After successful completion of the course, students are able to be in a position not to be satisfied with the objectively constructed real environment and to question common urban, residential and architectural concepts and to re-understand architecture in its essence.

Roman Colosseum, modell by CausalJoemama7, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:962416

The Colosseum is a building that everyone knows. Even those who have never been there. Before the building became iconic, it had many different functions: It was an arena, a residential building and, unfortunately, a quarry. The massive architecture had an ephemeral and agile counterpart at the time of its active use. The Velarium was a cinematic membrane roof that could be erected when needed by up to 1000 people to cover the games.

At the end of the semester, every student should have roofed the Colosseum. Even if only fictitiously, contemporary roof constructions should be created for the building. The roof has to span approximately 188 × 156 metres. What types of construction are possible? How can these structures be calculated? How do we react geometrically to the fact that not all supporting structures can bear full loads? We have to find ways for the force to find the ground through the building.

Workshops on form-finding and simulation methods are held regularly as part of the design process. We have developed our own software for this purpose. We are not only guided by built structures, but also by natural examples that have grown. How do bones grow and how do they find optimal shapes for load cases? How do spiders weave their webs and how do they organise this gigantic construction task?

The projects will be discussed via beamer. The recent state of the projects will be uploaded to ftp-folders available to the other participants. Every student can learn from other projects and small groups of discussion and work can be build.