The decades of the boom after the Second World War were characterized by an unbridled belief in progress, combined with the cheap availability of building materials and labour, which led to far-reaching changes in architecture and the construction industry. In addition to the unprecedented production of housing, this period saw massive construction activity in all areas, not least in university construction against the backdrop of the "education shock" from the 1960s onwards.

System construction became the method of choice to satisfy the immense demand for new buildings quickly and efficiently. Prefabrication, which had already become the credo of Neues Bauen in the interwar period, finally found its way into everyday construction practice. Building was rationalized, components were prefabricated in the factory or on the construction site. Building systems became modular and thus open, expandable and flexible.

The Engineering Science Centre (IWZ) in Deutz with its striking high-rise building is a representative of its time of construction in two respects: firstly, a system building, realized in the NRW 75 university building system. Secondly, a beacon project for the democratization of education, built on the right bank of the Rhine, which had always been looked at askew, near the large industrial areas that were soon to fall into crisis.

However, the standard solution that promised a brave new future just half a century ago is now generally under threat. System buildings of this generation are the subject of aesthetic discomfort, and in some places it turns out that they are not quite as flexible as originally thought - probably also because demands (and expectations) have changed. At the same time, however, these buildings are robust, can be coded in a variety of ways and, quite simply, are already built.

So what are the constraints of the system buildings of this time, and what problems arise from them? But what potential lies in the standard solution that was found with them? And does the perception of these buildings themselves perhaps need to be changed in order to make their potential and the opportunities they open up visible?

We will explore these and other questions on this fifth evening of architectural tuesday .