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 architectural model workshop. Other research projects deal with the fundamental topics of architecture on a large scale right down to the construction detail. The focus of the research is on design and the exploration of design approaches.