Dipl.-Ing. Jens Weßel

Member of the Central Staff Council at the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture (MWFK)

Model making is an essential part of Architecture and Urban Design.

Here, the FH;P offers something special: model making is taught as a means of presentation.

This way, the presentations can result in a self-contained, harmonious whole.

The teaching is also supplemented by research-based learning: model making as a component of the scientific analysis of historical designs through work on architectural and urban design models.

Jens Weßel is a trained model maker and graduated from the UDK Berlin with a degree in architecture. Parallel to his studies and afterwards, he worked at Monath + Menzel, Berlin, from 1993 to 2003.

In 2003, he taught architectural model making at the Muthesius University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design in Kiel, in the architecture department.

He set up model-making workshops and managed them at Hundertmark and Partner and Barkow Leibinger, where he was an employee and workshop manager for almost 20 years.

In 2021, he developed the ‘concept for a model-making workshop and teaching of the future at the FH;P’ and has been an academic staff member there since 2022, specialising in teaching in the field of model-making and heading the 3D lab.

Illustrations of models and objects created in the office of Barkow Leibinger by Jens Weßel or under his direction can be found in Barkow Leibinger's publications between 2003 and 2023.

Models by Jens Weßel have been included in the collections of DAM Frankfurt am Main (Deutsche Architekturmuseum) and MoMA New York.

A selection of exhibitions with exhibits designed by Jens Weßel or under his direction at the Barkow Leibinger office:

• 2005 Berlin: "Industry Reviseted", Project 0047
• 2006 Oslo: "Fornybar Industri", Design og arkitektur Norge (DOGA)
• 2007 Sao Paulo: "Architekture-Export", Biennale Sao Paulo
• 2008 Basel: "Ornament neu aufgelegt", Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum
• 2008 New York: "The Trumpf Gatehouse" Model for the Collection of the MoMA
• 2009 London: "An Atlas of Fabrication", AA Gallery, Architectural Association London
• 2009 Frankfurt/Main: "Der Pavillon, Lust und Polemik in der Architektur", DAM
• 2009 Berlin: "light structure", Galerie Jochum
• 2009 Frankfurt/Main: "DAM-Preis 2009" (1.Preis), DAM
• 2010 Hamburg: "Smart Material House" (Infraleichtbeton/Holz), IBA
• 2014 Berlin: "2D3D", Galerie BDA
• 2014 Berlin: "Installation Floral and Light Structure", Galerie Jochum Rodgers
• 2017 Chicago: "Make New History", Chicago Architecture Biennial
• 2020 Berlin: Werkschau "Revolutions of Choice", Haus am Waldsee

Research-based learning at the FH;P – supervised student research projects:

• 2023 Potsdam: ‘Peter Behrens in Berlin and Brandenburg’, FH;P.