After the graduation, the students leave the Faculty of Architecture and Design and usually also Wismar. A few remain in contact with fellow students and professors, some return to the Faculty during the annual DIA exhibition, but this is often not possible for international students. Two major questions that the professors asked themselves in this context are: "How can we make our students feel connected to Wismar and the University?" And "How can we and the students stay in touch?".
The idea of weltatelierwismar is to create a platform that should enable students and alumni to maintain and expand their national and international contacts, to continue to exchange ideas, to make new contacts and, above all, to exchange subject-specific information after their successful graduation. This was previously not possible, as there is no corresponding network. But how do adequate activities and platforms look like, what should they contain, and would alumni even use them?
In a short workshop sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 63 international architecture students and alumni from 11 countries tried to find solutions. They examined existing alumni portals and activities of their
home Universities, collected topics, activities and priorities that they themselves would be interested in, discussed various platforms and social media offerings. After intensive workshop work, the seven groups presented their results, including ideas for a thematic expansion of the annual DIA annual exhibition, lectures and contributions from alumni to teaching, printed T-shirts to carry the Faculty with them. They programmed an App, designed an alumni room as well as concrete content and topics for the alumni platform including suitable structures and functions.
The workshop also offered students the opportunity to talk to alumni about continuing professional development and job entry opportunities. Alumni of UNITEC Auckland in New Zealand, who studied for one or more semesters as part of the successful DAAD-sponsored exchange program at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Hochschule Wismar, were involved in the workshop via Skype. In terms of content, the professors Dr. Marcus Hackel, Dr. Arnd Hennemeyer, Dr. Christoph Schnoor and Martin Wollensak accompanied the workshop.
The workshop was concluded with a day excursion to Dessau ("Bauhaus", "Meisterhäuser", "Bundesumweltamt").