The upcoming PEP Colloquium will be held at TU Dortmund and marks the program’s 10^th anniversary, a significant milestone in our development. Please join us for the 20^th PEP Symposium on 26–27 February 2026 at the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering, TU Dortmund.

Program of the 20^th PEP Symposium

PEP - Programm Entwurfsbasierte Promotion - Design-Based Doctoral Program

Organization and implementation:

Prof. Ralf Pasel, TU Berlin
Prof. Jürgen Weidinger, TU Berlin
Prof. Dr Ignacio Borrego, TU Berlin
Prof. Dr. Matthias Ballestrem, TU Dortmund
Prof. Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, TU Darmstadt
Prof. Elke Reichel, TU Darmstadt
Prof. Felix Waechter, TU Darmstadt
Prof. Wolfgang Lorch, TU Darmstadt

Spokesperson:
Prof. Ralf Pasel, Prof. Jürgen Weidinger, Prof. Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, Prof. Dr. Matthias Ballestrem

The design disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture at universities have a long academic tradition, including doctorates. Today, the proportion of design-relevant topics and design-based methods in the total number of doctoral theses is low. Engineering, historical or social science topics and methods are dominating.
For this reason, PEP (Programm Entwurfsbasierte Promotion – program for design-based doctorate) aims to promote design within the framework of research in architecture and landscape architecture. This is implemented as an innovative form of doctoral supervision that incorporates design results and uses design as an epistemic tool to develop relevant knowledge contributions for the design disciplines. PEP offers suitable research methods and criteria for Design-Based Research within the framework of doctoral studies.

PEP is suitable for candidates of design disciplines who have developed very good skills in design and have already found and worked on new topics through their individual design activities. PEP understands design as a process that produces spatial solutions. Spatial solutions represent complex and indissoluble penetrations of aesthetic, ethical, social and technical aspects as a holistic spatial presence and therefore cannot be adequately described by text and numerical values. 
Problem-solving procedures without spatial and design-based deepening, such as area planning or management and moderation processes, are not suitable for participation in PEP. In PEP, projects are an indispensable part of design-based scientific work.

PEP is an initiative of professors and not of universities. They form the core scientific group. PEP was founded at TU Berlin in 2016 by the professors Prof. Ralf Pasel, Prof. Jürgen Weidinger, Prof. Dr. Ignacio Borrego, Prof. Dr. Matthias Ballestrem, and Prof. Donatella Fioretti.  Since 2024, PEP has been offered in cooperation with the TU Darmstadt, where it is run by Prof. Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge, Prof. Elke Reichel, Prof. Felix Waechter, and Prof. Wolfgang Lorch. Since his appointment to TU Dortmund University in 2024, Prof. Dr. Matthias Ballestrem has been conducting design-based doctoral programs there as part of the PEP.

The PEP program is organized into at least seven PEP presentations, including the program application for PEP 0 . The PEP presentations take place during joint symposia, where doctoral candidates present their development and receive feedback and criticism on the status of their projects. The objectives of the presentations build on each other and provide a methodological framework. The symposia are held every six months in one of the participating professors’ institutions and are open to all participants. To date, 99 doctoral candidates have participated in the program, 10 have completed their doctoral studies, and 9 have obtained a full, visiting, or tenure-track professorship.

For more information on the PEP program and application process: https://www.pep.tu-berlin.de
 

Image credits: 7^th PEP Symposium at TU Berlin, September 2019. Work by Kristof Gavrielides. Photo by Matthias Ballestrem