21.01.2025

Tilman Latz: “I have two options: work to death or restructure”

Building design

Tilman Latz has been a HSWT professor since February 2022. He wants to give students an open-minded view and critical thinking skills. (Photo: Latz + Partner)

Tilman Latz took over the professorship for Planning and Design at HSWT in February 2022. Theresa Rahmisch spoke to him about his plans.

Tilman Latz has been managing the Latz + Partner office since 2011 after a ten-year partnership with his parents Anneliese and Peter Latz. His wife Iris Dupper has been a partner since 2016. In February 2022, Tilman Latz took over the professorship for planning and design at HSWT. On the occasion of the professorship, Theresa Ramisch asked Tilman Latz what he would like to pass on to students and whether a professorship and office work can be combined.

Tilman Latz, you have been Professor of Planning and Design at the Faculty of Landscape Architecture at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences since this February. You yourself studied in Vienna, Kassel and London. What was your most formative study experience?

Tilman Latz: Thanks to my parents, who are both landscape architects, I was lucky enough to be well prepared for my studies. I knew that my time in Vienna would be rather school-based, whereas my time in Kassel would be freer. What I like to think about is the interaction at the universities back then. It was different between students and professors. But what left a lasting impression on me was above all my time in London. It was an incredible experience for me.

The Architectural Association in London showed me interdisciplinarity in action. There I learned that architecture and landscape are anything but far removed from each other; that you can derive fantastic architectural projects from landscape. Experiencing that the inspiration for planning – regardless of whether you work in the field of structural engineering or stage architecture – is shaped by the perception of the environment was new to me and fantastic at the same time. It opened my eyes. It was so rich and impressive: all these influences from other cultures – but also the world before the internet.

Is this cosmopolitan view also what you want to pass on to your students?

Tilman Latz: Definitely. Students today are different to us back then. They are incredibly networked and know a lot – sometimes more than the professors. However, in my opinion, a lot of this is shaped by the internet. Students were often not actually on site, but mainly know the images. We used to learn that nothing can replace real-life experience. I hold on to that. I want to bring the students closer to the phenomena of this world, towards detailed observation and analysis. I want to open up their perspective on the world and help them to grasp the diversity that our world offers for their work. At the same time, I also want to give students the ability to criticize. In my opinion, we have a certain lack of this in the profession.

Does that mean you’re going to be a tough professor?

Tilman Latz: No, I’m all about doing really good projects. But the students will always hear my honest opinion. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think any feedback in landscape architecture is subjective. Projects are always about specific situations that require specific measures and which can also be scientifically substantiated. But I am also open to new ideas and in my teaching I want to show students and their ideas my respect for their work and treat everyone equally.

“Professors make up for a lot of what is not paid for with personal commitment”

Your father, Peter Latz, taught at the TU Munich-Weihenstephan for 25 years, in addition to his visiting professorships at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. You yourself were also a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Kassel. Now the professorship at Weihenstephan. A heartfelt wish come true?

Tilman Latz: The honest answer is: Yes and no. But I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t delighted as hell about the appointment. In my eyes, the HSWT is the perfect place for students where pioneering research and teaching are combined. This is because the urgent challenges of our time are researched at the School of Green Sciences across all faculties and thus make a contribution to society that should not be underestimated. In fact, I had previously shelved the idea of a professorship. After all, you earn more in the private sector than at a university. And people don’t talk much about it: Professors make up for a lot of what isn’t paid with personal commitment.

“It’s simply exciting to be a professor”

But how did you decide to become a professor?

Tilman Latz : On the one hand, it was my personal environment, my father-in-law – who is also a landscape architect – and my wife and office partner Iris Dupper, as well as the university itself. The HSWT is actually no longer a university of applied sciences. It is becoming more and more like a university. It is growing, people are doing research and can now do a Master’s degree here, as well as a PhD. In recent years, the university has also always been a very reliable and good contact for me. The HSWT professors work together and also help to form the mid-level faculty. At the same time, it’s simply exciting to be a professor. Because of the intellectual exchange, the international work and the insight into student work.

You have been running the Latz + Partner office since 2010 and have been supporting young professionals in their first years as practicing landscape architects ever since. Do you also have the feeling that the expectations of young professionals have changed significantly in recent years?

Tilman Latz: Yes, and this has also led us to even consider relocating our office for a brief moment. We clearly decided against it, because we love this region, but it was an issue. However – frankly speaking – it’s really quite crass what we sometimes experience.

What do you mean by that?

Tilman Latz: Our office works both nationally and internationally. As a result, we are confronted with national and international competition, which forces us not only to make the best competitive proposal, but also to be cheaper, faster and more willing to work. I find the labor market situation here in southern Germany particularly difficult. Wages here are very high. But they have to be to some extent: Living in the Munich area, the Stuttgart area and other regions is simply very expensive. You can only afford this if you earn accordingly. We can understand the reasoning in the job interview and the desire for a corresponding salary.

“The desire to work from home breaks up creative collaboration”

What surprises us, however, is when these graduates and young professionals want to reduce their working hours to four, sometimes even three days and at the same time want to manage projects. This attitude poses enormous challenges for our profession. Quite frankly: From the moment we take on large, complex and international projects – and many employees come to us because of these – we sometimes have to work late or at weekends, because unfortunately – whether we like it or not – we also have to be available for international colleagues and clients. So how we want to reconcile our day-to-day work with the increasingly sought-after work-life balance is a major challenge that we and the entire profession have not yet really solved. And it probably can’t be solved completely either.

A three-day week, managing projects and earning very well at the same time – where do these demands come from?

Tilman Latz: We live in an individual society whose values are changing, also in terms of the relationship between work and leisure. At the same time, our working methods have changed. Whereas we used to draw plans together, we now work more and more separately on individual projects from our home offices. In my opinion, the desire to work from home is destroying creative collaboration. In addition to all the technical and organizational tasks, Iris and I now see it as very important to promote a pleasant working atmosphere and to convey the joy of designing and developing solutions together, especially to younger employees.

“You really have to be passionate about this job”

What about your personal work-life balance? In addition to your professorship at HSWT, you want to continue to run your office as a part-time job. Is that so easy? What are you preparing for?

Tilman Latz: The fact is that you really have to be passionate about this profession if you want to continue working in the office alongside your professorship. Especially in design. But I have indirect experience of what this dual position entails: from my previous guest professorships, but also of course from what I was able to observe with my father and colleagues. This has also taught me that you have to keep working practically in order to be able to teach students something in the long term. If you want to be a professor and office owner, you have two options: You can either work yourself to death or you can restructure your office. I’m lucky and can choose the second option without hesitation. I have a great office, I have a great wife who has been running the office with me since 2016, and I have great employees with whom we want to create new structures together.

But that also means that you have to hand over responsibility for option 2 and actively take a step back. You don’t seem like the type to do that easily.

Tilman Latz: *laughs* You’re right. Let’s talk about this again in a year’s time to see how things are going with taking back responsibility.

Speaking of HSWT: the university celebrated its 50th birthday in 2021. To mark the anniversary, HSWT planted 50 trees.

25.11.2024

Sebastian Stettner – Work assignment successful

Building design

From 1995 to 1999, the author restored five paintings from the main altar of the Franciscan church in Subotica (Hungary). The archive material available there already provided indications of the authorship of Sebastian Stettner (1699-1758). The documents in Subotica describe, among other things, the execution of the commission. According to them, Sebastian Stettner painted St. Michael “with extraordinary skill and expertise” in such a way that he […]

The documents in Subotica describe, among other things, the execution of the commission. According to them, Sebastian Stettner painted St. Michael “with extraordinary skill and expertise” in such a way that he steps on the devil. However, the client criticized the number of devils: “Why so many devils?” (Archivium 1751: 30). The artist therefore had to make changes to his painting and probably painted a completely new picture, as X-ray examinations showed no traces of overpainting. As things stand at present, he probably only submitted an oil sketch to the director of the House of the Order and chose the current iconographic concept before executing it. Unfortunately, these or other sketches by Stettner have not survived. They would have provided a better indication of his drawing skills and would have brought us closer to the art workshop where he studied.

However, by examining the materials and production techniques and evaluating the sources, a total of 14 works could be attributed to this master. The painter and gilder, whose origins are documented as “Dorst, Baijern” but could not be verified, settled in Buda (Hungary) in 1727, where he was granted citizenship in 1736. The city fathers made their decision dependent on the consent of two painters in Buda: Georg Falkoner (1646-1741) and Kaspar Landtrachtinger (1670-1744). Around 1738, his marriage to Maria Theresia Seth (1716-1789) enabled him to acquire a house in which he ran his workshop. His wife was also a painter and continued to run the workshop after Stettner’s death.
You can find out more about Sebastian Stettner’s painting technique in RESTAURO 4 / 2014.

24.12.2024

Adding a storey to a house using a 3D printer

Building design

PERI realizes the world's first residential building extension with 3D concrete printing technology in Lindau. — The PERI company is realizing the world's first residential building extension with 3D concrete printing technology in Lindau/Lake Constance. Photo: PERI

After the first residential building with 3D printing technology, PERI has now realized the world’s first residential building extension – also with a 3D printer – in Lindau. You can read all about the project here.

Following the first residential building with 3D printing technology, the company Peri has now realized the world’s first residential building extension – also with a 3D printer – in Lindau. You can read all about the project and its significance for contemporary urban development in terms of redensification here.

A few weeks after Germany’s first 3D-printed house was opened in Beckum, the Weißenhorn-based formwork giant Peri is once again making a name for itself with a project on Lake Constance. This time with the addition of a storey to a residential building in Lindau, Bavaria.

The planning architect André Baldauf is extending the residential building by one storey. What is unique about this residential extension is that the load-bearing wall structures of the new storey are applied to the existing load-bearing structure using a 3D concrete printer. For this purpose, the old roof is first removed and a concrete ceiling is placed on top. In contrast, the ceiling is still being produced conventionally, as current 3D printing processes are not yet suitable for ceilings.

This creates an additional storey on the house with a floor area of 120 square meters and a height of 3.70 meters. The insulation made of Neptune gas insulates the double-shell walls. A new timber folding roof completes the extension at the top. With this project, Peri wants to show how flexibly 3D printing technology can be used in building construction. A particular challenge in the extension project in Lindau was the slope of the property, which initially posed difficulties for those involved in setting up the 3D printer. Like the house in Beckum, the extension in Lindau is a prototype project for Peri, with which the company wants to demonstrate the possibilities of its technology.

Similar to a 3D printer for plastics, the 3D concrete printing process from Danish company Cobod used here involves applying layers of specially designed concrete on top of each other until the desired wall height is reached. This is because the printer is set up as a gantry printer. This means that the machine stands on a structure that spans the work surface. This allows the print head to move in the resulting space. The print head uses a nozzle to apply layers of concrete two centimetres high and five centimetres wide as standard.

Layer by layer, load-bearing walls are created that can follow almost any curves and curves. The layer structure creates the corrugated look of the walls that is typical of this 3D printing variant. According to the manufacturer, the printer used (BOD2) takes around five minutes to print one square meter of double-skin wall.

The concrete used is a special formulation. The manufacturer HeidelbergCement has developed this specifically for 3D printing and calls it “i.tech 3D”. It is designed for good pumpability and high green strength and allows fresh-in-fresh printing. The special concrete is said to be fully recyclable and its development focused on the lowest possibleCO2 footprint. According to the manufacturer, up to 50 percent ofCO2 emissions can be saved compared to conventional concrete construction.

The advantages and disadvantages of adding storeys to buildings using 3D printing are similar to those of 3D building printing in general. In terms of time, costs and manpower, the technology already has an advantage over molded concrete in certain areas of application. In addition, complex shapes can be realized without high additional costs. However, there is currently no way to print reinforced walls with increased load-bearing capacity. This is because the choice of materials for 3D printing of buildings is still very limited.

3D concrete printing could provide a significant boost to urban densification. Where possible, a 3D-printed extension can also be harmoniously added to complex building structures. Compared to traditional construction methods, the disruption caused to the surrounding residents by the construction work would ultimately be reduced, at least in terms of time. This could therefore pave the way for greater acceptance. In the near future, the method could also offer considerable cost savings in some cases compared to traditional formwork concrete construction.

The 3D printing of buildings is still in its infancy and is currently undergoing a rapid phase of development. We can look forward to many more innovations in this area before certain processes become established and suitable for the mass market.

You can find more information on Peri’s 3D concrete printing process on the manufacturer’s website.

Also interesting: In Hamburg, the urban real estate developer Sprinkenhof is planning an administrative building in timber construction together with ADEPT. This is set to become Germany’s largest timber building.