of the Chamber of Crafts Aachen “Gut Rosenberg” and Master students of the RWTH Aachen University were involved in the construction of the bamboo structure. The bamboo structure that extends the earthen building, which was created in the course of the DAAD Summer Academy in August 2020, was successfully completed in the best weather. The film documentation of the workshop can be found here.

For more info just click here.

Bamboo imaginary Vernissage

We are pleased to invite you to our vernissage “Bamboo Imaginary” in the Reiff Foyer on 12.01.2022. On display will be both the results of the students’ impromptu project of the same name, as well as visual impressions from the white week in which students in the Hoogruts monastery built a roof structure out of bamboo for the rammed earth walls from the 2020 Summer Academy.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of persons and the actual realisation of the vernissage are still subject to change.

44th Aachener Montagabendgespräche - "Caring Architecture

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Unfortunately, there will be no talk with Louisa Hutton on 24.01.2022 Instead, a make-up date in the summer semester will be sought and announced as soon as possible.

For more than forty years, the Aachener Montagabendgespräche have been a highlight in the academic life of the architecture faculty at RWTH Aachen University and a regional meeting place for people interested in architecture. This year, the series of talks will continue in presence as well as online, with live broadcasts via Zoom and YouTube. The starting point of the upcoming series is thoughts on a caring and prudent architecture, i.e. a design and building practice that is oriented towards the preservation and care of material and immaterial resources.

Architects and designers will address the spectrum of care from different perspectives and present their contributions to a caring use of raw materials, construction methods or social bonds for discussion. The discussion series is organised by the Department of Architectural Theory RWTH Aachen University and supported by the Commission for the Improvement of Teaching.

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel to stream future events without registration.

The link you will find here:

Candide – Journal for Architectural Knowledge No. 12

The twelfth issue of Candide is dedicated to Visual Urbanism – a completely new field of research. Photographers and scientists experimented with anthropological, cultural-scientific, sociological and geographical methods for a reflection on the mostly uncritical use of images of public space.

Candide 12 seeks ways to integrate these results into architecture and urban planning. In doing so, the authors answer urgent questions, such as how photographic images can be used for architecture and vice versa.

Candide N° 12 can be purchased in bookshops or directly from www.hatjecantz.de

You can find the table of contents here: https://candidejournal.net/current-issue/

Summer School Earth & Clay architecture Hoogcruts, NL

From 10 to 20 August 2020, the Department of Architectural Theory and Research at RWTH Aachen University, under the direction of Prof. Axel Sowa, organised a summer school on sustainable building with clay and earth in the Hoogcruts monastery not far from the Dutch municipality of Gulpen. 20 students experimented with rammed earth techniques and built the load-bearing walls of a future garden pavilion.

The event was part of the DAAD-funded university cooperation with IIT Roorkee in India. The exchange of knowledge and experience for the further development of sustainable construction techniques with the Indian partners is also to be continued in the coming semesters. The material and energy balance of construction will be of particular importance. The teaching and research area of architectural theory is in close exchange with the Sitchting het Limburgs Landschap. The Dutch foundation intends to transform the monastery complex into a future workshop where people will think about the building and living of tomorrow.

Guest lecture:
"Rise and crisis of the bauhaus brand, 1919 - 2019".

In his lecture, Philipp Oswalt, former director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, presents his thoughts on the term “Bauhaus” on the occasion of the centenary of the Bauhaus.

It is not function and use that distinguish the Bauhaus, but symbolism. Whether square,
triangle or circle, whether Wagenfeld lamp, Schlemmer head or white cubes
with a flat roof: the Bauhaus created iconic pictorial symbols and a style that neither
is functional nor social, but visually concise.
From the beginning, Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius aimed to turn the Bauhaus into a
brand – with success. Be it in consumption, politics or culture: more than
eighty years after its closure, the Bauhaus is more present than ever. It is now
become a participatory brand that is no longer centrally controlled
but is co-written by countless producers and consumers
have. The former promise of functionality and social commitment
remains unredeemed, however.

Date and venue
25 June 2019, 6:30 pm, RWTH Aachen University, Rogowski Institute, Lecture Hall EPh

Biography
Philipp Oswalt, born 1964, architect and publicist in Berlin. 1988-1994 editor of the architecture magazine Arch+, 1996/97 employee in the office OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, 1998 1st prize in the competition for the former women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück (with Stefan Tischer and Stefanie Oswalt) with subsequent partial realisation, 2000-2002 visiting professor at the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus. Initiator and co-leader of the European research project “Urban Catalyst” 2001 – 2003. Co-initiator and co-curator of the cultural interim use of the Palace of the Republic ZwischenPalastNutzung/ Volkspalast 2004 Head of the project Shrinking Cities of the Federal Cultural Foundation 2002-2008. Since 2006 Professor of Architectural Theory and Design at the University of Kassel. 2009 – 2014 Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Co-initiator of projekt bauhaus 2015, member of the project advisory board for the foundation of the documenta Institute in Kassel since 2016. Author and editor of numerous publications on contemporary architecture and urban development.