Courses
Courses offered in the summer semester 2026:
Lectures
- History of western architecture before 1800 - 2st semester architecture
(Prof. Dr. habil. Sonja Hnilica)K1501-AD150
Start: Tuesday, 14.04.2026 I 16.40 I HSZ/04/H
Thursdays 6.DS, 16.40 - 18.10, HSZ/04/H - History of western architecture after 1800 - 4rd semester architecture
(Prof. Dr. habil. Sonja Hnilica)K1501-AD370
Start: Wednesday, 15.04.2026 I 16.40 I HSZ/04/H
Wednesdays 6.DS, 16.40 - 18.10, HSZ/04/H
The four-semester lecture on the history of building provides an overview of the history of architecture and urban planning from antiquity to the present day. Examples from all eras will be discussed, from ancient temples to modern housing estates. The focus is on building in the western world. The lecture is attended jointly by students of architecture, landscape architecture and art history (architectural science).
Scientific work
- Introductory week academic work
(Prof. Dr. habil. Sonja Hnilica, Dipl.-Ing. Kerstin Zaschke)
K1500-AD610
Start: Tuesday, 07.04.2026 l 09.20 a.m. l Room BZW B401
During the intensive week, the meetings will take place daily from 07. to 10.04.2026. A detailed schedule will be uploaded to SELMA in a timely manner or issued on 07.04.2026.
The documents from the introductory week are a prerequisite for completing the module WissArbeit. -
WissArbeit:
The search for good form. Reform architecture in Saxony around 1900
(Prof. Dr. habil. Sonja Hnilica, Dipl.-Ing. Kerstin Zaschke)
K1500-AD610
Start: Thursday, 16.04.2026 / 09.20 a.m. / BZW B 5052 block dates for introduction
3 block dates for presentations
Consultations by arrangement
Achievements:The module examination consists of a written seminar paper, 3 presentations and participation in the discussions. Scope of work: 300 hours.
Around 1900, a comprehensive modernization process was underway. Progressive industrialization had changed the entire living environment, especially in the rapidly growing modern cities. Artists and architects came together in the Lebensreform movement to escape the bourgeois conventions that were perceived as restrictive. Dresden became an important center in the debate on architectural reform. Well-known architects came here to teach at the three universities (Polytechnic University, Academy of Art and School of Arts and Crafts), to take part in the "3rd German Arts and Crafts Exhibition" and to help plan the garden city of Hellerau. We want to examine reform housing construction in Saxony, document the work of important offices (for example Lossow & Kühne, who designed Leipzig's main railway station) - and understand how reform ideas also spread outside the capital. In a combination of site visits, literature research and archive work, we want to build a bridge between local events and the international architectural debate.
more information
Seminars on history and theory
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Totally blatant. The architecture of the 90s in Germany
(Dipl.-Ing. Tina Kresse)
Start: Tuesday, 14.04.2026 I 13.00 I BZW B505
Tuesdays 4th DS, 13.00 - 14.30, BZW B505
The building stock of the 1990s is on the threshold of architectural-historical relevance. Some buildings, such as Zaha Hadid's fire station for the Vitra company or the Commerzbank Tower by Norman Foster, are already considered icons. At the same time, however, many even less prominent buildings are threatened with renovation and demolition, as their first economic cycle of use has ended and space is needed for new construction.In the seminar, we want to search for traces together and identify architecture that deserves a place on the country's list of monuments in the future due to its aesthetics, its history or its builders. How do we approach this building stock, which receives little attention due to its young age and whose design is sometimes at odds with current tastes? What criteria do we use to assess its historical relevance?
Intensive magazine and online research will be used to compile a list of relevant buildings. Subsequently, building portraits will be created for selected case studies. What information can be brought to light through archive research, site visits and interviews? Which research strategies prove to be particularly effective?
The best results of the seminar will be published as part of a cooperation project with the German Architecture Museum DAM and the Wüstenrot Foundation.
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Concrete - It depends on what you make of it
(Dipl.-Ing. Kerstin Zaschke)
Start: Monday, 20.04.2026 I 13.00 I BZW B505
Mondays 4.DS, 13.00 - 14.30, BZW B505Even the Romans used concrete,opus caementitium, for their buildings. The building material and construction possibilities were forgotten with the fall of the Roman Empire. From around 1750, this building material was then reinvented, leading to a wide variety of constructions and designs and is still relevant today, as developments in textile or carbon concrete show. Just as today, attitudes towards concrete have varied over the centuries between enthusiasm and rejection, which has influenced both the use and design of concrete.
In this seminar, we will look at various developments, constructions and designs of concrete over the centuries. Excursions to concrete buildings will complement the seminar.
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The design principle of Andrea Palladio
(PD Dr. Mathias Haenchen)
Start: Monday, 13.04.2026 I 16.40 I BZW B505
Mondays 6.DS, 16.40 - 18.10, BZW B505Andrea Palladio is probably one of the most influential architects in the modern era of European architectural history. His built work, which was created in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the 16th century, is regionally limited to a relatively small area of northern Italy - Vicenza and the surrounding area or parts of Venice and Venice itself. However, his architectural treatise, the "Quattro libri dell'architettura" of 1570, with which Palladio introduced the art-loving European public to his own designs in particular, was much more influential. This was also the case in England in the early 17th century, where Palladio's architectural language was immediately declared binding for all new public buildings in the kingdom by Inigo Jones, the then "Surveyor of the King's Works", following a visit by Vicenza: The later so-called "English Palladianism" was established, which in the following centuries even spread beyond the British Isles to the colonies of the time, particularly in the New World.
But what is the fascination of Palladio's designs that continues to this day? The answer to this question is perhaps hidden in Palladio's design principle, the development of which will be traced using selected projects in the course of this seminar.
Building recording in the architecture-scientific propaedeutic course
The practical recording and representation of existing buildings is one of the fundamentals of architectural training. An introductory lecture introduces the methods and aims of building recording. The practical weeks serve to familiarize students individually with a handcrafted historical building through manual measuring and drawing. This is associated with training in construction and design, as the design process is traced backwards during the building survey. Starting from the finished state, the constructive and spatial structure is recorded through precise observation, measurement and drawing. Information on the condition and traces of the building's history provide important insights into its history. The architectural science preparatory course is a compulsory course for the 1st and 2nd semester.
The introductory lecture is held at the end of the lecture period and forms the basis for the theoretical preparation of the practical phase in self-study. The practical work takes place within a two-week time window within the practical period between August 24 and September 11, 2026.
In the first week of practical work, floor plan and detail drawings as well as further documentation work are produced daily at the property under the guidance of the teaching staff. In the second week, students will independently rework the pencil drawings and create a supplementary written section including photo documentation based on their own archive and literature research.
The work is done in small groups. The group allocation and the respective dates of the introductory lecture and practical days will probably be announced in the first third of the lecture period. The object of study is usually accessible by public transport from the TUD main campus.