Meinrad v. Engelberg, art historian at the Department of Architecture and Art History at TU Darmstadt, launched a – surprisingly successful – experiment at the partner university TU Graz as part of the Erasmus Staff Mobility Program. In November 2023, 20 Bachelor students attended a one-week workshop there on the topic of “Design strategies at Fischer von Erlach”. After an introduction in the seminar room with literature research, numerous works by Austria's most famous pre-modern architect were visited in Graz, Salzburg and Vienna during a three-day excursion. This enabled the participants to familiarize themselves with Fischer's specific formal language and, on the last day, to develop their own impromptu designs for fictitious building projects in groups of four according to his design strategies.

This playful and creative way of engaging with architectural history, which required no prior knowledge but open eyes and the courage to explore the unfamiliar, proved to be an “unusual” expedition in the literal sense of the word, but a stimulating one for everyone as they explored unfamiliar design terrain. Return visits by lecturers from the Graz Institute for Design in Existing Contexts and Monument Conservation (Prof. Matthias Castorph) in Darmstadt are planned for the coming semester.