On June 9, 2026, the closing symposium of the Visiting Professorships in Timber Construction took place at the University of Stuttgart. For over six years, the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC and the Baden-Württemberg Timber Construction Initiative funded “research tandems” of architects and engineers who conducted research and taught at the host institutes, IBK and ITKE. The symposium was accompanied by an exhibition that presented the tandems’ teaching and research findings through text, images, and film.
By focusing on the topics of forest restructuring and circularity, the symposium highlighted two of the key forces that are fundamentally transforming timber construction today and offered insights into how research and teaching must be shaped in the future under changing conditions. The exhibition provided insights into the visiting professors’ individual strategic approaches and perspectives. After six years of intensive research and teaching at the University of Stuttgart, the event served as a platform for rethinking the intersections of forestry, digital fabrication, and circular architecture.
The tandem partners from 2020–2026 were:
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Markus Lager & Dr.-Ing. Jochen Stahl
Dipl.-Ing. Farid Scharabi & Dr.-Ing. Jochen Stahl
Dipl.-Ing. Søren Linhart & Dr.-Ing. Thomas Ehrhart
Dr.-Ing. Sonja Geier & M. Sc. Simon Mönch
Dipl.-Ing. Simon Jüttner & M. Sc. Jana Nowak
Host institutions:
Institute for Building Construction (IBK)/Prof. Jens Ludloff
Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE)/Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
In addition to teaching, Thomas Ehrhart also launched the research project “Timber Truss Beams: (Dis)assembly and Performance of Various Joint Types with Regard to Reuse” during his tenure as a visiting professor at ITKE, a project that was continued by his successor, Simon Mönch. The project made it to the finals of the DGNB Sustainability Challenge 2025 in the research category. Participants included the ITKE, the Materials Testing Institute (MPA), and the Institute for Structural Design (KE), as well as industry partners Würth and SWG Schraubenwerk Gaisbach.
Through these visiting professorship positions, the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC and the Baden-Württemberg Timber Construction Initiative promoted the training of young students in timber construction and the use of wood in architecture from 2020 to 2026, as well as fostering collaboration between research and practice. IntCDC supported the program with 200,000 euros. The visiting professors in timber construction also enriched the networking opportunities offered by the digitize wood platform.
Related links:
Timber Truss Beams: (Dis)assembly and Performance of Various Joint Types with Regard to Reuse: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bate.202500033
