150 Jahre of RWTH Aachen University: Architecture and Urbanistic Development

In the coming year 2020, the RWTH will turn 150 and can therefore look back on a correspondingly long architectural development. The university's nucleus consisted in the historical Main Building, built from 1865 onwards below the former Templerbend railway station on the inner Grabenring, around which the core area of the university, close to the city centre, initially developed. After the two world wars, especially during the 1950s and 60s, the university gave itself a modern architectural look and for the first time expanded far beyond its original core. The University Hospital and the Kármán Auditorium in the 1970s then formed two impressively large buildings that symbolized the leap in scale that the university had to master on its way towards becoming a mass university with modern scientific campus.

In the course of the elective module, the students will examine the RWTH Aachen University's architectural history and write articles on an RWTH architectural guide. They will collect information on significant buildings and construction phases of the university both from the existing literature and via own archival research, prepare graphic and photographic documentation and compile and design concise textual contributions. The results of the seminar are to be published as part of an exhibition and/or publication which is intended as the Chair's contribution to the anniversary celebrations.