Department Building Technology

In today's society, there is a growing demand for smart buildings: sustainable, comfortable and environmentally intelligent buildings that can have free forms and that use innovative hybrid materials. Furthermore, the predominant and ever growing share of existing buildings is increasing the demand for techniques for preserving and transforming architectural heritage.

Mission

The choice is not Design or Engineering but Design & Engineering. As such, the department Building Technology positions itself as an important player in the area of tension between design and materialization; the department has a strong desire to achieve an integration of Design and Engineering. De designing architect considers the supporting structure of a building an important aspect of the architectural expression and as such of the design. Besides the required technical functions, this design can also form the basis of the expression. Moreover, we, as engineers in the function of advisors in the design process, would not only want to give an advice for achieving a ‘good’ design but also want to essentially support the design’s qualities with the specification of technical parameters. The combination of Design and Engineering leads to the development of ideas and the solution to problems.

Ambition

The department expresses the ambition to integrate the structural and creative aspect in the curriculum and research portfolio of the Faculty of Architecture.

Within the curriculum the goal is to bring the design integration which has been achieved so far in BSc and MSc studies to a higher level to give future education a firmer basis. Moreover, it is important to further develop existing priorities within the MSc curriculum which has a strong relation with the research portfolio.

In the area of research the priority is to further develop successful research spearheads and to bring the knowledge gained into the public. The department encompasses fundamental research, technology development and application design and integrates this research in the curriculum to disseminate this knowledge to students, the future practitioners in the building sector.

All activities target the integration of technology and construction in the design process enabling technical architecture as a symbiosis of design and engineering. As chairs, department and faculty we seek to excel, cooperate and transfer knowledge in the areas in which we already reached acknowledged achievements.

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