Goat-Lab Summer School

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Dezeen Competitions: the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau in Germany invites university students to submit concepts for a climbing tower to be used by goats.

The Goat-Lab Summer School competition will see the winning design realised. The initiative will support and nurture the herd of grazing goats, which helps maintain the natural landscape of the Diemerstein valley.

This competition has now closed

Organisers: T-lab and Fatuk (Faculty of Architecture of the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Competition: Goat-Lab Summer School
Judges:

  • Jürgen Graf, professor at RPTU Kaiserslautern
  • Stephan Birk, professor at TU Munich
  • Friederike Meyer, editor-in-chief at BauNetz
  • Benjamin Widmer, architect at ZHAW School of Architecture

Submission deadline: 25 July 2025
Winner announcement: August 2025
Prizes: five teams will be awarded, of which one design will be selected for realisation. All ten award winners will be invited to join the summer school in the Diemerstein valley

Click here to enter ›

Competition overview

As part of an open competition, Fatuk and T-lab are inviting architecture students from all over Europe to design an innovative climbing tower for goats.

The tower must be sustainable, reversible and built from regional wood. The best design will be realised as part of a one-week Design-Build Summer School in the Diemerstein valley.

In the Diemerstein valley, goats and two donkeys are helping to make the valley more open and brighter. The goats eat bushes and young trees and clear old gardens. The donkeys live together with them and protect the herd. The grazing project is organised by citizens from Frankenstein and the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.

As part of the realisation competition with a subsequent design-build project in the Palatinate Forest, a climbing tower for the goats is to be designed in the remote, natural location adjacent to the new t-lab research hall, which offers ideal conditions for planning, prefabrication and realisation.

Particular attention will be paid to the sustainability, reversibility and innovative nature of the timber connections.

The following requirements need to be met:

Materiality and construction:

  • Exclusive use of solid, non-glued timber from regional forestry
  • No sheet materials or engineered wood products containing adhesives
  • All wood fresh from the sawmill: green boards, planks, logs, beetle-infested wood, or 'waste wood'
  • Use of constructive wood protection only. No chemical treatments
  • Reversible, innovative timber joints. No glue or nails
  • Full disassembly and reuse of all components must be possible

Design and function:

  • Species-appropriate use for goats. Climbing opportunities, platforms, shade and shelter
  • Integration into the natural environment of the Diemerstein valley
  • Construction must be safe, stable and low-maintenance
  • Design must reflect the research principles of reversible timber construction in form, structure and application

Degree of innovation and appropriateness of the construction and connections:

  • Material suitability and sustainability
  • Feasibility and implementability (detail and practicality)
  • Aesthetics, form and functionality
  • Species-appropriate use for goats
  • Relation to the current state of research on reversible timber construction
Goats outside a large rural building
The varied needs of the herd of users must be considered

Eligibility and judging criteria

Students from all European architecture faculties are invited to submit entries.

Only teams of two students are eligible to participate. Each student must be enrolled at a university or university of applied sciences in Europe.

How to enter

Click here to download the digital base documents. Click here to upload your plans and documents.

The following documents are required for submission:

  • Certificates of enrolment of both group members
  • One page DIN A1, landscape format (contents to be taken from the call for entries)
  • Explanatory report, including a one page DIN A4
  • Completed author's declaration
  • Self-selected group number, which includes six digits
Interior space lined with wood and housing machinery
The structure will be installed outside the new t-lab research hall, located in the Diemerstein valley

Submission deadlines

The entry deadline is 25 July 2025. The award ceremony and publication of results will occur during August 2025.

The realisation of the winning entry will occur in September 2025.

About T-lab and Fatuk

Fatuk, the Department of Architecture at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau is dedicated to the future-oriented training of architects and sees the combination of theory, research and practice as a central component of teaching.

The T-lab, a research-orientated initiative at Fatuk, investigates new ways of building with wood – with a focus on reversible connections, digital production and regional material cycles.

The aim is to actively help shape change in construction: ecological, circular, resource-conserving.

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