Award winner: Protecting urban buildings from heat and floods

The Stuttgart-based Gips-Schüle Foundation honors outstanding doctoral theses from Baden-Württemberg once a year as part of its  “Gips-Schüle-Nachwuchspreis“ (Young Talent Award). The Honorary Award in the Engineering Sciences category in 2025 goes to Prof. Christina Eisenbarth, who completed her doctorate at the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design at the University of Stuttgart. To support Prof. Dr. Eisenbarth's research, the foundation is covering the costs of attending a conference in Europe.

Eisenbarth, who is now a professor at TU Darmstadt, researched the principles for the development and application of “hydroactive” building envelopes in her dissertation. These are innovative textile shells that use rainwater absorption and evaporative cooling to restore the water and heat balance that has become unbalanced in cities. Christina Eisenbarth has used polyester textiles that can potentially be made from PET bottle waste. These shells absorb almost all the rainwater that hits the building façade. As a result, they not only relieve the burden on urban drainage systems, but also convert rainwater into a usable water resource to reduce the consumption of fresh water within buildings. During a heavy downpour in August 2024, the hydroactive shells absorbed more than 24 liters per square meter in less than 30 minutes. The water can be used for evaporative cooling on hot days. This allows the temperature of the building façade to be reduced to a minimum of 17°C on hot days.

During her doctoral degree studies, Eisenbarth was part of an interdisciplinary research network: In the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1244 at the University of Stuttgart, fourteen institutes are working together to research the potential of adaptive building envelopes and structures. The central platform of the network is a twelve-story demonstrator high-rise – a globally unique laboratory for pioneering urban architecture concepts. Eisenbarth has also been testing the innovative concept of a hydroactive building façade under real conditions there since 2022 - with promising results.

Eisenbarth founded a start-up in April 2023, while still working completing her doctoral degree studies, in order to quickly transfer the new technology, which was given the name “HydroSKIN”, into construction practice. She was supported by the University of Stuttgart’s Technology Transfer Initiative (TTI GmbH).

HydroSKIN has received several national and international awards, including the “German Design Award 2024” and the “Blauer Kompass” from the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment. Christina Eisenbarth's dissertation is also among the 31 finalists for the Körber Foundation's German Study Award 2025 out of 687 submissions as well as among the nominees for the Stuttgart Innovation Award 2025.

Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1244: Adaptive Building Skins and Structures for the Built Environment of Tomorrow
How can more living space be created with less material in the face of a growing world population and shrinking resources? In the SFB 1244, fourteen institutes at the University of Stuttgart are working together on an interdisciplinary basis to find answers to this question. The focus here is on so-called adaptive building envelopes and load-bearing structures - building elements that react specifically to changing environmental conditions and user requirements.

Awarded researchers
Every year, hundreds of researchers at the University of Stuttgart are honored for groundbreaking and creative achievements. A selection of our award winners.