This thesis explores the position of hands-on building practices in architectural education by focusing on METU Summer Construction Practices (ARCH190), which has been conducted in the rural sites of Turkey since 1958. It is believed that the summer construction practice is a tool of education to acquire knowledge of architecture by building 1-to-1 scale constructions. METU Summer Construction Practices are examined by asking the questions of what is learned and how is learned in order to understand both the content and objectives and also the pedagogic strategies, learning methods of the summer construction practices. The main purpose of summer construction practices is learning how to build and ways of making architecture. The basic learning methods of METU summer construction practices are determined as learning by doing, learning with collaborative working, task-oriented and student-based active learning, integrating the tasks of designing-building, and learning from working with and for the context. This study emphasizes that learning by building 1-to-1 scale constructions are complementary of learning in design studios, and it should become an integral part of the whole learning process in the design education. Hands-on building practice is a productive process that supports the design education. Students are expected to derive and produce knowledge by building full-scale constructions in the real site. The thesis argues for the fact that hands-on building practice is to be more than the obtaining of knowledge and skill of making architecture only by instructions. Learning process is to be based on the simultaneous involvement of thinking-doing (taking action)-skill-production of knowledge rather than a linear process of knowledge-skill-taking action.

The diploma thesis in its introductory descriptive part defines all the theoretical foundations and contexts associated with the concepts of urban engineering and urban engineer. The theoretical information is followed by the analytical part of the work, which contains interviews with real authorized urban engineers. With the help of the respondents' professional experience, the real role of the urban engineer in construction practice and the activities he should perform in such a role is subsequently formed. In the end, the obtained information is transformed into a practical example, which demonstrates the illustrative implementation of the knowledge of an urban engineer within the real functioning of the practice.

Angetrieben von vielversprechenden Effizienzsteigerungen wird der Beton-3D-Druck stetig weiterentwickelt. Um die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse niederschwellig in die Baupraxis zu überführen, empfehlen sich druckbare Betone im Rahmen des geltenden Regelwerks. Dabei stellt die Limitierung des Mehlkorngehalts eine Herausforderung dar. Um diese zu meistern, wird eine verallgemeinerbare, numerisch unterstützte Anwendung der Korngrößenverteilung nach Andreasen und Andersen als Basis für den Betonentwurf vorgeschlagen. Experimentelle Untersuchungen haben eine gute Verbaubarkeit und hinreichende Extrudierbarkeit eines Betons mit einem 16 mm Größtkorn und einem Mehlkorngehalt von 500 kg/m³ demonstriert.