Muscat Daily

In co­ope­ra­ti­on with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel's De­part­ment of Vi­sual Arts and Ar­chi­tec­tu­re, GU­tech held a sym­po­si­um tit­led 'Buil­ding/ Art/ In­ven­ti­on' at the uni­ver­si­ty’s pre­mi­ses in Hal­ban re­cent­ly.

The one-day sym­po­si­um laun­ched at the sa­me ti­me a jo­int re­se­arch pro­ject on lo­cal re­sour­ces and new ma­te­rials, fun­ded by the Ger­man Aca­de­mic Ex­chan­ge Ser­vice.

“S­ci­en­tists, en­gineers and ar­chi­tects need to be crea­ti­ve in or­der to rea­li­se their ideas. This sym­po­si­um is a plat­form for crea­ti­ve ideas. To find in­no­va­ti­ve so­lu­ti­ons in dif­fe­rent fields, GU­tech en­cou­ra­ges in­ter­di­s­ci­p­li­na­ry re­se­arch,” said Pro­fes­sor Dr Mi­cha­el Mo­di­gell, rec­tor of GU­tech.

In the re­se­arch plat­form, 'Buil­ding/ Arts/ In­ven­ti­on' of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel, a team of ar­tists, de­sig­ners and ar­chi­tects, are trying to find in­no­va­ti­ve so­lu­ti­ons.

“We bring to­ge­ther ex­perts in the fields of vi­sual arts, ar­chi­tec­tu­re, in­ter­ac­ti­on de­sign, in­du­s­trial de­sign, ex­pe­ri­men­tal phy­sics and ma­te­rial re­se­arch,” said Pro­fes­sor Hei­ke Kluss­mann of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel.

For examp­le one re­se­arch pro­ject fo­cu­ses on ge­ne­ra­ting en­er­gy by using the tech­ni­cal prin­ci­pals of a so­lar cell.

The team crea­tes and ma­nu­fac­tu­res their own de­sign tools.

“We de­sign our own tools in the de­sign stu­dio of the uni­ver­si­ty. When you de­ve­lop and pro­du­ce your own tools, you are not li­mi­t­ed and you can de­ve­lop the tools ac­cor­ding to your own needs,” said Hei­ke, who re­cent­ly re­cei­ved an award for her in­no­va­ti­ve te­a­ching me­thods.

“From the first year on­wards, we en­cou­ra­ge stu­dents to te­ach and to ta­ke res­pon­si­bi­li­ties,” she said Hei­ke.

Th­ree stu­dents of the de­part­ment, Ni­co Ku­diel­ka, And­re May and Les­s­a­no Ne­gus­si pre­sen­ted their jo­int mas­ter the­sis, cal­led Ms Im-port/Ex-port pro­ject, a in­ter­di­s­ci­p­li­na­ry plat­form for arts, sci­en­ces and edu­ca­ti­on on the ri­ver Ful­da, which flows th­rough the ci­ty of Kas­sel.

Da­nie­la Ott­mann, as­si­s­tant pro­fes­sor at the de­part­ment of Ur­ban Plan­ning and Ar­chi­tec­tu­ral De­sign of GU­tech, pre­sen­ted the jo­int-re­se­arch pro­ject on lo­cal re­sour­ces and new ma­te­rials.

“Our mis­si­on is to ex­p­lo­re lo­cal ma­te­rials by ex­pe­ri­men­ting and using know­led­ge that was used in the past th­rough in­ven­ting ‘new’ ma­te­rials for a fu­tu­re buil­ding ma­te­rial in­du­s­try and mar­ket in the sul­ta­na­te,” said Da­nie­la.