After successful completion of the course, students are able to develop structurally and physically functioning building elements that question standardized building methods through innovative solutions in common building practice. They will be able to relate material-related specifications to spatial principles and formulate these in technical-constructive details and spatial-architectural principles. In doing so, they will be able to recognize specifics of the monolithic construction method of brick, to bring them into direct connection with their spatial, structural and building-physical aspects, and to develop architectural solutions appropriate to the material.
Through independent research, students will also be able to establish interrelationships between the individual building and the urban or rural spatial structure and to comprehend them through documentary analyses. They will be able to understand existing structures architecturally and in terms of planning, as well as to create and comprehensively present conceptual theses and design projects based on them in plan, image, model, and text.

Brick is the basic material of architecture in European cities like Vienna, though we rarely see it on the surface. The monolithic city mostly hides its basic material under plaster and stone surfaces. Still, there are recurring applications of visible brickwork in the industrial, military and infrastructural areas as well as in the sacred-monumental context. With reference to the urban monolith design theme of the previous semester, the basic conditions of brick construction are typologically analyzed and examined according to the criteria of form, joining, ordering, and need, based on constructed buildings.
The design theme is a building that is precisely located either in the city or in the landscape and actively structures this place. Instead of a spatial programme, there is a material programme at the beginning: from the logic of joining and supporting brickwork, the theme of the wall and the wall as a fundamental architectural gesture is developed. As a plastic boundary, the wall is an architectural element that defines thresholds and creates transitions through openings such as windows and doors. From enclosure to space formation, the lived and experienced space emerges starting from the wall as a social habitat with traditions and rituals of space use.
Students will develop forms that are initially simple, then more complex, ultimately leading to a spatial structure whose use forms the architectural conclusion. 1:1 experiments with elements such as ToyBricks, as well as other modeling methods, will enable concrete realizations in the space lab as well as in the outdoor space as a preliminary stage to architectural design starting in the spring. Students of the urban monolith from last semester can use their prior knowledge to move from detailed structural analysis to design by transferring their monolithic concepts to the brick.
Collaboration with the building physicist Günter Meusburger and the structural engineer Prof. Peter Bauer is an integral part of the design.
At the end, a publication will summarize the semester's work on the topic of monolithic construction.

Videopräsentation der Lehrveranstaltung

Kick off 2.3.2020 10:00 https://tuwien.zoom.us/j/91771720125

The course is part of a research project on monolithic construction that is scheduled for several semesters. Building on the research results of the urban monolith design project in the 2020-21 winter semester, the focus will now be on monolithic construction methods in brick. The discussions will always take place in an interplay between constructive-physical detail and morphological analysis of the monolith in space.
In the first step, with the help of discussions, research and keynote speeches, the basics of a monolithic masonry construction as well as contemporary building practice in the brick industry will be collated and then analysed according to structural-spatial categories. The topics of shaping, joining, ordering and needing will be dealt with and formulated spatially with the help of analyses, 1:1 material tests, and realizations, as well as fundamental and innovative discussions of the material and its architectural principles in massive construction.
These analyses will be contrasted with research on the monolith in interaction with its surrounding space. The massive building is analyzed, on the one hand, in its spatial effect as a unified object (monolith is from ancient Greek, meaning "one stone"), and, on the other hand, with regard to the place surrounding it. When it is analyzed and placed in three different contexts of the city of Vienna – urban, suburban, and rural – different morphological requirements arise.
Based on this research and on the interplay between material analysis and environmental analysis, a concrete project will then be designed for one of the three urban spatial contexts.

Due to the current situation and the official requirements regarding COVID-19, most of the course will be handled digitally through distance learning. Selected individual appointments may take place face-to-face on university premises in compliance with specified security precautions.

If, due to the requirements of the Federal Government or the TU Wien, it becomes impossible to hold the class, the examination, and/or the class meetings on site, the class will move online. If this happens, the announced dates for the class lectures and examinations (part performances) may change. If the class moves online, the following methods and modes will apply: 

Method when moving online: 

The course will be held online via Zoom or GoToMeeting. 

Exam mode when moving online: 

Evaluation will be continuous even if the class moves online. The final presentation will be carried out on Zoom. Student work will be submitted in both analogue and digital form.

Assessment model for the online exam: both analogue and digital submissions and presentations will be assessed.

Required technical equipment for participation in the course and examination: stable internet access, Zoom or GoToMeeting.

Detailed basic research of the monolithic building method in brick through constructive, physical, spatial and atmospheric aspects of the material. Exploration of the monolith in space through graphically and textually implemented spatial analyses and principles. Evidence of both types of research by means of a continuous log book.
Planning, textual and graphic implementation of a subsequent design on a scale of 1:1000 to 1:10. Site plans, floor plans, sections, views, spatial principle representations, perspectives, details, models.