The Chair of Design and Housing at Bauhaus-University Weimar addresses the issue of what kind of spaces we want to live in against the backdrop of substantial social and environmental transformation. It is seen as a collective teaching and learning workshop that is committed to various formats, activities and biographies within and outside the university, while being in a continuing process of development. The Chair’s teaching and research concept is based on the assumption that architecture represents a cultural practice that is immediately linked to the negotiation between public and private spaces.
Professor
Verena von Beckerath is an architect and co-founder of the architectural practice Heide & von Beckerath in Berlin, and a professor of design and housing at the Bauhaus- Universität Weimar. She studied sociology, art history and psychology in Paris and Hamburg and architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. She was teaching and research assistant at Universität der Künste Berlin and visiting professor at Technische Universität Braunschweig and Cornell University. Verena von Beckerath held a fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and is a recipient of the Rome Prize at the German Academy in Rome Villa Massimo. In spring 2026, she was visiting faculty at the School of Architecture at Princeton University.
Teaching and research associates
Till Hoffmann is an architect and trained carpenter. He studied Architektur (Architecture) at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and at the Washington Alexandria Architecture Centre at Virginia Tech. During and after his studies, he worked at Heide & von Beckerath in Berlin and then at coido architects in Hamburg. He is a freelance architect and co-founder of Studio Dörner Hoffmann in Weimar. Till Hoffmann was a Visiting Critic at Cornell University and has been a teaching / research associate at the professorship for Housing Design at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar since 2017. He is involved in the Haus Bräutigam model project in Schwarzburg.
Hanna Maria Schlösser studied architecture at ETH Zurich, during which time she was co-editor of the student publication trans magazin at the Department of Architecture. After completing her studies, she worked for Staufer Hasler Architekten in Frauenfeld and Schmid Schärer Architekten in Zurich. She is a freelance architect and co-founder of Oficina in Berlin. Since 2019, she has been a research assistant at the professorship for Housing Design at the Bauhaus University Weimar. She was a Member of the interdisciplinary research workshop Crisis and Transformation of the Home (11/2022-02/2024). In the winter semester 2024/25, she will hold the Wüstenrot guest professorship at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Former teaching and research associates
- Jessica Christoph
- Beverly Engelbrecht
- Niklas Fanelsa
- Avital Sarah Greenshpon
- Felix Iburg
- Henning Michelsen
Former student assistants
- Emily Bielmeyer
- Simon Bohnet
- Luisa Christa
- Annika Knapp
- Paul Knopf
- Klara Löchte
- Vincent Mank
- Annahelen Josepha Mende
- Anastasia Mirkina
- Mona Rahal
- Zeno Schnelle
- Moritz Schnettler
- Ernst Schubert
- Momoko Yasaka
- Maximilian von Zepelin