Her doctoral topic is more relevant than ever: For four years, Dr. Lisa Kaufmann is working on the densification of post-war modernist row housing estates. There is a current debate behind this somewhat unwieldy-sounding topic: How do cities create affordable living space and stabilize the rental market? How can existing apartment buildings be designed to be age-friendly?

“Germany and Central Europe are finished. We should adapt what we have and not seal up more green spaces. “Urban sprawl, i.e. the expansion of cities, must be stopped,” says Kaufmann. Her doctoral thesis makes an important contribution to making the existing residential development sustainable. “The terraced housing estates seem banal at first glance, but it's worth taking a closer look at them. I find it exciting to find something special in the everyday,” explains the architect.

The 34-year-old from Butzbach earned her doctorate through the Doctoral Center for Engineering (PZI) at the Research Campus of Central Hessen . A total of three supervisors from THM , Justus Liebig University Gießen and Frankfurt University of Applied Science accompanied her work. Linked to her doctorate was a position as a lecturer at the THM in the architecture course.

“When I accepted the position at THM , I particularly enjoyed teaching. We supervised the students in the design and building science module. Being able to pass on some values ​​to them was very enriching,” she says. The students not only talked about building materials, but also, for example, about the fact that night shifts are not necessary to produce a good design.

In the course of her academic work, she increasingly realized how important research is in architecture - which, as she says, had previously played an insignificant role. “In order to develop the city of the future, interdisciplinarity is needed. Experts from many disciplines, such as civil engineering, urban planning, sociology, must work and research together.”

That's why Kaufmann wants to continue working in architectural research. She is currently taking the opportunity to further deepen her dissertation topic in a post-doc position at the TU Vienna. At the same time, she has been working on publishing her doctoral thesis since last December. “My book was published as an open access publication in July. The university library made this possible through generous funding,” explains Lisa Kaufmann. Her publication not only addresses students who are concerned with densification in residential construction, but also practitioners, for example in urban planning offices.

According to Kaufmann, the partially vulnerable residents in the row housing estates must be protected. The findings from their survey and consideration of various settlements that were created in the post-war period: A solution-oriented approach to official requirements, including aspects of the mobility transition or a holistic approach to making the settlements more age-friendly can help ensure that they are more densely designed - and improve quality of life and create new living space.

“The nice thing about architecture is that you think of something and in the end you can walk through it,” she says. The very high practical component of the course is attractive, but research must and is becoming increasingly important. “The example of my dissertation shows well that practice and theory cannot be separated.”