Current courses

The journey of discovery and imagination in this territorial design studio will be moving between Brussels and Lviv—as a cross-section of a continent, explored through its cities and towns, in a mosaic of observations and projects. Along this section we follow the spin of vibrancy and values connected to European visions—as well as current challenges, war, energy and resource crisis, social division. 35% of Europe is covered by woods—a major resource and inspiration for creativity. On the journey of this studio, they are in the focus in a double sense: woods as symbol and space of peripheries, asking about towns and cities beyond metropolis, their perspectives, their regional networks, city-countryside interaction, larger linkages. And we are keen on material culture of cities related to woods. Wood as natural and renewable material is targeted in strategies to limit climate change and to transform cities, economy, and culture to sustainability, as for example in the New European Bauhaus (NEB). Thus, the studio will follow a Circular Design approach to creatively work with material and cultural flows.

The studio is organised as a platform of individual projects, in four phases: (1) speed section: exploration of topics and places along the section; (2) the choice of a city or town and its designerly spatial investigation (voices, videos, images, mapping, diagramming, atmospheres, structures; 1:50,000 to 1:1,000); (3) formulating a strategic project (urban vision, spatial imagination, unconventional forms in territorial design based on the investigation tools; 1,2000 to 1:500); (4) testing the hypothesis of a “Woods Belt” in Central Europe, built from perspectives and networks of its cities and towns. Individual projects can address cities and towns in and near to the woods along the cross-section: for example, Ardennes (Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Germany), Eifel, Thuringia forests (Germany), Bohemian Massiv (Czech Republic, Poland, Germany), Carpathian Mountains (Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine).

Participants in the studio are invited to join the excursion ZERO about architecture and urbanism in Brussels and Flanders oriented to NEB principles.

TRANSFORMERS Winterschool in Sicily 

TRANSFORMERS is about the role and agency of cities to reach climate neutrality, combining this change with social and economic progress. The project focuses on the interrelation and dynamics between urban fabric and society and establishes a joint search for new transformative knowledge, for cities as laboratories of openness, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It builds on recent research in Italy and Germany and cooperates with cities as case studies and stages for new formats of open science in communication and involvement. TRANSFORMERS creates a space of European dialogue that involves researchers, professors, doctoral candidates, and students from Italy and Germany and connects them with interdisciplinary and local experts and citizens. 

The winterschool is organised by the University of Palermo, together with Leibniz University Hannover and Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona. 

The Winterschool in Sicily is for participants in the Master Design Studio. If places are open, also other students from the Master or the 3rd year Bachelor are invited to join. 

This course will be in English. 

Linked to the research project TRANSFORMERS, funded as University Dialogue Southern Europe by DAAD erman Academic Exchange Service. 

This research seminar is part of the Circular Design Lab, organised by the Innovation Alliance Circular Design (CiD). It offers a radically new model on how to link design to circularity and urban transformation. CiD operates on three levels: the co-creation of knowledge on circular design, the set-up of an innovation ecosystem for circular design, and educational innovation in academia, green entrepreneurship, and continuous learning and upskilling.  

Students will be involved to extend methodologies of design research as performative approach: with open experimentation, evolvement of focus, questions and innovatory processes, discussion, feedback-loops, and open models. The Lab aims at linkages between urban design, planning, governance, and urban research, as well as to connect them in a new way to architecture, product and service design, and to territorial innovation—and interdisciplinarily to material sciences, social and economic sciences, and engineering. This wide interdisciplinary setup is supported by the 11 partners of the Innovation Alliance, for example IAAC Barcelona, the Creative Incubators Tallinn, or Materiom Ltd. London, and by Europe-wide and local Observatories with experts from enterprises, public bodies and NGOs active in city-making. 

The aim of the research seminar is to bring circularity thinking into city-making. It develops a design research approach to connect dynamics between space and society. The focus is on urban change and the role of the urban/territorial scale in the overall innovatory triangle of the European Innovation Alliance Circular Design (CiD): to re-think design for circular economy, shift design toward climate-neutrality of cities, and foster bio-innovation for the built environment. Students will work on different topics at the interface between circular economy / circularity and city-making.  

Participants of the seminar are invited to join for an international workshop in Barcelona in February 2025, together with students from IAAC Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the University of Genova. 

This course will be in English. 

Part of the activities of CiD Circular Design Innovation Alliance, funded by the European Union. www.cid-innovationalliance.eu 

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Circular Design Lab: How does it work?  

• three parts: 1. research seminar plus workshop in Barcelona (winter 2024-25), 2. Master design studio plus exhibiton (summer 2025), 3. then selected groups form the design studio are selected for the accelerator and excursion to Tallinn (Sep 2025). 

• you can enter independently into the parts 1 and 2. 

• still, we invite to join both parts 1 and 2: a certain share of places in the second part is for those who continue from the first part. 

• however, also new students will be admitted for the second part. 

• the second part (design studio) is for masters, the first part (seminar plus workshop) is for masters but also advanced bachelors may join. 

• you can use the research seminar or/and the Master design studio to prepare a thesis, we would welcome that. 

• both the workshop in Barcelona and the accelerator programm in Tallinn are fully funded  by the European Union. 

This workshop is part of the Circular Design Lab, organised by the Innovation Alliance Circular Design (CiD). It offers a radically new model on how to link design to circularity and urban transformation. CiD operates on three levels: the co-creation of knowledge on circular design, the set-up of an innovation ecosystem for circular design, and educational innovation in academia, green entrepreneurship, and continuous learning and upskilling.  

Students will be involved to extend methodologies of design research as performative approach: with open experimentation, evolvement of focus, questions and innovatory processes, discussion, feedback-loops, and open models. The Lab aims at linkages between urban design, planning, governance, and urban research, as well as to connect them in a new way to architecture, product and service design, and to territorial innovation—and interdisciplinarily to material sciences, social and economic sciences, and engineering. This wide interdisciplinary setup is supported by the 11 partners of the Innovation Alliance, for example IAAC Barcelona, the Creative Incubators Tallinn, or Materiom Ltd. London, and by Europe-wide and local Observatories with experts from enterprises, public bodies and NGOs active in city-making. 

The aim of the workshop in Barcelona in February 2025 is to create exchange between the students from Leibniz University Hannover, IAAC Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and the University of Genova, in order to identify challenges and interfaces between urban design, architecture, and product and service design related to circular economy and circularity. Students, furthermore, will take part in the international conference “Design matter for decarbonisation” organised by IAAC in the framework of CiD. The Short Project includes a preparation phase before and a postproduction phase after the workshop. 

This workshop is for participants in the Circular Design Research Seminar. If places are open, also other students from the Master or the 3rd year Bachelor are invited to join. 

This course will be in English. 

Part of the activities of CiD Circular Design Innovation Alliance, funded by the European Union. www.cid-innovationalliance.eu 

____ 

Circular Design Lab: How does it work?  

• three parts: 1. research seminar plus workshop in Barcelona (winter 2024-25), 2. Master design studio plus exhibiton (summer 2025), 3. then selected groups form the design studio are selected for the accelerator and excursion to Tallinn (Sep 2025). 

• you can enter independently into the parts 1 and 2. 

• still, we invite to join both parts 1 and 2: a certain share of places in the second part is for those who continue from the first part. 

• however, also new students will be admitted for the second part. 

• the second part (design studio) is for masters, the first part (seminar plus workshop) is for masters but also advanced bachelors may join. 

• you can use the research seminar or/and the Master design studio to prepare a thesis, we would welcome that. 

• both the workshop in Barcelona and the accelerator programm in Tallinn are fully funded  by the European Union. 

reCITYing Workshop: City & Music 

This Short Project focuses on the interaction of urban design and arts to reactivate unused urban spaces. Building on the results from the seminar in summer 2024, the workshops in winter 2024-25 focus on the area of Lindener Hafen in Hannover, a former transport and industrial hub, the discovery of its potentials and of already emerging new activities. In the Short Project, installations will be designed and developed to foster urban change in Lindener Hafen – linked to music. Hannover is UNESCO City of Music, its vivid music scene is linked to several cultural, social, and economic dimensions. The projects for installations will be presented and discussed in an international workshop, together with the University of Genova, IAAC Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, UGM Gallery Maribor, and Festival Architectures Vives Montpellier – in a dialogue between different unused spaces in Hannover, Genova, Barcelona, and Maribor, as well as between architecture, urban design, music, performing arts, land art, and visual art. One of the installations will then, in summer 2025, be realised as design-build project. 

This course will be in English. 

Linked to the research project reCITYing, funded in the Creative Europe Programme of European Union. recitying.org 

International Week in Milan: Antifragile Territories 

The International Week in Milan is an international workshop organised by the DAStU, the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of Politecnico di Milano, invited professors, researchers and students come from Leibniz University Hannover, Université Paris-Est-Créteil, University of Ljubljana, HafenCity University Hamburg, and Malmö University. The workshop is about the concept of antifragility which is the basis of the research initiative of DAStU funded as Department of Excellence in Italy and of the new Competence Center for Antifragile Territories, which aims at excellence in research as well as in teaching. Antifragility can be an inspiring concept for planners, designers, architects, social scientists, regarding policy making and governance, in order to rethink the limits of mainstreaming planning and design. “You are antifragile if shocks and disruptions make you stronger and more creative, better able to adapt to each new challenge you face” (Nicolas Taleb). 

The International Week in Milan is scheduled for 10–14 February 2025. 

Students for the International Week can apply to an open call in October 2024. 

This course will be in English. 

BIG Exhibition and workshop 

Following project “BIG - Transformation is a matter of negotiation” on approaches to simple construction and building types, an exhibition and workshop will be organised, which will show and discuss the results of the projects of the 5 participating architecture departments in Lower Saxony. In addition to the LUH Hannover, the TU Braunschweig and the universities in Oldenburg, Buxtehude and Hildesheim are involved, together with the Lower Saxony Chamber of Architects on behalf of the Lower Saxony State Government. The aim of the project is to use design workshops to provide guidance for the introduction of building class E (experimental) to facilitate the reutilisation of buildings.  

This course will be in German. 

This course is intended for participants in the Kurz BIG project in summer 2024. 

Co-funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economy, Transport, Building and Digitalisation. 

There is no architecture without the city. Architectural work derives from the tasks and future of the societies and communities for which architects design and build; and architecture refers to the context of material, functional and meaningful space, in a variety of references and scales. When the professional practice and academic nature of the discipline argues its uniqueness and significance in cultural, political and economic discussions, it is today faced with an additional task: to explore and explain what city actually means. We go one step further: by territory we mean the built environment in larger contexts, especially in the interplay of country and city, in a vision of settlement as habitat. How has territory changed, which current and future changes can we name? How can we redefine the interfaces between architectural and urban planning with infrastructure, culture and nature, landscape, economy and society? What is the role and task of architecture not only for the design of buildings, but also for the articulation of spaces on a larger scale of the territory? Which concepts and design tools are necessary for this, how can they be communicated?

In the programme MSc Architecture and Urban Design, OPEN TOPIC can be used to work on research dossiers, especially in preparation for the master thesis. 

In the programme BSc Architecture, OPEN TOPIC can be used for research in preparation and support of an individual bachelor thesis in urban design.

Process design and communication in urban development and urban planning 

This module deepens skills for the development of independent urban planning project work with regard to the design of urban development and urban planning processes and the communication of projects and strategies both in an interdisciplinary and public focus; understanding of the systems of thought, inclusion/integration and modes of action of different groups of actors in planning processes; development of spatial concepts in communicative and participatory processes. 

This course will be in German. 

Individual offers by arrangement. 

The course offers an insight into the basics of integrated transport planning. 

In the first part the basics of integrated transport planning are presented. In addition to classic parameters for the design of traffic areas, such as functional requirements, cross-sections, radii, etc., current developments in mobility are examined, such as car sharing, electromobility, automated driving or the promotion of cycling. 

At the same time, spatially differentiated mobility cultures are presented, for which different new mobility offers must be created in the regional context. Building on this, it will be shown what future-oriented, integrated mobility concepts for cities, residential areas or companies could look like. 

Using the example of a current development project, concrete designs for integrated, target group-differentiated mobility infrastructures are developed. In addition to the question of the design of road cross-sections in relation to the urban space, solutions are also being developed for the integration of the traffic and parking space infrastructure into urban design and architecture.

The course is conducted by Mr. Henrik Sander, who as partner of the office orangeedge in Hamburg has extensive topical knowledge.

The current issues of housing and affordable living put cities outside of the metropolitan agglomerations in a new light: why build on a large scale anew when resources built elsewhere are already available? This ‘elsewhere’ must be about activation: opportunities for work, opened up by digitalisation, innovation and new productivity, but also cultural and social vibrancy, in places that have previously been seen as peripheries and are often affected by shrinkage. With this project, we are developing strategies for ‘circular design’, the activation of urban elements as spaces of opportunity and as part of new dynamics and networks in the city that contribute to a circular economy. Urban design can shape this process of discovering the unforeseen - according to Richard Sennett (‘The Open City’), open narratives, unfinished forms and ‘passage territories’ play an important role in this. ‘Passage Territories’ is an adaptive, experimental and contextual view of boundary and rupture situations that can contribute to the dynamics of the city and its social and cultural openness.   

The setting for this project will be Görlitz-Zgorzelec, a twin city with 90,000 inhabitants on the Polish-German border, which thus not only includes borders and ruptures in the cities themselves, but also an inner-European border with the River Neisse. We ask about the role of the ‘Görliwood’ phenomenon - the old town as a well-known film set - and the connection with the structural change in the post-mining regions of Lusatia and Silesia. The aim is to find independent intervention sites in the twin city and to develop them as potential spaces for activation. The focus is on new organisational and spatial forms of living, working, production, community and culture. By responding to different actors and initiatives, adaptiveness becomes an important part of design. And it is about new connections - between Polish and German neighbourhoods, city and countryside, existing spatial practices and new impulses.  

Based on a jointly developed understanding of the twin city, of border and rupture situations, the project is methodically organised in three steps: 1) the techniques of finding three-dimensional transformation potentials and their representation, 2) the elaboration of contextual factors of a neighbourhood - for intervention and for its charisma as an activator of change, and 3) the structural, creative and programmatic conception of spaces of possibility. 

The excursion to Wroclaw and Zgorzelec-Görlitz is organised in connection with OPEN CYLCES, but participation is not obligatory. 

Wroclaw is the third largest city in Poland (1.25 million in the metropolitan area) and has the highest proportion of students, cultural vibrancy and internationality. It is regarded as one of the most liveable cities in Eastern Europe. The excursion explores the urban and cultural development of Wroclaw, also as the capital of the Silesia region. In addition to important historical projects, such as the Century Hall, the Werkbund Estate or Mendelssohn's department store, the preservation and renewal of the old city centre, current urban development issues such as the river Oder in the city or the activation of former industrial areas will be examined.  

On the outward journey, explorations, visits and meetings in Zgorzelec-Görlitz will develop an understanding of this twin city as a place for urban design. We start from the Polish side, for a different view of the border situation and the twin city. Field research and joint discussions support the identification of spatial potentials, the context analysis and the development of activation strategies.   

The excursion is linked to the City of OPEN CYCLES design, but also other students can participate if places are available. 

The session City & Landscape of the introductory module Interactions (Wechselwirkungen) is about first insights into concepts and working methods of urban design (Prof. Jörg Schröder) and landscape architecture (Prof. Christian Werthmann). In the two lectures and the exam exercise, design-oriented analytical basics are taught. Selected case studies are approached by different scale levels. The aims of the session are: 

(1) To recognise interactions between the architectural case studies and their context and to be able to explain them, 

(2) to develop a basic understanding of city and of landscape and the complexity and significance of their spatial forms and structures,  

(3) combined with the ability to synthesise spatial knowledge and to adequately explain it.