Profil

In 2002 the department for timber construction was established at the TUM architecture faculty. It represents a unique selling point in that only a few architecture schools worldwide have established a scientific research and training facility on the subject of wood construction and wood architecture. For almost 20 years Univ. Prof. DI Hermann Kaufmann the subject area. In addition to his dedicated (timber construction) teaching, he and the team in the department and in the TUM.wood association founded in 2013 are responsible for highly regarded research projects and publications, including the Atlas Multi-Storey Timber Construction, published in 2017 by the Detail Verlag. In April 2021, the department “Design and Timber Construction” will be followed by the chair “Architecture and Timber Construction”, the professorship will be taken over by Univ.-Prof. Stephan Birk. Building with wood and other bio-based building materials is an urgent and relevant topic in the context of the climate crisis. Timber architecture can make a significant contribution to bringing about the change in the building industry towards resource efficiency with high architectural and building culture qualities. On the way into a “new wood age”, application-oriented training and further education for architects is the decisive basis. In teaching, this takes place in the bachelor's and master’s degree programs as part of lectures, exercises, seminars, design projects and theses. In addition, the TUM Life Long Learning program "TUM.wood - building with wood" offers a new training program for practical use. The Chair of Architecture and Timber Construction feels equally committed to teaching and research. The aim of the interdisciplinary research is to increase the timber construction quota as well as to increase the material substitution of mineral building materials in the construction and extension of buildings. The focus of the research interests are the dismantling of restrictions in timber construction, the identification of new potentials of bio-based building materials as well as the further development of the application possibilities of modern timber construction methods.