Architects and civil engineers train together at the faculty under the Dortmund model for the building industry. The model is unique in Germany and represents a teaching concept that, in addition to the fundamental training in the chosen discipline, aims to give students interdisciplinary collaboration in a team with other engineers involved in construction. Projects involving joint work in a team of Architecture and Civil Engineering students take on a key role for the learning about this collaboration.

The faculty has numerous cooperation partners in other European and non-European countries. The cooperation faculties are open to students for a period of study abroad, as well as to teaching staff for lecturer mobility. Currently there are ongoing research projects with partners in countries including France, Algeria, Austria and the USA.

The faculty's Institute of Building Research supports the experimental teaching and research as well as interdisciplinary cooperation between the institute's subject areas of Engineering Foundation/Foundation Engineering, Building Physics, Concrete Structures, Steel Construction, Structural Design and Construction Materials. The facilities available include: concrete and mortar lab with concreting system, sampling and processing tools, hydraulic and mechanical test machines, tensioning facility with flexible test frames, climate chambers and construction materials lab with photometer, scanning electron microscope, thermoanalysis, etc.

A key research area of the department is permanent structures. The aim is in-depth analysis and clarification of the issue of how buildings and civil engineering structures need to be designed and constructed to give them a life span that is appropriate for their purpose and resource usage. In line with the principle of resource-efficient building, this area is concerned with effectively increasing the life span of architectural structures using new extended planning and design concepts while taking into account the requirements in the lifecycle.

TU Dortmund initiates, funds and honours company start-ups and transfer from science. It actively supports its students, graduates and staff in the development and implementation of business ideas, in the evaluation, registration and utilisation of inventions and patents as well as in the transfer of knowledge and technology. The many offers and measures are bundled in the Centre for Entrepreneurship & Transfer. The tu>startup founding initiative and the knowledge and technology transfer of the TU Dortmund have received multiple awards.