The present project is about a German-French cooperation in the field of construction engineering with an emphasis on building history and architecture. Construction engineering is an important branch in both schools involved in this project and they were both looking for a suitable partner for a European project. The concept aims at the realization that building history does not stop at political borders and that architectural styles witness a continuous mutual influence in Europe over the centuries. The students should come to this conclusion by visiting and analyzing important buildings of the Middle Ages as well as modern architecture. By visiting typical Roman buildings in the south-west of Germany on the one hand and subsequently comparing them with the Strasbourg Cathedral on the other hand will draw the attention to regional characteristics but also to common features that should not be underestimated. The influence of historical monuments on modern architecture should thereafter become apparent for the students involved in the project. The closer look at modern living conceps and the guided tour in a company specialized in modern construction will make the students aware of the challenges of the future. Specific products of this project will be a shared twinspace on the etwinning platform, that serves as documentation of the different project stages and turn out to be an individual product of this cooperation. Furthermore the students will create a trilingual glossary containing technical terms in German, French and English. In addition, they will conceptualize an architectural guide on the basis of architectural visits. This guide, digital or as a hard copy, will propose a round tour of the monument and focus on architectural details and special features. Both products will subsequently be made available to intersted third parties and represent tangible results of the productive cooperation between the French and German students and teachers. Finally, selected parts of the buildings will be reconstructed as a simplified model true to scale in order to ease the understanding of technical details and their implications for the students. Another important aspect of the present project concept is the encouragement of the intercultural competence that leads to the reduction of potential concerns or inhibitions. In a united Europe it is indispensable that citizens approach their European neighbors by being open and interested with them.
The present project is a Franco-German cooperation in the field of structural engineering with a focus on building history and architecture. The cooperation between the two schools can be described as ideal, as both locations have a strong interest in European cooperation and share the same professional focus in the fields of construction technology and architecture. In this way, the students were able to gain project experience on a European level and through their work came to the conclusion that building history does not stop at political borders and that architectural styles are silent witnesses to continuous mutual influences in Europe over time. In the course of the project, the students visited well-known buildings from the Middle Ages as well as modern architecture and analyzed them from a constructional, historical and architectural perspective. In this context, they exchanged their findings, communicated on technical as well as general topics and recorded their impressions in numerous photos, presentations, films and documentations. By visiting typical Romanesque buildings on both sides of the Franco-German border, the students discovered regional peculiarities in architecture and thus recognized the common European cultural history. Afterwards, the students were clearly shown the influence of historical buildings on modern architecture. Through the observation and analysis of modern housing concepts, public buildings and construction projects, the students made the challenges for the architecture of the future clear to themselves. The project work was carried out alternately in French, German and English, so that the students recorded technical terms of building history, construction technology and architecture in a trilingual glossary. On the one hand, this glossary can be used by the courses themselves by serving as a reference book in the classroom, and on the other hand, the documentation should also be made available to other classes inside and outside the school. Due to the closure of schools in France and Germany, which was necessary because of COVID-19, the project work became out of focus, as the inner-school challenges took up the entire energy of all participants. The focus was on the successful completion of the final exams and the provision of lessons for the students at home. The curfew in France aggravated the situation even more, as teams for project work could not be formed either. Nevertheless, there was always close contact between the project partners during this time as the group grew together to form a well-functioning team. Currently both parties are in another joint Erasmus+ project with two more schools from the European environment.