The Transsolar Academy is a fully funded one-year fellowship in climate-responsive building design at the Transsolar office in Stuttgart. It covers tuition, travel, and accommodation. Each year Transsolar selects six fellows from parts of the world where their work has had little prior reach. The programme combines lectures, tutorials, and live project work.
Training is part theoretical, part hands-on: a personal research project plus client work alongside Transsolar engineers, and continuous peer learning across the cohort. Transsolar’s aim is to seed climate engineering (‘KlimaEngineering’) in the fellows’ home countries, the regions where they believe the biggest changes will happen in the coming decade.
TRANSSOLAR
Transsolar is a climate engineering firm whose mission is the highest possible comfort in the built environment with the lowest possible environmental impact.
The team works collaboratively with clients, architects, mechanical engineers, and other consultants from the start of the design process, assessing each step from the standpoint of fundamental thermodynamics and physics, to create comfortable, ecological, and high-value buildings.
ACADEMY HISTORY
Transsolar invited seven fellows from six countries to kick off the Academy (TSA I) in October 2013, after the firm’s 20th anniversary symposium.
In the following six years, the Academy hosted 38 fellows from 23 countries across 4 continents, changing the trajectory of every fellow involved. The core of its success is the intimate setup and close interaction between fellows, mentors, and the company.
PROGRAMME
Architects and engineers are invited to a one-year fellowship in climate-responsive building design at the Transsolar office in Stuttgart. Each fellow is mentored by senior company engineers.
The curriculum follows a one-third breakdown:
- One-third theoretical education.
- One-third hands-on, experiential learning through project work.
- One-third individual research project guided by a company mentor.
Education
The programme delivers 400+ hours of training on sustainable design from Transsolar engineers, covering thermodynamics, energy supply systems, HVAC, solar energy, daylight, air supply, natural ventilation, water management, outdoor comfort, and passive design.
Research project
Each fellow takes on a research project proposed by the senior engineers. The work gives fellows and Transsolar the chance to connect ideas and explore the opportunities of KlimaEngineering, together investigating how to maximise impact on the built environment.
