BioMat department at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE)

The Department of Biobased Materials and Materials Cycles in Architecture (BioMat) is located at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) in Faculty 1: Architecture and Urban Planning.

BioMat has the goal to merge the fields of design, sustainable materials developments, form-finding, fabrication, biomimetics, space realization and smart systems in architecture. Since globally, the construction sector is responsible for more than 35% of the overall energy consumption, almost 40 % of energy-related CO2 emissions and about 45 % of resource consumption, we started our missions as architects and engineers at BioMat is to examine different sustainability aspects in architecture. In that context, the whole process towards sustainability in construction was set according to the philosophy (Materials as a Design Tool), through which local resources especially biomass-resources were set as a starting point for the whole process. This became accordingly later a clear link to the ValBio union later on.

Architects, together with engineers, have here the opportunity to apply and develop various computer-aided design and -fabrication technologies in order to produce and realize the needed products, building components and constructions.

Teaching, research, constructions’ realisation, form generation, material development and production as well as industrial projects are highly networked. BioMat offers architecture students and industry partners the opportunity to participate in current research projects within the framework of sustainable and intelligent building systems.

Research fields at BioMat: Sustainability, Design, Form-finding, Fabrication, Development of new building materials, smart materials, fiber-reinforced composites, product design and multifunctional circular building systems.