He also worked on early Roman architecture in Italy at Bonn University under Hanns Gabelmann, and received his doctorate on Classical Archeology in 1985.
From 1988 to 1994 he was an assistant at the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin, where he habilitated in 1994 with a thesis on the late antique architecture of Syria.
In the same year he became assistant professor at the Department of Building and Art History at the Brandenburg Technical University in Cottbus.
Brands conducts research on antique and early Christian architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire, especially Syria, Asia Minor and southern Arabia.
He has done field research in Antakya, Turkey, the present name of the ancient city of Antioch on the Orontes.