Since the winter term of 2013, the KOEN Institute has been responsible for teaching the first-year design and construction exercises at the Faculty of Architecture at Graz University of Technology. In recent years, this has developed into a research area that systematically deals with fundamental issues such as teaching design, learning to design and researching design media and design approaches. This basic research is documented in numerous publications by the institute and commissioned works for museums and other institutions, some of which were created in collaboration with the modelmaking workshop of the Faculty of Architecture at Graz University of Technology.