Resource Efficient and Sustainable Building

Solving global challenges such as climate change, the destruction of the environment, resource rivalries, demographic change and urbanisation, as well as the challenges that these pose for our societies, are among the central questions of our time. A vital role is played here by the construction industry when it comes to reducing CO₂ emissions, adapting our towns and cities, neighbourhoods and buildings to climate change, reducing the use of resources (e.g. land, material and water), and adjusting the built-up environment to rapidly-changing economic and societal circumstances.
Over and above this, roughly 66 hectares of land are approved as housing and traffic development zones in Germany every day , making them unavailable for other uses such as food production, ecological compensation areas, recreation areas or water storage. These are alarming figures given the current size of the global population’s ecological footprint, and in light of the fact that we are overtaxing our planet by more than 1½ times its biocapacity, which can already be felt today. Against the background of ongoing, rapid global population growth and the consequences which this has for equally rapidly rising CO₂ emissions and resource consumption, there is an urgent need to place the management of the construction industry on an exclusively sustainable footing.

For a comprehensive description of the program, please refer to the degree program documentation:

• Degree program documentation for the master's in Resource Efficient and Sustainable Building (PDF, German)

The Master Resource Efficient and Sustainable Building programme graduates are to be able to think holistically and offer their services in resource efficient, sustainable construction as particularly well-qualified engineers, architects and planners. Given their broad-based specialist skills and their interdisciplinary thinking and working, they will help amongst other things to implement the stipulations of national and international law with regard to resource efficient construction. To this end, they will develop constructional design solutions for climate protection, which will continue to be urgently needed, and will help satisfy the increasing need to adjust buildings and neighbourhoods to face the advance of climate change.

To this end, the M.Sc. RNB programme graduates will have the necessary skills in drafting and planning at the scale levels of buildings, neighbourhoods, towns and cities as well as regions. They will also have detailed knowledge of the skill areas of construction physics, building services engineering, structural design and life cycle analysis that are relevant to resource efficient, sustainable construction. They will be familiar with the interactions and synergies of these fields, and will be able to apply the knowledge that they have gained in planning and implementing resource efficient buildings and neighbourhoods.

As "interface specialists", they have both the necessary abilities to optimise the resource requirements, taking account of aspects that are relevant to sustainability such as ecology, economics and sociocultural factors, as well as being able to communicate both with creative architects and planners and with analytically- and technically-orientated engineers, and to communicate their knowledge in a goal-driven and effective manner. The abilities to optimise building and neighbourhood concepts in a resource-driven, quantifiable manner on the basis of engineering methods and to effectively integrate the knowledge that they have gained into the planning process, taking the entire life cycle into account, constitute special qualifications of graduates from this programme.

The Master’s programme in Resource Efficient and Sustainable Building (RNB) creates an independent activity profile of a sustainability expert in the construction sector who is able to close the gap between classical civil engineers, environmental engineers, architects and building services engineers. Graduates from the Master’s programme in Resource Efficient and Sustainable Building will be able to analyse connections and insights related to all aspects of sustainable design and building in order to develop solutions that implement resource efficient, sustainable buildings at the interdisciplinary interface between man, buildings, infrastructure and the environment.

The following career choices are open to graduates:

• architects’, engineers’ or other planning offices,
• public authorities (e.g. building and planning offices, approval authorities),
• experts, consultants,
• construction companies,
• industrial production,
• trade and commerce,
• research and teaching, and
• further training and development.

The first semester of the degree programme serves above all to provide fundamental knowledge in the four skill areas :

• Architecture, city and landscape
• Building services engineering and renewable energies
• Building physics and energy efficiency
• Building technology and life cycle engineering

The obligatory and elective modules offered here ensure that all of the programme’s graduates have the core skills forming the basis for resource efficient, sustainable construction. In preparation for the interdisciplinary project, graduates of the Bachelor’s programme in Architecture attend the module entitled “Physical principles of energy-efficient construction”, and graduates with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering attend the module entitled “Aspects of sustainable urbanism”.

The above core skills are expanded upon in further obligatory modules in the second semester of the degree programme. The central element of this programme is the “Interdisciplinary Project”, in which the skills obtained so far are implemented and expanded in teams with an interdisciplinary composition (e.g. B.A. AR, B.Sc. BI and B.Sc. UI) in a design-orientated project. The focus here is placed on the interaction between the analysis, for instance of the life cycle-based resource consumption of alternative solutions, and on the synthesis in the context of the design-orientated development of energy concepts in the energy retrofitting of existing buildings and construction of new ones. In this context, the obligatory module entitled “Application of a life cycle analysis” is also part of the second semester of the degree programme, which is directly connected with the application-orientated development work carried out in the “Interdisciplinary project” (IDP). The work carried out in the IDP is highly practical in its orientation. In addition to expanding specialist skills, imparting social skills (e.g. teamwork and team leadership, visual, verbal and non-verbal communication, etc.) in preparation for the IDP is a major element of the first semester of the degree programme and, along with the project, also forms a component of the second semester.

Because of the long list of options available, the third semester of the degree programme offers students the opportunity to expand their specialist knowledge in a targeted manner. Moreover, the third semester offers an opportunity to both obtain and contribute specialist knowledge while spending time at other Universities abroad.

The fourth semester of the degree programme focuses on the Master’s thesis and the Master’s colloquium.

Required language skills for admission:

You need sufficient German and English language skills if you wish to apply for this program. Evidence of your proficiency in both languages has to be submitted before the end of the application deadline. Learn more about recognized certificates and other ways to prove your language skills.

This evidence of your language proficiency confirms that you comply with the minimum language requirements for admission to the program. Depending on the program and your individual background, it may be necessary for you to keep working on your language skills during your studies. Be sure to take a look at the services of our Language Center.  

Languages of instruction:

The languages of instruction for this program are German and English. This means that you need to complete modules in both German and English in the course of your studies.

• Information on exams
• Contact Examination Board
• Information on studying abroad
• Information on internships

The tuition fees for international students from third countries for this degree program are 6,000 euros per semester.

Many international students can have their fees waived or receive scholarships to finance them. You can find all information on waivers and scholarships here.

Please note: The semester fee as a contribution to the student union must be paid additionally. It varies depending on where you are studying. You can find all information on the semester fee here.

Minimum requirements to apply for a Master's program at TUM are a recognized undergraduate degree (e.g. a bachelor’s) and the successful completion of the aptitude assessment procedure. Aptitude assessment allows the TUM school or department to which you are applying the opportunity to evaluate your individual talents and motivation for study.

During the application period, you must apply through the TUMonline application portal and upload your application documents.

If you receive an offer of admission, you will additionally have to submit individual documents as notarized hardcopies by post to be enrolled.

Generally, applicants with a qualification for postgraduate studies (e.g. a bachelor’s) obtained outside of the EU / EEA must have their documents reviewed in advance through uni-assist.

In detail:

• Applying for a master’s program: Application, admission requirements and more 

• Degree Certificate and Diploma or Subject and Grade Transcript of Studies to Date
• Proof of English Language Proficiency
• Proof of German Language Proficiency
• Letter of Motivation
• Collection of Work
• Essay
• Complete and Current Résumé
• Passport
• Preliminary Documentation (VPD) if the qualification for graduate studies (e.g. a bachelor’s) was obtained outside the EU/EEA (from winter semester 2025/26: outside Germany)

We may require additional documents depending on your educational background and your country of origin. Complete the online application to receive a comprehensive list of the required documents. 

• Application for Enrollment (signed)
• Degree Certificate and Diploma (certified copy)
• Transcript of Records (certified copy)
• Most Current Photo (as for ID)
• Digital notification of your health insurance status from a German public health insurance provider (requested by applicant)

We may require additional documents depending on the type of educational background you earned and your country of origin. After accepting an offer of admission in TUMonline, you will receive a list of documents you must submit to TUM in hardcopy for enrollment.

Application period for winter semester: 01.04. – 31.05.

Information about applying for a higher subject semester

During the application period, you must apply through the TUMonline application portal and upload your application documents. Please be aware that we can only process your application if you upload all required documents within the application period.

We will review your application as soon as it is complete. Please check your TUMonline account regularly, to see if we have any queries to your documents or if you have to amend one or more documents.

After receiving admission, you will see in TUMonline which documents you have to submit for enrollment, and in which form. Please note that you always have to send the signed application for enrollment and all notarized hardcopies by post.

We recommend that you submit the documents for enrollment as soon as possible after receiving admission. If individual documents are not available by then, you can submit them up to 5 weeks after the start of the lecture period. You will, however, only be enrolled once we have received all documents.

You can check the status of your application at any time in your TUMonline account.

Selection takes place through an aptitude assessment procedure. Aptitude assessment is a two-part procedure after the submission of an official application to a program. In this procedure, the TUM school or department determines whether you meet the specific requirements for its master’s degree program.

In the initial stages, the grades you obtained during your bachelor's program, as well as your written documents, will be evaluated using a point system. Depending on the amount of points accumulated, applicants are either immediately admitted, rejected or invited to an admissions interview.

• Aptitude Assessment for Master
• Description of the Aptitude Assessment (German) (PDF 286 KB)