Institut

The Institute’s highest governing body is the Institute Council. The Institute Council is composed of members of the Institute. The members of the Institute Council are:

1. the holders of the Institute’s professorships,
2. the Head of the EDAC,
3. the Technical Director of the VTE, representing the non-academic staff,
4. a representative of the academic staff, including PhD students,
5. a representative of the students and research assistants.

The Förderverein Konstruktiver Ingenieurbau e.V., founded in 1994, is a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of science and research.

The association’s activities focus on supporting the work of the Institute of Structural Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Bauhaus University Weimar, for example through grants for student field trips or for publications as part of the Institute’s series. Every year, the Association organises the Structural Engineering Information Day in collaboration with the Bauhaus Academy at Ettersburg Castle. The event provides a forum for discussing both practical issues and current developments in structural engineering, as well as presenting the respective research work carried out by the Institute’s professors.

The association’s annual summer party is intended to promote collaboration between the Institute of Structural Engineering and companies, firms and public authorities in the region, as well as to maintain and strengthen ties with former students and staff.

Contact:

Dipl.-Ing. Christopher Taube

Marienstraße 13D, 1st floor, Room 102, 99423 Weimar
Coudraystraße 4, 2nd floor, Room M4.37, 99423 Weimar
Telephone: +49 (0) 3643 / 58 34 92
Email: christopher.taube[at]uni-weimar.de  

The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as a key part of the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, was already offering courses in building construction and municipal civil engineering as early as the 1950s. With the establishment of the Centre for Industrial and Specialised Construction, the focus was on structural engineering.

Following the restructuring of the university in the 1990s and its renaming as the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, structural engineering continued to play a central role, as evidenced not least by the founding of the Institute of Structural Engineering in 1994. At that time, it was formed through a voluntary merger of the structurally oriented chairs of Solid Construction I (Prof. Raue), Solid Construction II (Prof. Ackermann), Steel Construction (Prof. Werner) and Planning of Civil Engineering Structures (Prof. Hampe). In 1995, the Testing Facility (Dr Bernuth) joined the Institute. Furthermore, in 1997, the chairs of Timber and Masonry Construction (Prof. Rautenstrauch) and Transport Engineering (Prof. Freundt) joined, as did the Department of Industrial Construction and Plant Safety (Dr Müller) and, finally, the Centre for the Engineering Analysis of Earthquake Damage / Earthquake Damage Analysis Centre – EDAC (Dr Schwarz).

Since the Institute’s foundation, there have been numerous changes to its staff and structure. In 1998, Prof. Ruth took over the Chair of Solid Construction II. The Chair of Civil Engineering Design was initially held by Prof. Braschel until 1999 and subsequently by Dr Trabert as a temporary appointment until 2000. The chair was not refilled thereafter. The Industrial Construction and Plant Safety section was also closed. In 2010, Prof. Morgenthal took over the Chair of Structural Engineering I and continues to hold it under the title ‘Modelling and Simulation – Construction’. In 2012, the Chair of Transport Engineering was integrated into Prof. Morgenthal’s chair. Since 2015, Prof. Kraus has held the Chair of Steel Structures, which was renamed the Chair of Steel and Hybrid Structures. In 2017, the Chair of Timber and Masonry Construction (Prof. Rautenstrauch) was closed without being refilled, and timber construction was subsequently incorporated into Prof. Kraus’s chair. Also in 2017, Prof. Wichtmann joined the Institute with the Chair of Geotechnical Engineering, which is currently headed by Acting Professor Staubach. Since 2020, the IKI has been strengthened by Assistant Professor Abrahamczyk, who holds the junior professorship in ‘Complex Structural Systems’, which, amongst other things, focuses on masonry construction in the context of complex, exceptional load conditions. Since July 2023, Assistant Professor Athanasiou has been working at the IKI as holder of the Chair of “Natural Hazards and Structural Resilience”. Among other things, the Chair focuses on researching the effects of strong winds and earthquakes on multi-storey buildings.

Naturally, the IKI’s profile has been and continues to be largely shaped by its associated professorships and research units. For the traditional disciplines, such as solid construction (steel and prestressed concrete construction), steel and composite construction, and ground engineering, there are now corresponding professorships available, which also cover timber and masonry construction. In addition, there is the Centre for the Engineering Analysis of Earthquake Damage (Earthquake Centre), founded in 1995, which investigates earthquake-induced structural damage in seismically active regions. The experimental investigations, which are indispensable to university research in structural engineering, are carried out by the Experimental Engineering Facility (VTE).