Common Ground #1 – CONSTRUCTION HISTORY

The research projects in the SPP „Kulturerbe Konstruktion“ are interdisciplinary in nature and the researchers represent a wide range of disciplines.
The annual Common Ground  hat Workshop , supported by external speakers, therefore aims to create common foundations – a common ground with regard to the fields of history of construction technology, engineering sciences and monument theory and to discuss them together.

In addition to the annual workshops, there is the Common Ground monthly meeting.
This year, Common Ground #2 – Historic Preservation will take place!

Common Ground #1
Cottbus, 12. November 2021

For Common Ground #1 -Introduction to the subject area and the concept of the history of civil engineering (BTG) ), researchers from the subprojects Railway Bridges (A1), Glass and Glass construction (B1), Historical Concrete Repairs (B2), Physical Models in Civil Engineering (C2), Lightweight Steel and Metal Structures in the GDR (C4), Heritage Conservation Of Space Frame Structures (D1) and Plank Trusses (D2) met on November 12, 2021 in rooms at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus.
The following speakers and discussion partners could join us
Dr. dipl. Architec Ekaterina Nozhova, building consultant of the department for monument preservation of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB, and
Prof. Dr.-Eng. Werner Lorenz, coordinator of the SPP 2255.

In the first part of the workshop, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Lorenz presented the historical structural analysis of the roof structures of the Hermitage Winter Palace, St. Petersburg. His lecture What is History of Building Technology? Approaching the program of a discipline in statu nascendi was able to impressively illustrate the typical procedure of an investigation into the history of building technology on the basis of this example. By paying equal attention to, documenting and questioning archival sources and the physically existing built roof structures, it was possible not only to reconstruct the process of creation (from the procurement and processing of raw materials to the reconstruction of planning and construction processes) but also to locate the project in the contemporary Russian and European context.

In the second part of the workshop, Dr. dipl. Architect Ekaterina Nozhova highlighted the process of research and the skilful communication of results as part of a successful research project in her presentation Building Technology-Storytelling.
Using the stylistic figure of the “hero’s journey”, she was able to convey how raising awareness of the narrative structure of a research work can serve as an important indicator for its strategic orientation. She was able to place herself as a central point in the process of researching recurrently in this narrative (and thus not to lose herself). Based on her dissertation on the work of Vladimir Shukhov as an example, she demonstrated the importance of the importance of interlacing archival work and building research recordings on site, which only in combination enabled her to carry out a meticulous digital reconstruction and thus decipher important construction principles.

The workshop concluded with a joint discussion of how the history of construction technology combines knowledge and methods from the history of construction, technology and science, and how it has developed into an independent discipline with a focus on construction with various actors.

The contact persons for Common Ground #1 (Cottbus, 2021) were Elisabeth Hinz, Franziska Rehde and Annkathrin Heinrich.

The organization team of the Common Ground consists of Alexandra Schmölder (Uni Bamberg), Annkathrin Heinrich (TU Braunschweig), Benjamin Schmid (Universität Innsbruck), Clara Schulte (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg), Elisabeth Hinz (TU München), Franziska Rehde (TU Dresden), Mareike Stöber (TU München).

 

Fotos: Baris Wenzel, Elisabeth Hinz

Further Veranstaltung, Workshop Aktivitäten