Digital Wicker: Interdisciplinary and Research-Informed Teaching Concepts exemplified Through Textile Fabrication Processes for Willow Structures

This paper presents a research-informed teaching (RIT) and learning approach that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on experimentation for a dynamic advancement of academic research in the field of sustainable architecture. Additionally, transdisciplinary collaborations with various research partners and funding bodies within academic education underline the relevance of the teaching results and the importance of building and testing the developed concepts at architectural scale. This paper presents the example of interdisciplinary teaching courses that are part of a strategy for rapid innovation at the intersection of research and teaching at the Professorship for Digital Design and Fabrication (DDF) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). They enable students to gain transformative knowledge in interdisciplinary teamwork focused on the intertwined topics of architecture, digital construction technology and sustainability. Here presented is one case study of the resulting student work, which addresses challenges in the construction sector through the exploration of low-emissions processing for circular materials such as willow, highlighting its rapid regrowth and adaptability of digital fabrication processes. ... mehrThe knowledge gained through these research-informed teaching methods is applied through the production of experimental prototypes that are used to visualize construction innovation for public discussion.