Institutes

Subject group A Historical Foundations comprises the subjects “History of Architecture and Art”, “Classical Archaeology”, “History and Theory of Architecture” and, since 2019, “Architectural Theory and Science”. The tradition of art history at the TU Darmstadt dates back to 1869. In 1971, an additional professorship in Classical Archaeology was established, and in 1998, the former Department of Architectural History became the Department of History and Theory of Architecture.

Department B Design and Art offers a broad spectrum in teaching and research that combines traditional artistic and computer-based media and methods in design and representation.

The subject areas of Division C deal with topics of building construction. Without the development of constructive details, the realisation of designs would not be possible.

The subject areas of subject group D are also intensively dedicated to design theory. Thematically, these disciplines form bridges to the subject group urban planning, as they are just as dedicated to building and open space typology in research and teaching as the disciplines active at other scale levels in areas of urban and regional planning.

The subject group E has existed since 1971, the beginnings of the Darmstadt Model. Since then, architectural education in Darmstadt has been understood as a unity of structural and urban planning. It is the largest of the six subject groups and includes a broad spectrum of subjects from urban planning, urban development, urban design and open space planning, whereby the unifying task is considered to be the renewal of cities and regions in the careful handling of existing buildings.

In research and teaching, the subject areas of Division F deal with the relationship between the natural habitat and the built environment as a result of integrative architectural design. The Department of Design and Sustainable Construction, founded in 2013 as part of a Goldbeck Endowed Professorship, is the successor to the Department of Design and Energy-Efficient Construction (2001-2014).