Alumni Profile: Max Kling

Before Max entered the field of construction, a slight detour took him to Vienna to study sports equipment engineering—an early indication that design and detailing had fascinated him from the very beginning. He eventually found his way to E2D through the bachelor program in Energy Efficient Planning and Building at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. The decisive factor for him was the combination of engineering rigor and design freedom, which he hadn’t found in other civil engineering programs.

If Max had to pick one project from his college days, it would be the Alte Schmiede. The laboratory for experimental construction research in Augsburg was awarded the Augsburg Future Prize in 2021. There, he was able to test many of the concepts—which often existed only as models or simulations during his studies—on a 1:1 scale, using real materials, his own hands-on work, and the realization that not everything works as intended right away. It is precisely this hands-on approach that has had a lasting impact on his perspective: planning only becomes exciting when you bring it to life—through a physical and collective experience.

What Max takes away most from E2D is an approach: viewing energy, construction, and design not as separate disciplines, but as three perspectives on the same outcome. What particularly shaped him during his studies was the exchange between architecture and engineering—an openness that he continues to foster in his own firm today. He also retains the conviction that even a single detail can have a political dimension if one thinks it through to its logical conclusion.

Today, Max runs E3D Engineering GmbH in Augsburg, an engineering firm specializing in planning and design, which he helped establish as a partner and managing director. In a coworking space shared with professionals from other disciplines, the team deliberately adopts an interdisciplinary approach to create synergies and bring together different perspectives. Prior to this, he worked as a freelance planner for several years while also serving as a teaching assistant at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. To this day, the connection between academia and professional practice remains an important part of his work.

When Max isn’t planning, he enjoys getting involved in community organizations—currently as treasurer for Raumpflegekultur e. V. and, prior to that, for many years on the board of PROJEKTschmiede e. V. For his work with the latter, he was awarded the Hans-Benedikt Prize in 2020 for outstanding social commitment. He is also particularly passionate about building with bamboo—a fascination that began during his semester abroad at Udayana University in Denpasar and has stayed with him to this day.