Every semester we supervise a number of bachelor/master thesis projects as part of our thesis class. We see the thesis as an extension to our learning style in bachelors and masters, as such if you would like to do your thesis with us, it would be beneficial to do a design project with us before, so that you are already familiar with us, our methods and our themes. We cannot promise that we can supervise everybody who applies. 

Basics

• We expect a strong collective dynamic and culture of discussion between groups and you will need to be show a high degree of independence and self-organisation.
• You will need to produce an academic project description including references for each colloquium (masters only)
• The thesis class always follows the time-plan for free themes from IfA (usually published on the IfA Homepage at the end of each semester)
• 3-4 colloquiums for bachelors or 5-6 for masters with the entire group + NBL Team
• We supervise the thesis class as a team and we do not always have the same opinions, we will help you develop your own project, not tell you exactly what to do.
• You will be working in the studios in Ackerstraße.

It is always best to do the thesis in your mother language, this means that we can supervise projects in English but a number of the projects will likely be presented/discussed in German and it would be beneficial to be able to take part in all discussions. This means that you will have much more from your thesis with us, if you have a good understanding of spoken german.

Choosing a Theme

We like to see you develop your own theme and we do look very critically at the theme suggestions that we receive. In general we are most interested in projects with a strong relation to a real context as opposed to strictly theoretic or research based themes. Nevertheless the thesis offers the chance for free and radical thinking. You should be prepared to use this opportunity to develop an original, independent and personal project idea. This is especially relevant for projects with a strong or personal relationship to the project initiator*s. 

Here are some recommendations for developing your idea:

• Your project should be for the common good (Gemeinwohl orientiert), we will not support projects that could be seen as for private benefit and will challenge you on this.
• In all projects, but especially those with a DesignBuild character, we will very critically consider the issue of ownership relating to ideas and results. 
• Your project should have a clear link to a current discourse either architectural, urbanistic or otherwise and you should use this to develop a strong (and radical) project narrative. 
• We are equally interested in your personal motivation and learning goals for choosing a theme as the theme itself.
• We would recommend having at least two of – place (context/site), people (network/collaboration partners) and programme (typology/use) – fixed at the outset of your project. Regardless of focus we expect you to take a structured and rigourous approach to your project and be specific about your aims and methods.

There are plenty of examples of free thesis projects to be found on our website.

Logistics

So if you would still like to do your thesis with us next semester:

In WiSe 24/25 we do offer a fixed-theme bachelor thesis. If you are interested in doing a free-themed master thesis with us in WiSe 24/25 please send us an email with a 1 A4 description of your theme idea and motivation to do your thesis with us + a 1 A4 CV to info@nbl.berlin by 13.09.24. You will receive a response until 27.09.24.

If you get a positive response then you should submit a longer (2-3 A4) Exposé including your theme, learning goals, source material and time-plan by the date indicated in the IfA Zeitplan für Freie Themen.

If you would like to discuss your theme with us before you submit then just send us an email to info@nbl.berlin – we are actually very friendly 🙂