On the 13th of December, the IBPSC team celebrated their annual Christmas party, starting outside at Kaiser-Josef Platz and followed by indoor celebrations at the institute with music, cookies, drinks, and Secret Santa. We look back upon a very busy and successful 2024 and look forward to achieving even more great things in 2025.

With this message, the IBPSC institute wishes all our collaborators, colleagues, families and friends a relaxing festive season and best wishes for a healthy New Year.

The module “Low Carbon Buildings and Communities” developed and taught by  Prof. Christina Hopfe and Prof. Robert McLeod won one of three Prizes for Teaching Excellence  2023/24 out of a pool of over 4000 modules taught at TU Graz. The award ceremony took place on Tuesday 19. November 2024.  Massive thanks to all the local and international students who have taken part in this module over the past 4 years and provided positive evaluations and feedback to further improve the course. A big thank you to our colleagues and support team at TU Graz, and the whole evaluation committee in particular VR Prof. Stefan Vorbach and the Styrian Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer Steiermark) who kindly donated this award. This recognition means a lot and inspires us to continue delivering excellent teaching.

On November 12, 2024, the presentation of Wienerberger's new masonry robot took place at the HTBLVA Graz Ortweinschule. Members of the “REUSE brick wall” research project took part in the presentation of the pioneering technology, which is set to revolutionize traditional masonry with individual bricks.

The robot combines precise work with efficiency and shows that innovations are not only possible in the field of large-format precast elements, but can also significantly advance traditional construction methods. This development could not only counteract the shortage of skilled workers, but also increase quality and sustainability in the construction industry.

Christina Hopfe was elected president of IBPSA DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) on 25^th September during the BauSIM 2024 conference in Vienna, Austria.
In this role, she looks forward to bringing the international IBPSA conference to Austria for the first time.

In 2024, the REHVA Journal had the pleasure of presenting a series of interviews, created and produced by vice-president, Lada Hensen Centnerová. This series aimed to share insightful conversations with four experts whose work is directly or indirectly related to climate change and the growing issue of building overheating in the European temperate climate. Christina Hopfe featured as third interviewee focussing on various methods for designing resilient buildings, including the Passivhaus standard.

The interview can  be read at www.rehva.eu/rehva-journal/chapter/interview-with-christina-johanna-hopfe-1

At the roundtable on 19 September 2024 organized by the team of the trade journal Dach Wand, Ass. Prof. Hans Hafellner and other experts intensively discussed the future of the zero-degree roof in two rounds of talks. These constructions offer the opportunity to recognize weaknesses as well as strengths of the construction method, especially in times of extreme weather conditions. Despite the diverse opinions from the audience and the panel of experts, there was a consensus that zero-degree roofs will continue to be of interest in the future.

For more information: here and here

On 20 September, a video was shot on the topic of ‘Barriers in existing buildings’ using teaching and learning technologies.
Existing buildings are being extensively refurbished to combat climate change. As part of the refurbishment measures, particular emphasis is placed on the circular economy, sustainability and technical solutions for the future. However, the diversity of the people who use the buildings is often forgotten. The conversion of existing buildings in particular poses major challenges for refurbishments, which are at odds with monument protection and costs. A video was produced at Rechbauerstraße 12 to draw attention to the barriers in historic buildings.
The video will be used in teaching and will be available after the voiceover recordings.

From September 23th -26th 2024, the IBPSC visited the BauSIM in Vienna. Four conference papers were presented. These were given by Mr. DI Lukas Edl, Mr. DI Severin Kysela, Ass.Prof. Dr. Hans Hafellner, Prof. Michael Monsberger and Prof. Christina Hopfe. The next BauSIM will take place in 2026.

As part of the Building and Industrial Construction course, a construction site tour of the Karlau prison in Graz took place on 19 April 2024. Organised by the company IKK, which is responsible for the local construction supervision (ÖBA), the students of Graz University of Technology were given a detailed insight into the ongoing renovation work on wings A, B and C.

The tour enabled the participants to see the progress of the construction work in the various stages of realisation. Of particular interest was the direct comparison between the areas that have already been renovated and those that are still being remodelled. Accompanied by prison officers, a detention room was also visited.

After the construction site tour, the students were invited to IKK Group GmbH, where they were given a tour of the office and a cosy evening on the roof terrace to gain further insights into the work of IKK. The managing director and project manager were available for lively discussions.

Many thanks to the head of ÖBA, Martin Döpper, for organising the event. It was an instructive day that was very well received by all participants.

For further information and impressions, please visit the IKK Group website hier.

The module “Low Carbon Building Design and Communities” developed and taught by  Prof. Christina Hopfe and Prof. Robert McLeod was nominated and shortlisted for the Prize for Teaching Excellence  2022/23. They joined the prestigious shortlist of 14 teams nominated for this award out of the entire portfolio of modules taught at TU Graz. The award ceremony took place on Wednesday 15. November 2023. 

The Styrian Housing Symposium 2023 with the topic “Healthy Building and Living” took place on Wednesday, October 4th in the auditorium of the TU Graz. Univ.-Prof Dr DI Christina Hopfe was one of the seven speakers.  She discussed risks and prevention strategies during heat waves and overheating in her lecture. More information at: https://www.meinviertel.at/steiermark/c-lokales/steirisches-wohnbausymposium-2023-gesundes-machen-und-wohnen_a6304037

Since October 1, 2023, Univ. Prof. Dr DI Michael Monsberger has taken on the role of Vice Rector for Infrastructure and Sustainability. The institute wishes him every success in his new role.

On 25.09.2023 our former colleague Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Partl passed his doctoral viva with distinction. The topic of his doctoral thesis was "Ontology for describing and representing project-organizational relationships in the planning process of MEP systems in a formal way".
Supervisor of the thesis was Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Michael Monsberger. Further reviewers were Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Raimar Scherer, as well as Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Motzko. Assoc.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Christian Hofstadler chaired the viva.
 

The IBPSC came runner up in the category "entreprise" (german: Unternehmen) at the TÜV Austria science awards 2022 for the CovEd project led by Prof Robert McLeod.

For further information, please watch our youtube video - Thanks so much for the support of our Rektor Harald Kainz and the Max Planck Institute. 
 

As part of the course Building and Industrial Construction, an excursion was made to the construction site of the buildings "Data House" and "SAL Building" of the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft.

Accompanied by of the responsible persons of the clients, the planning and the building physics very interesting information about the planning and the building process could be imparted to the excursion participants. 

The IBPSC thanks very much for the opportunity to visit the construction site.

You can find more information about the buildings here: 

Foundation Stone laid for two new Research Centers at TU Graz

Data House und SAL Building (German)

Univ.-Prof Dr Hopfe receives the Dufton Silver Medal for 2021 for the journal paper "Balancing daylight and overheating in low-energy design using CIBSE improved weather files" available at https://lnkd.in/dKxmvGmb written by Eleonora Brembilla, John Mardaljevic, Anastasia Mylona, Eirini Mantesi and herself.

The paper considers the requirements to balance the light available in a space so as to reduce overheating risk, adopting a newly developed solar radiation model. More information at https://lnkd.in/deyu2dqp

The Dufton medal (last awarded in 1999) is awarded for papers relating to fundamental research.