Full House

Two new exhibition halls, 200,000 m2 of exhibition area, 20,000 m2 more space, 2,200 exhibitors from 45 countries, and around 260,000 expected visitors—these are the impressive figures for the upcoming BAU trade fair, which will open its gates at 9.30 a.m. on Monday, January 14, 2019. As the world's largest trade fair for architecture, materials, and systems, BAU is once again presenting an extensive accompanying program for architects. Besides the well-known forums, special shows, and award ceremonies as well as the Long Night of Architecture, World-Architects in cooperation with BAU invite you to the popular Guided Tours on Thursday and Friday, January 17 and 18. The four guided tours were specially conceived for architects and are based on the four main themes of the trade fair: Integrated: Systems + Construction, Networked: Living + Working, Smart: Light + Buildings, and Digital: Processes + Architecture. A special feature: The approximately 2-hour tours are guided by renowned personalities from the fields of architecture and design: Philip Norman Peterson, André Schmidt, Ulrike Brandi, and Werner Frosch will each present highlights of BAU 2019.

Integrated: Systems + Construction
One aspect of the topic Integrated: Systems + Construction is the complexity of building. In addition to good design and materials expertise, building increasingly involves complex load-bearing structures, lightweight constructions, and high-tech components. One example is the façade, which as the outer skin of a building often has to accommodate ventilation or energy generation technologies in a small space. Architects and engineers need to coordinate at an early stage in order to be able to plan in a detailed and integrated manner. The more complex construction becomes, the greater the urge for simplification. The solution is prefabrication and modular construction. In the factory, many components can be assembled better and faster, so that they only have to be put together like a puzzle on the construction site. This not only saves time and money, but also increases the accuracy and quality of a building. Such systems already exist, of course, but everyday life on the construction site is usually still different, rather classic. The advantages of a modular, prefabricated construction method can hardly be denied.

Digital planning tools, with which data can be translated directly into individually manufactured components, will be helpful in the future.
The corresponding Tour #01 Façade: Land of Unlimited Possibilities will take place on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be guided by Philip Norman Peterson from Holzer Kobler Architekturen, Zurich, Berlin.

Connected: Living + Working
From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., André Schmidt from the MATTER office in Berlin takes his group on Tour #02 Ingredients for networked living and working, which addresses the BAU topic of Connected: Living + Working. The world of work is currently undergoing a remarkable transformation. For many, the focus is not only on remuneration, but also on flexible working hours so that private life and work can be better reconciled. Thanks to digitalization, it is becoming increasingly possible to strike a balance, and the traditional 9-to-5-job is slowly disappearing. Of course, all of this changes the way we build and even the concrete design of office landscapes. Google has shown the way, and today it is no longer uncommon for employees to choose a day's workplace that they can clear after work. This sometimes saves up to 20 percent of office space. The effects on housing planning are even greater. Home offices, multi-generational living, densification, expansion, or conversion require flexible building structures more than ever before.

Smart: Light + Buildings
In 2019, light will make its debut as a separate key topic at the BAU trade fair. Together with the topic of smart building and building automation, it will be given its own area in Hall C2. In the last ten years, especially the use of artificial light has changed considerably. Thanks to LED technology, light now consumes less energy, takes up less space, and requires less maintenance due to its longer service life. This has an impact not only on electrical planning but also on architecture. Renowned lighting designers have long been part of the planning or design teams and are involved in a project at a very early stage. Particularly in smart buildings, artificial light becomes part of the smart grid, which connects all devices of a building. This makes it possible to control the blinds and artificial lighting simultaneously via the smartphone and even to combine them into atmosphere programs and lighting concepts. Even emergency programs, for example in the event of a fire, can be defined. In addition, energy resource will be used with greater awareness and not only in a sustainable but also intelligent, clever, and smart way. However! With all the enthusiasm for artificial light: lighting designers also consider the incidence of daylight as an increasingly important factor in their design process. In Tour #03 Daylight — Yes! Yes! Yes! lighting designer Ulrike Brandi from Hamburg underlines this relevance and leads her group to selected exhibition stands on Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the subject of Smart: Light + Buildings.

Digital: Processes +Architecture
Tour #04 Buildings and processes focuses on digitalization in design and construction. Architect Werner Frosch from Henning Larsen will accompany a group on Friday afternoon between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. In the construction industry, digitalization is gaining momentum. As a result of the latest IT developments and, above all, BIM (Building Information Modeling), planning processes are changing enormously: teams all over the world can now work together on the same data simultaneously. This greatly simplifies exchange and work and contributes to a higher quality of planning. Nowadays, construction planning is done digitally and is used across all trades. Even if the purchase of special BIM tools and planning using BIM initially involves a certain level of investment, this quickly pays off over the course of a project. In large-scale projects, this type of planning is already common practice, and even in smaller projects or renovations of old buildings, everyone involved in the construction process benefits from the BIM method. Simultaneously, the building trades are preparing for BIM. In the long term, this will not only save time and money, but also increase efficiency on the construction site.

Prospects
Those wishing to delve even deeper into the world of digitalization can additionally visit the Digital Village - a new exhibition area at BAU in Hall C5. The focus there will be on digital building initiatives. Besides a small forum, there will also be opportunities for start-ups to present their business ideas. Software providers will also be featuring their digital future concepts. Alongside the Digital Village, a number of special shows will also address digitalization in construction. These include ift Rosenheim's “Building elements TripleS - Smart, Safe, Secure” and “Living spaces of the future: digital – sustainable – smart” from the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance. The offer is huge. Visitors can take their time until the end of the trade fair on Saturday, 19 January 2019, at 4 p.m. From then on, at the latest, everyone will be responsible for their own future.

Please touch!
In the DETAIL research Lab in Hall B0, innovative products and materials will be exhibited under the motto of Future Materials and Innovations. All of the Guided Tours by World-Architects will take participants past this presentation of prototypes. As in previous years, the DETAIL research Lab will again present solutions and products in the development phase, among them exhibits from application-oriented research, material experiments, pilot projects, and product developments. Particularly attractive for architects who like to examine exhibits for their tactile properties: touching or trying them out is not only permitted, but expressly encouraged!

BAU 2019 – Overview of Guided Tours by World-Architects

#01 "Façade: Land of Unlimited Possibilities "
Philip Norman Peterson, Holzer Kobler Architekturen, Zurich, Berlin
Thursday, 17.1.2018, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

#02 "Ingredients for networked living and working"
André Schmidt, MATTER Büro für Architektur und Städtebau, Berlin
Thursday, 17.1.2018, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

#03 "Daylight Yes! Yes! Yes! "
Ulrike Brandi, Ulrike Brandi Licht, Hamburg
Freitag, 18.1.2018, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

#04 "Buildings and processes"
Werner Frosch, Henning Larsen, Copenhagen (HQ)
Friday, 18.1.2018, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

​All guided tours are editorially accompanied by Melanie Schlegel, freelance architecture journalist, editor amongst others for World Architects.
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Meeting point: Hall B0 at the information counter near the west entrance
Multiple registrations are, of course, possible!
Language: English

Information & Registration