Profile
Christina Eisenbarth studied architecture and urban planning at the School of Architecture Saar, the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Nancy, and the University of Stuttgart, specializing in resource- and energy-efficient building. Since then, she has focused on transforming the built environment in response to global climate challenges.

From 2017 to 2025, she conducted research and teaching at the Institute of Lightweight Design and Construction (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart in the field of adaptive façade technologies. She developed the internationally patented hydroactive building envelopes — ‘HydroSKIN’ — which help mitigate urban flood and heat risks through rainwater absorption and evaporative cooling. Since 2023, she has led a transfer and start-up enterprise emerging from her nationally and internationally award-winning research, bridging the gap between research and practical architectural application. Her multiple-award-winning doctoral dissertation, Foundations for the Functional Design of Hydroactive Envelopes, was completed in 2024 as part of the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center 1244, Adaptive Envelopes and Structures for the Built Environment of Tomorrow.

From 2022 to 2024, she was a visiting researcher at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney and has been an external member of the Sydney Environment Institute since 2022. Since 2025, she also serves as an expert for the European Commission on research and innovation projects. She declined an appointment at the École d’Architecture of the Université de Montréal in 2025 to accept the Tenure-Track Professorship for Design and Technology of Resilient Architecture at the Department of Architecture, TU Darmstadt.

Research
Christina Eisenbarth’s research explores how innovative technologies can be strategically integrated into building façades, showing that façades should no longer be understood as static elements, but as dynamic, multifunctional systems that significantly contribute to the resilience, efficiency, and design quality of the built environment.

A key focus is the transformative potential of building envelopes for climate adaptation of buildings and cities in response to increasing heat and flood events (Figs. 1–3). Other research and teaching projects address adaptive solar and glare protection solutions for precise light transmission control (Fig. 4), LED-integrated façade systems for media display and user interaction (Fig. 5), and opening systems that regulate daylight, ventilation, or acoustics indoors (Fig. 6). Particular emphasis is placed on empirical investigations, prototype development, and their measurement-based evaluation (Figs. 7–9).

Dwindling planetary resources and increasing weather and climate extremes make it necessary to rethink architecture and expand it to include climate adaptation—toward resilient and future-proof building culture. In her research, Christina Eisenbarth encourages doctoral and student researchers to pursue bold, unconventional, and even “utopian” ideas that can generate groundbreaking solutions to the global challenges of our time. She views interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration as a central key to developing viable solutions.

Teaching
Through research-based learning, she introduces students early to the current challenges of the construction industry and teaches them scientific working methods. Her goal is to foster responsibility for resilient and future-oriented building systems and to impart skills that prepare students for traditional professional paths as well as doctoral or academic careers.

• 2022 CTBUH Innovation Award of Excellence Winner & Overall Category Winner
• 2023 Iconic Awards – Innovative Architecture Best of Best & Innovative Material Winner
• 2023 The Architect‘s Newspaper (AN) Technology: Smart Building, Smart Home, & Automation Systems Winner
• 2023 German Sustainability Award Nomination, Next Economy Award
• 2023 World of Architecture Festival (WAFx) Water Prize by GROHE AG Winner & WAF Future Project: Experimental “Highly Commended”
• 2024 German Design Award GOLD
• 2024 “Blauer Kompass” by the German Environment Agency and Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection
• 2025 Young Researcher Award 2025 (Dissertation) in Engineering Sciences, Gips-Schüle Foundation
• 2025 German Study Prize 2025 (Dissertation) 1st Place Natural and Engineering Sciences, Körber Foundation
• 2025 Stuttgart Innovation Award Nomination, City of Stuttgart

[1] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Klett, Y. et al., PAOSS: Pneumatically Actuated Origami Sun Shading, Journal of Façade Design and Engineering, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 147–162, 2021. DOI: 10.7480/JFDE.2021.1.5535

[2] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Sobek, W., Apparatus for absorbing precipitation water and for water evaporation, WIPO, Int. Publ. Nr. WO2022/078637A1 (PCT Patent), 2022

[3] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Blandini, L., Sobek, W., Potentials of Hydroactive Lightweight Façades for Urban Climate Resilience, Civil Engineering Design, vol. 4, pp. 14–24, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/cend.202200003

[4] Rentz, A., Oei, M., Eisenbarth, C. et al., A Hydroactive Facade for Rainwater Harvesting and Evaporative Cooling: Dynamic Modeling and Simplification for Application in Optimization-based Long-term Building Operation Strategy, Proc. Conf. Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Trieste, 2022, pp. 418–424. DOI: 10.1109/CCTA49430.2022.9966186

[5] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Blandini, L., Sobek, W., HydroSKIN, TALL buildings + URBAN habitat, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago, 2022; vol. 5, p. 280–281

[6] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Blandini, L., Sobek, W., HydroSKIN: Lightweight Façade Element for Urban Rainwater Harvesting and Evaporative Cooling, Proc. Façade Tectonics 2022 World Congress, Los Angeles, 2022.

[7] Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W., Blandini, L., Sobek, W., Climate-Adaptive Façades: An Integral Approach for Urban Rainwater and Temperature Management, Structures and Architecture: A Viable Urban Perspective?, Proc. Fifth Int. Conf. on Structures and Architecture (ICSA 2022), Aalborg, 2022, p. 327–328

[8] Blandini, L., Eisenbarth, C., Haase, W. et al., Adaptive Textile Façade Systems – The Experimental Works at D1244, Facade Design – Challenges and Future Perspective, IntechOpen, 2023. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.113125

[9]Blandini, L., Eisenbarth, C., Jeong, M. et al., Adaptive Façade Systems, DETAIL Research, vol. 5, pp. 12–15, 2023

[10] Eisenbarth, C., Foundations for the Functional Design of Hydroactive Envelopes, Dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 2024