"Normally the spaghetti goes in the pot. But for a change, our first-year architecture students turned this principle on its head during the preparation week and hung pots on spaghetti."
During the preparatory week, the first-year students on our Bachelor's degree courses not only get to know the university and its facilities; they also work together on a project task in which they can put into practice everything they learn about learning and working techniques from their trainers.
The first-semester students on the Bachelor of Architecture course were faced with a special challenge: they had to build a bridge structure from a packet of spaghetti that spans 80 cm and can carry a load of 5 kg. To ensure that the spaghetti could still be composted afterwards or used as animal feed, it was only allowed to be connected at certain points with hot glue.
The subsequent load test, in which pots and pans of different weights were hung on the bridges, not only strained the noodles, but also the nerves of the students involved. However, most of the constructions were not only impressive in terms of design, but also demonstrated a considerable load-bearing capacity.
The remarkable results can not only be seen here on this page; they were also presented in detail in the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine, which also provided the inspiration for this task.
The project was supervised by Prof. Markus Binder.
