More than 120 guests from industry, trade and research are invited by Prof. Dr. Joaquín Díaz, Dean at the Department of Building at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), followed a colloquium at specialist lectures. There were perspectives on the future of the industry and the cities.

The guests from the region, all over Germany and Switzerland were welcomed by THMPresident Prof. Dr. Matthias Willems welcomes. He emphasized the importance of the industry - and the science within it - in shaping a future worth living. The event, for whose participation the Hesse Chamber of Engineers awarded six points, was moderated by Prof. Dr. Bertram Kühn.

In the introductory lecture “Construction Industry in Transition” Dr. Matthias Jacob, Vice President of Building Construction in the Main Association of the Construction Industry, talks about the challenges posed by the megatrends of digitalization and sustainability. These topics ran through other lectures such as “Digitization and construction standards” by Wilhelm Veenhuis from the “Federal Association of Software and Digitalization in Construction” or “From object-oriented product models to BIM, AI and IoT - Selected developments in construction informatics” by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Rüppel, head of the Institute for Numerical Methods and Informatics in Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Climate was the focus of the presentations "Energy Efficiency as a Contribution to Climate Neutrality" by Peter Starfinger, Managing Director of the Hesse Chamber of Engineers, and Prof. Joachim Kilian's presentation "Flash Floods – Risk Communication and Disaster Management." Finally, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Minnert, former Dean of the Department of Civil Engineering and Executive Director of StudiumPlus, paid tribute to his predecessor and successor, Díaz, with his address "Once a Dean, Always a Dean." Díaz hosted the colloquium to celebrate his 60th birthday, and accordingly, a relaxed portion of the event followed the specialist presentations.