Aerial view of the Beyer Building at the TU Dresden

Picture shows the annual report 2021 (open and closed)

The institute introduces itself

For more than 100 years the subject 'solid structures' has been taught at the TU Dresden. At the moment two professorships belong to our institute. All studies and research within the institute are focused on experimentation on reinforced concrete in all its various forms. In the field of teaching, we collaborate with many partners of the construction industry. Together we make research findings become part in construction projects.

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Important topics

Photo shows a brochure with historical views of the Beyer building

History

Reinforced concrete construction has a long tradition at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD). In Germany the first lectures about reinforced concrete were held by Max Förster at the TUD, which was former called Technische Hochschule (TH), at the beginning of the last century. The listed Beyer building was completed in 1913 and is one of the oldest buildings made of reinforced concrete in Dresden. It is about to be restorated.

Foto zeigt ein Gruppenbild des Instituts für Massivbau

Employees

The Institute of Concrete Structures currently employs more than 60 people. There is a Chair of Concrete Structures and a DB Netz AG Endowed Chair of Civil Engineering. The Otto Mohr Laboratory is also affiliated. There are eight research groups with different thematic orientations. The C³ team can be found in a branch office in the Dresden World Trade Center.

Foto zeigt den vollen Hörsaal Audimax im HSZ der TU Dresden

Events

Every year we are host of the Dresdner Brückenbausymposium. It is the most renowned symposium all over Germany concerning the topic of bridge construction. Every two years the German Bridge Construction Prize is awarded within the frame of the symposium. Additional to that we organise the symposium ‘Experimental study of building constructions’ every two years as well.

Foto zeigt die drei Professuren Curbach, Häusler-Combe und Marx auf einer Betonbank vor dem Rohbau des Carbonbetonhauses CUBE

Successful despite obstacles

[Foreword from the Institute's 2021 Annual Report.]

Also in 2021, Corona kept us firmly in its grip, normal research and teaching in presence was only possible with restrictions. Nevertheless, we tried to come into direct contact with our students as often as possible and to create extra opportunities for exchange and collaboration. A special highlight was certainly a tree house course that we realised as a design course in cooperation with a tourism partner in Saxon Switzerland.

On the other hand, Corona has also enabled us to develop completely new things, not to say forced us to do so. We would never have believed that the digitalisation of teaching could happen at such a speed. Digital scripts, exercises and also recorded lectures now exist for all our courses. This is a blessing for our distance learning students, who make up almost fifty percent of our enrolled students.

But the material now available also opens up completely new possibilities for alternative teaching methods for face-to-face teaching. For example, we are currently testing the concept of the inverted classroom in the course "Building in Existing Contexts": there is no longer a frontal lecture (which can be downloaded as a canned version); instead, the students work individually or in small groups on a typical practical task during the lecture and the lecturers are immediately available to answer questions. Students acquire competences and skills in a playful way, and it's more fun, too!

We also had to push hard in our research work to achieve our scientific goals. Particularly challenging were the severe limitations in experimental possibilities. For weeks, our laboratory staff was absent. And back again, distance and mask rules had to be adhered to, so that it was impossible to even think of conducting a normal experiment. Despite the great commitment of our laboratory staff, this still meant that many projects had to be postponed and their content adjusted. In the home
It is difficult to produce concrete test specimens in a home office, let alone test them. This meant that our actual great strength, namely the close interlocking of experimental and theoretical research methods, proved to be almost impracticable. Nevertheless, impressive results were achieved under these difficult conditions, some of which can be read in this year's yearbook.

Then on 23 July came some very special news: the initiative for a large-scale research centre "LAB - Lausitz Art of Building" was selected for the second stage of application. This gives us a unique opportunity to really push forward building research in Germany on the important topics of climate neutrality and resource minimisation!

In view of these great challenges, we would like to thank all the staff of the Institute, who have made 2021 a special year with their great commitment. Thanks are also due to our donors and sponsors, who were often prepared to find unusual solutions in order to keep research and teaching at a high level.

May you all enjoy the entertaining reports and stories we present to you in this booklet.

Manfred Curbach, Ulrich Häußler-Combe and Steffen Marx