Raumschau 2026

How do we want to live, design, and coexist, in the house, in the neighborhood, in the city, in rural areas? The Raumschau 2026 of the Department of Architecture at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da) explores these questions through student work from the degree programs in Architecture and Interior Architecture. The exhibition presents designs and seminar results from the winter semester 2025/26 and the summer semester 2026, from all semesters of the Bachelor's and Master's programs.

The student designs investigate how future-proof buildings and spaces can emerge through resource-conserving new construction or the transformation of existing building stock. Many projects revolve around housing and the relationship between privacy and public life: courtyard houses that combine living and working; urban residential buildings on the sites of soon-to-be obsolete gas stations; guest houses on campus, the potential of church buildings as communal places for a multicultural urban society, or a mid-rise tower for affordable, communal living in Frankfurt as a counter-proposal to the city's luxury residential towers. Other projects focus on urban space: among others, the old clinic site, the Sportpark Germania in Eberstadt, the Pallaswiesen and Mornewegviertel districts in Darmstadt, or also hotspots such as Frankfurt's Bahnhofsviertel. In working on the design assignments, contact with external institutions and partners was frequently sought.

Some designs were tested and realized at a scale of 1:1 as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026, for example a modular heat-protection pavilion or a temporary pavilion in front of Darmstadt's Justus-Liebig-Haus an many more. In addition, there are works from construction and technology, such as on façades, structural systems, and conversions. Contributions from design studies such as sculptures and sketches from freehand drawing, as well as analyses and studies from the foundational courses in typology and architectural theory. In this way, the exhibition opens up a view onto different scales and fields of inquiry: from furniture to urban district, from analysis to construction planning, and from drawing to built object.

The Raumschau 2026 will be opened on October 15 at 17:00. with a vernissage in the premises of the Department of Architecture in Building B10 at Schöfferstraße 1 in Darmstadt. With music and cold drinks, it offers an opportunity to talk with students and faculty and to tour the exhibition together. Afterwards, the exhibition is open to the public, free of charge, until October 30, Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 18:00. The Raumschau 2026 of the Department of Architecture concludes with the finissage on October 30 at 17:00.

Dates

15.10. 17:00, Vernissage

16.10.-30.10. 09:00–18:00, Exhibition open to the public

30.10. 17:00, Finissage