Urban heat island effects increasingly challenge cities worldwide. Façade surfaces play a central role in this phenomenon: exposed to solar radiation, they significantly heat up both building interiors and surrounding urban spaces, thereby intensifying local temperature peaks. The consequences include reduced outdoor comfort, increased cooling energy demand, and negative impacts on health and well-being. Although façades account for the largest urban surface, their design is often guided primarily by aesthetic and basic functional considerations for the building interior, while their influence on the urban microclimate remains largely overlooked. The Institute for Technology and Resilience in Architecture (ITRA) at TU Darmstadt is dedicated to researching and developing innovative façade and building technologies. Its work connects climate mitigation, through the reduction of resource, energy, and emission consumption, with climate adaptation, through the enhancement of the adaptive capacity of buildings and neighborhoods in response to climatic and societal change — towards a resilient and future-oriented building culture. Research at ITRA ranges from digital methods such as simulations and computational design tools to physical prototyping and environmental measurements on experimental buildings. The institute thereby acts as an inter- and transdisciplinary bridge between engineering, natural sciences, architecture, and the humanities. A central research strand focuses on HydroSKIN, a patented façade system that captures, stores, and evaporatively redistributes rainwater over textile surfaces to lower exterior surface temperatures and mitigate urban heat island effects. The project combines experimental research with practical application and is currently being prepared for transfer into real-world use through a university spin-off, ensuring that the research maintains a direct link to architectural practice. Building on this approach, research in near future also explores evaporative ceramic façade elements that use mineral, porous materials to achieve passive cooling effects. In addition to the development of such climate-adaptive systems, the research also encompasses the analysis of existing façade materials and systems in terms of their thermal behavior and climatic responsiveness. Through a combination of in-situ measurements, environmental monitoring, and simulation studies, these investigations aim to identify vulnerabilities and resilience potentials across different building and climate contexts. As part of this work, a research pavilion is being developed that enables the experimental testing of a wide range of façade materials and systems under real weather exposure. Students participating in the IREP programme may contribute to this research from different disciplinary perspectives — including architecture, civil and environmental engineering, materials science, and computational design. Depending on their background and interests, they can engage in:

• designing and constructing physical mock-ups or experimental prototypes,
• conducting and evaluating environmental measurements, •performing simulation studies
• conducting and evaluating environmental measurements, and
• developing computational models, digital tools, or predictive software.