Institute Institutes - Fakultät für Architektur - TUM

Tragwerksplanung
Structural Design
Structures are an essential part of architecture. Structures and their relationship
to space and form is the core subject of teaching as well as research at the Chair
of Structural Design. There are two main areas of investigation: the first is analytical
and looks at modern and historic structures, the second is synthetic and
concentrates on the creative design and development of new structures.
Teaching
It is our goal to enable students to understand the technical and scientific aspects
of structures and to use this knowledge to create architecture. We teach:
▪ a basic understanding of statics and the mechanics of materials,
▪ knowledge of design, construction and dimensioning of structures,
▪ the skill to design structures as part of an architectural project,
▪ the skill to research and develop structures in cooperation with other disciplines.
A further aspect of teaching is the renovation, alteration and preservation of
historic buildings, as work on existing buildings accounts for over 50% of all
building investments.
Research
Our main research topics are “Construction and Design” and “Historic Structures”.
Both are closely related to architecture.
Construction and Design
We aim to develop new innovative structures for lightweight architecture that
are efficient, responsible in their use of materials and energy, transportable/collapsable,
multifunctional and exhibit a high quality of design. Our research
benefits from intensive cooperation with other disciplines.
▪ Lightweight structures (e.g. lightweight materials, new efficient structures
using sizing, topology optimisation and shape optimisation)
▪ Membrane structures and transportable or collapsible structures (e.g.
hybrid structural systems and adaptive structures, multifunctional or transportable
modular facade systems)
▪ Methods and tools (computational modelling as a tool for structural design
and realisation)
Historic Structures
Our second area of research topic aims to obtain detailed insight into the design
and construction of structures, their structural behavior, typical defects, bearing
capacities and structural safety. We examine historic buildings of outstanding
importance e.g. towers and lattice structures by the Russian engineer Vladimir
Shukhov, or buildings that represent a particular typology or structural type e.g.
the gothic tracery window of St. George’s Church in Nördlingen or the Sioni
Church in Georgia.
148 Blick in den NiGRES-Turm View into the NiGRES-tower by Vladimir Suchov
149
www.lt.ar.tum.de
Leitung Professor
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Barthel
Sekretariat Office management
Katharina Wenninger
Wiss. Mitarbeiter Research associates
Matthias Beckh, Lars Schiemann, Zoran Novacki,
André Ihde, Georg Räß, Ervin Poljak, Eike
Schling