Dissertation thesis "How to think Architecture in a new way. Late though of Peter Eisenman and his critical theory of architecture" tries to summarise and analyse the key thoughts of architect and thinker Peter Eisenman in his late oeuvre. The point of departure of his theoretical thinking seems to be refusal of any timeless essence of architecture and a will to "dislocate" architecture from influence of metaphysics. The way to this is "criticality", a notion constituted with three basic terms: interiority (the interiority of architecture defines the discipline, what it is that makes architecture singular), exteriority (external concepts that change architecture by being internalised into the discipline and changing it) and anteriority (anteriority is the sedimented history of architecture; history of interiority). These three terms are according to Eisenman connected in a notion of "undecidability" that serves as a central criterium to criticality and in a "diagram" that is a mean to overcome metaphysical implications of architecture. At the end of the thesis there is a summary of Eisenman's theoretical work and its importance and an attempt is made to set so conceived whole in its entirety to the thought of "end of metaphysics". In this context is Eisenman seen to be in a position similar from...

The inability of language to convey complete meaning and truth is a central point of address for much post-structuralist literary theory and criticism. When these theories are applied to a first-person narrative structure, whether it is a work of fiction or non-fiction, certain specific incongruities arise. When a narrative seeks to recall certain events, a presupposed reexamination takes place as the narrative unfolds text comes into being. If a narractice is contructed in this way then the intent of the text then is to convey comprehensive meanings or truths of those cataloged experiences. According Deconstructive Theory, it is language's inherent nature to resist ultimate meaning. This focus on the articulation of truth is futile because meaning, like language, is always already in a state of fragmentation. This project explores five individual works from different literary traditions-ranging from the canonical to the relatively obscure. The works exhibit various approaches to articulation; including varying degrees of self-definition, personal fiction, and narrative movement toward inarticulation.

This thesis explores the inherent complexities and contradictions embedded in the radical turn in South African historiography with regards to the decolonisation of the discipline of history in South African universities under apartheid from 1960 to 1991. By choosing to deconstruct radical history in a white liberal university, the study seeks to further demonstrate the limits of intellectual decolonisation and its underlying assumptions in the academic field during apartheid. It interrogates radical history as a form of academic resistance and leads a reflection on the political role of the intellectual in the context of the anti-apartheid struggle, asking more broadly: to what extent can radical academic history be considered “de/colonised knowledge”? Building on the links between ideology and curriculum, this study aimed to measure the coloniality of history using history examination questions as tools to investigate the methodological, theoretical and ideological assumptions of historians. Theoretically, the study relied on the role of the historian as a recontextualising agent of disciplinary knowledge taught and examined within a historically white higher education institution to study its concomitant underlying historiographical silences at the time. Methodologically, it deployed quantitative and qualitative research methods, using interviews and semi-structured questionnaires with a targeted cohort of authentic interlocutors to triangulate the discursive analysis of institutionalised “de/colonised” historical knowledge. This interdisciplinary study was thus inscribed in a critical deconstructionist approach to knowledge which contributed to a finer conceptual and empirical understanding of the coloniality of history as a discipline and its reproduction in the South African higher education context. The study hopes (1) to contribute to understanding the nuanced intersections between the history of intellectual colonisation and decolonisation and how these tensions impacted on history education in the apartheid university, (2) to provide an original interdisciplinary mixed method of analysis of institutionalised “de/colonised knowledge”, and (3) to contribute new critical insights into blind spots in South African radical historiography in higher education during the period 1960 to 1991, which could shed light on the various understandings of the imperative for decolonisation today in the discipline.

The aim of this master’s thesis in archival science is to understand how four individuals’ use or creation of archival records affects the experience of social, cultural, and ethnic belongingness in time and space. The questions investigated are: 1) How do the individuals conceptualize the records' origin and how do this affect their interpretations of past and present time? 2) Which stories about belongingness appear when the individuals tell about the records and how do these relate to themselves and their surrounding world? 3) How can activation of the records related to places, persons, and relationships become meaningful?  The study is a part of a poststructuralist tradition that focuses on microhistories, versatility, and changes. The data is collected through four in-depth interviews and the material is theorized and analyzed through a phenomenological perspective, postmodern archival theory, narrative analysis, deconstruction, and the archive’s semantic genealogy. This makes it possible to get an insight in the individuals' experiences, thoughts, feelings, actions, memories, and how they orientate themselves in the world and relate to other people, records, places, and stories. Stories have the ability to create structure and meaning. Here it is being actualized in the stories of the records, but also in the stories the individuals tell about them and how they become a part of their own life histories. The analysis also makes it possible to understand the overall contexts, how they have affected the content in the records, and how the individuals do to look beyond the records. The results show how the individuals’ lives are integrated in a historical, spatial, cultural, relational, and existential context. Through the stories they have been told, the interpersonal relationships throughout their lives, the places they feel belongingness to, and the records they use, they create links through time and space. The stories of records contain tracks of the past that can be deconstructed in the sense of perspectives, power, and substance. All these parts have the ability to add new details and understandings of their life histories, their related ones, the personal and collective narratives, specific places, the world that has been, and the world that is now. By combining several sources, materials, records, and stories, it is possible to get a more profound and clearer understanding of where the individuals come from, where they are now, and what they extend into the future. This gives insights into how using archives can be understood as significant on different levels, and how the activity can become meaningful by adding new stories, relationships, and knowledge to individuals’ lives.  This is a two years master's thesis in Archival science.

Aufgrund rechnerischer Defizite werden aktuell in Deutschland zahlreiche Brückenbauwerke durch Neubauten ersetzt. Bevor der Neubau errichtet werden kann, muss das bestehende Brückenbauwerk rückgebaut werden. Häufig liegen im Zuge der Rückbauplanung jedoch keine aktuellen Bestands- und Zustandsinformationen vor, die Planung erfolgt entsprechend anhand von Bestandsplänen und Annahmen zum tatsächlichen Bauwerkszustand. Eine deutlich realitätsnähere, und damit im Allgemeinen sichere, Bewertung ist mithilfe von Bestandsuntersuchungen möglich. Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes sollen am Beispiel einer typischen Spannbetonbrücke der 1960er Jahre umfangreiche Bestandsuntersuchungen durchgeführt, wissenschaftlich ausgewertet und im Hinblick auf die Optimierung von Bestands- und insbesondere Rückbauplanungen bewertet werden. Dabei werden drei wesentliche Aspekte beleuchtet: die Erstellung von geeigneten Bestandsmodellen, die Ermittlung der Betoneigenschaften für die rechnerische Bewertung und die Beurteilung der nachträglichen Verankerung von Spanngliedern. Im Rahmen des Tagungsbeitrags sollen die durchgeführten Untersuchungen und vorliegenden Zwischenergebnisse präsentiert werden.

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This thesis focuses on the ideological workings of Germany’s main public diplomacy organization, the Goethe-Institut. Drawing upon his experience doing fieldwork at the Goethe-Institut in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and employing discourse and semiotic analysis, the author identifies four ideological currents within the organization. Relating these currents to four specific interest groups for which the Goethe-Institut is a strategic point of operation, and examining their complex interrelation, allows for an analysis of how their interplay at once constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs the notion of the German Nation.

Das Dresdner Brückenbausymposium fand 2024 zum mittlerweile 33. Mal statt. Mit einer konstant vierstelligen Teilnehmerzahl ist es die etablierteste Tagung rund um den Brückenbau in Deutschland. Die 13 Vorträge waren thematisch bei Neubau und Bestand, Rückbau, Historie und Richtlinienarbeit angesiedelt. Der Tagungsband enthält zudem vier Zusatzbeiträge.:Dirk Hilbert, Oberbürgermeister der Landeshauptstadt Dresden: Spannende Herausforderungen Dipl.-Ing. (FH) IWE Karsten Eins, Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Burgard, Franziska Ducklaus, M. A.: Ersatzneubau Strombrückenzug Magdeburg Prof. Dr.-Ing. Colin Caprani: Australian bridge loadings and bridge assessment strategies (Übersetzung: Dr.-Ing. Silke Scheerer: Brückenbelastungen und Strategien zur Brückenbewertung in Australien) Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Feix, Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Waltl, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Matthias Egger, Dipl.-Ing. Julian Konzilia, Dipl.-Ing. Jonas Wachter, Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Norbert Plattner: Großflächige Verstärkung einer Talbrücke mit Carbonbeton Dipl.-Ing. Tibor Sipos, Dipl. Bauing. ETH, Dr. sc. techn. Luc Trausch: Ersatz der Überführung Bederstrasse beim Bahnhof Enge in Zürich Prof. Dr.-Ing. Richard Stroetmann, Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Kffr. Sandra Christein, Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Oertel M. Sc., Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Fuchs M. Sc., Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Schönberg: Chemnitzer Viadukt – technische Instandsetzung und Verstärkung eines Denkmals Dipl.-Ing. Christian Rüters, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Jörn Plate: Korrosionsschutz im Stahlbrückenbau – stehendes Wasser auf Beschichtungen Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Franz Forstlechner: Anti-Aging-Maßnahmen für Eisenbahnbrücken aus Stahl Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Setzpfandt: Die Firma Liebold & Co. aus Langebrück bei Dresden und die Bau- und Nutzungsgeschichte der Syratalbrücke in Plauen Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Mansperger: Das Bauwerk 399c – innovativ und nachhaltig Dr. Joan Hee Roldsgaard, Dr. Claus Pedersen, Prof. Dr. Alan O‘Connor, M.Eng. Christian von Scholten, M.Eng. Alex Hansen: Leitfaden zur zuverlässigkeitsbasierten Bewertung bestehender Brücken – Beispiele aus der Praxis Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gero Marzahn, Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Jackmuth: Nibelungenbrücke Worms – digitale Erhaltung für mehr Nachhaltigkeit im Brückenbau Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Josef Hegger, Benjamin Camps, M.Sc.: Planungshilfe zur Umsetzung modularer Brückenbausysteme in Deutschland Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Münch, Dipl.-Ing. Michael Anschütz: Denkmalgerechte Instandsetzung der Müngstener Brücke – die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke im Zuge der DB-Strecke Solingen–Remscheid über das Tal der Wupper Dipl.-Ing. Cedric Eisermann, Dipl.-Ing. Jenny Keßler, Max Herbers, M.Sc.: Brückenbauexkursion durch Norwegen – Bauwerke und eine Landschaft der Superlative 191 Fabian Graber, MSc Bauing. ETH/SIA, Dipl. Architekt FH: Hängebrücke am Seilnetz – der Himmelhausmattesteg im Emmental Daniel Krouhs M.Sc., Dr.-Ing. Martin Siffling, Jakub Bielski M.Sc.: Neckartalbrücke Horb – Erfahrungsbericht aus der parametrischen BIM-Ausführungsplanung Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Klaus Lanzinger, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Garg: Dauerhafte und nachhaltige Spannbetonbrücken – Kunststoffhüllrohre für interne Spannglieder

No / Circular economy is an economic system aimed at minimizing wastes and making the most of the current resources. This regenerative approach contrasts with the traditional linear economy, which has been adopted by the construction industry. Developing new construction technologies for sustainable built environment is a top priority for the construction industry throughout the world. Much of the environmental impact from the construction industry is associated with the consumption of resources and generation of waste. The construction industry in Europe consumes over 70,000 million tonnes of materials each year and generates over 250 million tonnes of waste. Composite flooring formed by connecting the concrete slabs to the supporting steel beams has been widely used for many years and is well established as one of the most efficient floor systems in multi storey steel frame building structures. However, shear connectors are welded through the steel decking to the steel beams and cast into the concrete; this made deconstruction and reuse of these components almost impossible. A new composite flooring system which allows for the reuse of the steel beams and composite floor slabs is developed and tested to assess its potential and suitability for reuse. This paper presents the results of a series of full scale beam tests and demonstrates the reusability of this new form of composite flooring systems. Simplified hand calculations are also provided and compared against beam tests / EPSRC, Structural Metal Deck Ltd.