Back in the heart of Civil Engineering - The Faculty celebrates its return to the Beyer Building and looks to the past, present and future

Civil engineering education at TU Dresden is almost as old as the university itself: Civil engineering has been taught at the educational institution, which was founded in 1828, since the 1830s. A central location of this tradition is the Beyer Building with its striking tower and the dome of the Lohrmann Observatory. Constructed between 1910 and 1913 for the civil engineering department, the building became the traditional center of today's faculty in the following decades. Following a large-scale renovation that began in 2016, the faculty gradually moved back in at the beginning of 2025 - the Beyer Building is now once again the heart of teaching and research at the Faculty of Civil Engineering.

Research at the highest level

Today, the Faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Dresden is not only historically significant, but also strong in research. The core research areas range from solid construction, structural engineering and constructive engineering to geotechnics, hydraulic engineering, construction informatics and many more. In the DFG Funding Atlas 2024, the faculty ranks second in Germany in civil engineering, just behind the University of Stuttgart. The basis for this is a broad and interdisciplinary research focus. Building on the Collaborative Research Center SFB 528 (1999-2011), numerous important projects have emerged, including the RTG 2250 Research Training Group (2017-2026), the Carbon-Concrete-Composite C³ (2014-2022) with the carbon concrete house CUBE, the CF-Lab, the openLAB Research Bridge Bautzen and the Transregio Collaborative Research Centers TRR 280 and TRR 339. The current highlight is the successfully placed Cluster of Excellence CARE, which further strengthens the international visibility and innovative power of the faculty.

Good reasons to celebrate

Curiously, the builders of the Beyer Building over 100 years ago had not expected so many visitors: The largest lecture hall in the historic building only holds 118 people. The numerous guests, lecturers, students and graduates of the faculty were therefore invited to the festive colloquium last Friday in the large lecture hall of the Gerhart Potthoff Building, the neighboring building.

The event was all about the faculty - its history, its present and its prospects for the future. Among the numerous guests were high-ranking personalities such as the recent winner of the Nobel Sustainability Academic Award, Prof. Manfred Curbach, and the former Rector of TU Dresden, Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen.

In her welcoming address, Prof. Angela Rösen-Wolff, Vice-Rector Research and Transfer at TU Dresden, summed up how she sees the Faculty in the overall network of the various faculties and research institutions at TUD: "The Faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Dresden is an example of the combination of tradition and innovation, of theoretical foundation and practical application. It makes an indispensable contribution to solving the major social challenges of our time and shapes our society for the future."

In her speech,Prof. Birgit Beckmann, Dean of the Faculty, recalled the scientific milestones and personalities that have shaped the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Dresden - and at the same time described the challenges of a new era.

With the question of beauty in engineering, Prof. Gunter Henn focused on the design dimension of construction. Beauty, according to his message, is created where technical skill, responsibility and a sense of proportion come together.

Prof. Dr. habil. Rostislav Chudoba from RWTH Aachen University added to the focus on innovation with a lecture on freedom - as a basic condition of scientific creativity.

The end of his lecture was unexpected. He underscored the obvious musicality of civil engineers with a musical rendition of "Die Gedanken sind frei".

Meeting in the new old home

After the colloquium, the company moved to the newly renovated Beyer building for lunch. In the bright, modern rooms, a toast was raised in a dignified atmosphere - a moment that made the return to the historic site tangible. The laboratory tours then began in the basement. Many faculty members entered the geotechnics laboratory and the hydraulic engineering teaching laboratory for the first time. It became clear what research and teaching will look like in the future under optimal conditions in the faculty's new old home.