Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

In this interview, Dirk E. Hebel, discusses the urgent need to shift the construction industry from linear to circular processes. Hebel explains how the construction sector can reduce resource waste and CO₂ emissions by adopting a circular economy. He highlights the importance of “design for disassembly,” using pure materials, and reusing entire buildings and components. Through his vision, Hebel introduces an innovative approach to the future of architecture and construction, focusing on sustainability, resource efficiency, and circular value creation.

The KIT Material Library has been awarded the “Badischer Architektur Preis” (BDAP) in the Interior Design category for its innovative, circular concept. The renovation features materials that have already completed a life cycle, sourced from the so-called “urban mine”. All materials are sorted and installed without adhesives or silicones to maximize recyclability.

Manuel Rausch (STUDIO-MRA) was the lead architect of the Material Library. The design concept was developed in collaboration with the Material Library team, particularly the selection of materials for the interior was made with Professor Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm, Elena Boerman, and Thomas Kinsch.

With an extensive collection of building materials, the library offers students the chance to experience materials firsthand and integrate them into their design processes. The architectural redesign presents a bright, airy space with a gallery level that encourages interaction and exploration.

This material library serves as a knowledge repository for sustainable building materials, providing both analog and digital resources for research and education.

For more information, visit the BDAP website.

Micro-Multifunctional Room for a Kindergarten in Freiburg

The ‘Haus für Kinder am Hirzberg’ in Freiburg is characterised by its proximity to nature, built structures that have grown over time and space and an open room concept. In two existing buildings on a slope, which are connected by an intermediate building for access, the educational work of the team takes place in a homely atmosphere on different levels and always in close relation to the outdoors. The existing structure is complemented by a courtyard for the children to play in, which is protected by a small wooden tool shed facing the valley.

The kindergarten is now to be extended on its own site with a micro-multifunctional space, which is the focus of the semester assignment and which will subsequently be realised in cooperation with an architectural office based in Freiburg. The room will serve as a common and study room for staff as well as a room for curative education programmes and parent meetings. As the site is located within the “Roßkopf-Schloßberg” landscape conservation area, the preservation of the surrounding trees and copses as well as the protected wetland complex is an important design requirement. Particular importance is also attached to the spatial relationship between the existing buildings on the Hirzberg slope and the new spatial structure that is being created towards the valley, which should fit into the local landscape and provide a cosy atmosphere for the kindergarten staff.

The design is aiming for a detailed examination of the resulting environmental effects, building economics, structural engineering and building physics issues, as well as the use of resource-friendly, pure building materials such as renewable and secondary building materials, sustainable, circular construction methods and their design-related effects on function and aesthetics with planning up to a scale of 1:1.

Supervised by: Elena Boerman

First Meeting: 24.10.2024, 09.30 am (Bldg. 20.40, R 208)
Excursion: 15.11.2024, Freiburg
Pin-Up: 11.12.2024
Submission: 19.02.2025
Presentation: 21.02.2025
Form: Teamwork

Living on the food market in Kaiserslautern

How do people want to live together today and tomorrow? What are the prerequisites for good neighbourliness in an urban context? How can contemporary living models be reflected in residential buildings? How can a market promote cohesion and identity in a neighbourhood

While modernism proclaimed a separation of work and living, today innovative housing construction must develop offers for increasingly differentiated lifestyles. The focus of the task is therefore a forward-looking residential housing project that will be constructed in conjunction with commercial use on the ground floor on a plot in a heterogeneous neighbourhood in Kaiserslautern. The architectural designs should take into account the housing needs of people in the city as well as the respectful treatment of the surrounding context, resources and environment. The aim is to make design decisions for housing and the market comprehensible on the basis of successful reference projects, which will be analysed during the semester. For example, the design-integrated examination of housing requirements in the city of Kaiserslautern, different forms of human coexistence, contemporary housing developments, innovative concepts for food markets, circular construction methods and materials, resulting environmental impacts, building economics, structural engineering and building physics issues as well as the requirements of stakeholders and the needs of different users contribute to this.

The task is a mixed-use project consisting of residential and a food market in Kaiserslautern, which is currently being supervised by the Regensburg-based company RATISBONA Handelsimmobilien, a leading project developer in the German and international retail sector, and the architectural firm KURIARCHITEKTEN and will be further developed as a real project following the semester.

Supervision: Fanny Hirt, Han Jun Yi
When? Wednesdays and Thursdays in the Studio

First Meeting: 23.10.2024, 2.00 pm (Bldg. 11.40, R 027)

Pin-Up: 11.12.2024
Excursion: 04.11.2024, Kaiserslautern
Submission: 18.02.2025
Presentation: 20.02.2025

In the Winter Semester 2024/25, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the Professorship of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. The lecture will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Please refer to the poster for speakers and actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 9.45 am in the lecture hall Fritz-Haller in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

In the Winter Semester 2024/25, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Materials, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. The lectures will address conventional and alternative building materials and their use in construction. Please refer to the poster for speakers and actual dates. The lecture is held every Friday, 9.45 am at the lecture hall Fritz-Haller in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

Building with renewables – our nature as material stock
Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm und Elena Boerman (Editors), Fraunhofer IRB Verlag, Stuttgart, 2024

With contributions from Hanaa Dahy, Moritz Dörstelmann, Alireza Javadian, Mitchell Joachim, Henk Jonkers, Andrea Klinge, Clemens Quirin, Eike Roswag-Klinge, Martin Rauch, Nazanin Saeidi, Michael Sailer und Werner Schmidt.

Designing our built environment in a socially, economically and ecologically fair way is a major social responsibility for all planners. How can we address the scarcity of resources in construction and achieve a completely circular economy? International experts from research and practice are addressing these important questions, with a particular focus on renewable and bio-based building materials. In addition to traditional building materials such as wood and clay, they also describe a variety of innovative bio-based materials and building products and consider their performance and availability. Their visions and ideas outline how biomaterials can be used in buildings and constructions. Project examples offer inspiration for your own planning and building. A collection of selected material examples illustrates the special aesthetics and value of components made from sown, grown and harvested resources. In order to preserve our livelihoods, much more focus must be placed on circular biological materials. The positive incentives and food for thought in this book show possible ways to build in consistence with our natural processes and systems.

The association “KIT Freundeskreis und Fördergesellschaft e.V.” (KFG) awards annual prizes to KIT employees from administration, infrastructure or infrastructure-related scientific institutions as well as to non-academic young talent for particularly outstanding support services for science. The KFG determines the prize winners and the amount of prize money based on a proposal from a KIT internal selection committee.

Ms. Siedentopp, secretary at the Professorship of Sustainable Building at the KIT Faculty of Architecture, was awarded one of these prizes with prize money of €1,500.00 for her achievements at the KFG’s summer reception on July 15, 2024 in the NTI lecture hall awarded in 2023.

Ms. Siedentopp has worked as a secretary at the Faculty of Architecture since 1998. She was extremely committed to the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 university competition, the world’s largest architecture competition for universities, from which the RoofKIT project submitted by KIT emerged as the winner. In over three years of intensive interdisciplinary teamwork, Ms. Siedentopp has exceeded the enormous range of special tasks within this competition. It managed a budget of EUR 1.6 million. The building prototype of this project was inaugurated on the South Campus in April 2023. Since then, it has served as a research and real-world laboratory at this location and can be viewed by the interested public, a task that Ms. Siedentopp is also responsible for. Ms. Siedentop will retire at the end of 2024.
We congratulate Ms. Siedentopp on this special award and wish her all the best for her professional and private future!

CIRCULAR CONSTRUCTION METHODS

Full landfills, ambitious climate targets: By 2050, the European Union wants to introduce a comprehensive circular economy. For the turnaround in construction to succeed, material resources must be fully reused and recycled. Pure and low-polluting building materials that are used in reversible component connections and are simply joined are the basic prerequisite for the circular construction of buildings. This handbook explains how to design and build according to the closed-loop principle. It shows the history and present of cycle-oriented architecture and analyses the basics of single-variety construction with regard to methodology, materials and construction. Joining and connecting techniques are discussed as well as the choice of materials in general and the life cycles of individual layers and their functions. The extensive detailed catalogue with drawings on a scale of 1:20 documents exemplary applications and connections, which are differentiated according to materials.

available at www.detail.de

Nazanin Saeidi in an interview with Maike Rubel and Patricia Leuchtenberger about the innovative manufacturing process and the advantages of NEWood as a recyclable alternative to wooden composite materials.

An exciting Whitsun week lies behind us: We traveled to the foothills of the Alps to experience Peter Zumthor’s buildings and his approach to space, light and material. Yet the region, rich in diverse architecture, also offered us a variety of additional projects. The aim of our four-day field trip was to develop an understanding of the regional materials, the sites and the associated construction techniques. We got to know a broad spectrum of industrial and residential architecture, but also visited museums and, last but not least, sacred buildings. We also took the opportunity to get to know the people behind the projects by visiting architectural offices and a carpentry workshop in the region.
Our special thanks go to all those involved who gave us in-depth insights into the projects, but also to the group of interested students, without whose thirst for knowledge a week like this would be far less valuable.

The aim of our seminar week is to give students an understanding of the attitude and the associated responsibility for the design and construction of a project. Design decisions should raise questions about the availability of talents and materials, responsibility for the sustainable use of resources, functionality and respect for social and cultural particularities and climatic conditions, as well as the traditional understanding of craftsmanship, joining methods and processing techniques. Furthermore, longevity, resilience and ecological viability need to be discussed.
With this journey, we would like to encourage students to discover design approaches in their specific manifestations and to further develop them innovatively, enriching and supplementing them with their own knowledge.

We are delighted to announce the KIT winners of the UMSA (Urban Mining Student Award)!
With three places within the prize-winning group, the students of our last design semester at the Professorship for Sustainable Construction at KIT were extremely successful within the submitted 29 projects. Nils Henrik Benkeser took first place, Frederik Busch took third place and Maximilian Weiß received a recognition. Congratulations!

The UMSA jury states: “Two first prizes of €1,000 each and a subscription to Detail Magazine and Detail Inspiration were awarded to the team of Sarah Henn and Malte Grobenstieg from the University of Wuppertal and Nils Henrik Benkeser from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Bennet Tielker and Emma Lou Fiedler from the münster school of architecture received the second prize of €800 and an Atlas Recycling each, and Frederik Busch from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was delighted with the third prize of €500.
Two commendations were also awarded with €300 each. These were awarded to the team of Pia Steffen and Christiane Öhmann and Maximilian Weiß.
A total of 29 entries from 8 universities were submitted.”

Please check on further information here or on Instagram.

After a successful start in 2023 with 450 participants, Forum Holzbau has decided to hold the Süddeutscher Holzbau Kongress (SHK) annually. The second event has now been scheduled for July 10 and 11, 2024 in Fellbach near Stuttgart. The congress, organized by Forum Holzbau, is intended to provide a platform for a comprehensive scientific and economic exchange on all aspects of modern, future-oriented timber construction.

On July 11 at 1:50 pm, Daniela Schneider will hold a lecture on “Building Circular: Materials – Joining – Documentation”. You will find her in block B4 with the main topic “Circular Construction”.

Please check the full programm here.

On 24 April 2024 at 6 pm, the UMSA shortlist was announced at the Haspel campus in lecture theatre 00.01. All participants of the competition, the supervising university teachers and relatives were invited to this event.

The event was broadcast online and KIT organised a public viewing for and with the students. Three out of six people on the shortlist have developed a design for the old lace factory in Wuppertal at KIT in the winter semester 2023/24: We warmly congratulate Nils Benkeser, Frederik Busch and Maximilian Weiß.

The official award ceremony with the announcement of the winners will take place on 3 May 2024 at 5 pm at the Schwebodrom Wuppertal (Werth 96, 42275 Wuppertal). Guests at the award ceremony will be greeted with welcome drinks and canapés. Afterwards, all visitors will be offered a VR tour of the Schwebodrom. The official award ceremony will begin at around 6 p.m. with the announcement of the winners, after which the winners will be invited to a dinner together at the Cafe Schimmerlos event location (Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 85, 42103 Wuppertal).

What could sustainable construction look like in the future? The exhibition is an invitation to try out new things with existing resources and lots of creativity.

Beaches are disappearing, entire islands are drowning because their sand is needed to produce building materials such as concrete and glass. Other raw materials are also becoming increasingly rare, so creativity is required – clever minds and playful hands are needed to grow new building materials or harvest old ones and try them out.

From April 27 to November 3, young visitors are invited to the exhibition “Mushroom Palaces and Bag Towers – Building for Tomorrow” at the Junge Kunsthalle to explore how resource-saving, sustainable construction could work in the future by touching, constructing, puzzling and painting.

Warmth from old jeans, walls made from cutting boards, building blocks made from mushrooms and much more awaits the visitors not only on their own exploration of the exhibition, but also in the diverse creative educational program.

Further information here.

Redensification concepts for Würzburg-Gartenstadt

*to add, to fill, to refill, to recharge

Due to the structural and sociological changes in society and the associated increase in awareness of ecological, economic and socio-cultural sustainability, existing buildings are becoming increasingly important. In addition to avoiding construction waste, conserving primary resources and limiting emissions, the use of existing architectural buildings can also promote the sustainable and future-oriented development of cities, which in turn helps to preserve existing functioning structures and thus the urban appearance. Overall, dealing with existing buildings helps to achieve a balance between economic, technical and architectural development, environmental protection and cultural heritage. 

The semester design, which deals with the refurbishment and revitalization of four row buildings in Würzburg-Frauenland, is fed by the results of the seminar “Understanding existing buildings”, in which a contemporary documentation of the existing buildings was created in WS 23/24 on the basis of sketches, photographs, surveys and models. The aim of this semester is to develop a sustainable vision for the new and further development of living, working and living in this area, connected to the entire residential neighbourhood.

Supervised by: Hanna Hoss, Manuel Rausch

Supervision: Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays
Location: Studio (20.40, room 208)
1st meeting: 18.04.2024 in our studio
Excursion: 26. – 27.04.2024
Submission: 26.07.2024, 12.00
Presentation: 30.07.2024 and 31.07.2024

A Research Seminar of the KIT Material Library

The KIT Materials Library of the Faculty of Architecture offers an extensive collection of materials that, in addition to conventional building materials, focuses on building materials made from secondary raw materials, alternative biotic raw materials and recyclable building materials. 

Addressing such material focal points of sustainable construction makes future generations of architects understand the value of varietal purity, the necessity of using secondary materials and the preservation of value when reused or recycled.

In the research seminar Future-oriented Building Materials, Master’s students gain a detailed insight into this class of innovative, endlessly recyclable building materials. The independent scientific research work of the students is at the heart of the seminar work. The students are involved in the selection of the materials to be described and are explicitly called upon to adopt a critical stance. The final aim of the seminar is to present innovative, sustainable materials for the construction industry using detailed data sheets and prepared physical material samples as part of an exhibition in the materials library. Students are thus actively involved in the further development of the materials database and the collection of the materials library. The seminar is accompanied by individual supervision, work in the study workshops and joint discussion rounds in the materials library.

Supervised by: Sandra Böhm, Elena Boerman

Date: Tuesdays 11.30-13.00
Location: KIT Material Library, 20.40, Room 141
1st meeting: 16.04.2024
Exam: 16.07.2024

A journey across the Alpine region

During Whitsun week, we want to travel to the Alpine foreland to experience Peter Zumthor’s buildings and his work with space, light and material. The region, rich in diverse architecture, has numerous other projects to offer. Our aim during the four days of our trip is to develop an understanding of regional materials, the places associated with them and processing technologies.

We will get to know multifaceted industrial and residential architecture, but also visit museums and, last but not least, religious buildings. In addition, we will take the opportunity to meet the people behind the architecture by visiting architectural offices and a carpentry workshop in the region.

The cost for travel, accommodation with breakfast and programme is estimated at around €375 per person.

Supervised by: Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Elena Boerman, Hanna Hoss, Manuel Rausch

First Meeting: 17.04.24, 11.30 am, building 11.40, Raum 26
Excursion: 21.05.2024 – 24.05.2024

The federal and state governments have agreed on a “construction turbo pact” to speed up planning and approval processes. Industrial production methods should make building cheaper and approval procedures faster: “In order to further promote this form of building, the federal states will regulate that once type approvals for serial, modular and systemic construction have been granted, they will be valid nationwide,” writes the Federal Building Ministry BMBSW. An occasion for the initiative Dachkult to take a look at outstanding architecture that is modularly planned right up to the roof.

The event took place on March 21st in the Kulturzentrum Tempel in Karlsruhe. The Heilbronn office of Joos Keller Architekten has won the Hugo Häring Prize with its modularly designed Bernhäusle children’s garden – Thomas Heyd, Managing Director of Zimmerei Heyd, took a look behind the scenes of production. The KIT team led by Prof Dirk E. Hebel has won the Solar Decathlon Europe with a modularly developed roof extension – Elena Boerman, Researcher/Sustainable Construction at KIT Karls- ruhe presents the design and process. The winners of the Dachwelten 2023 competition from Würzburg Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences also impressed with a modular roof extension.

In addition to speed and cost certainty, modular construction offers another advantage: circularity – a requirement for which the pitched roof is particularly suitable in its basic structure.

Click here to see more impressions and videos of the event soon.

On February 24, Daniela Schneider, gave a lecture on the topic “Circular planning and building: Paths towards a circular economy” in the Mensa Uhlandstaße in Tübingen. Her speech tackled the big questions of the construction industry: What does responsible use of resources look like? How can we deal with the existing building stock? And how to build reversibly? Daniela Schneider deals intensively with these issues. Among other things, she recommends taking the cycles in nature as a guideline. She explains the principle of closed loops using the Cradle to Cradle® design principle, also using examples of the built environment.
Her lecture was followed by a question and answer session.

The event was recognized by the Architektenkammer Baden-Württemberg with a total of 2.5 hours for members and architects/urban planners in practical training for the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning.

Further information here.

Last week, the final reviews of Design Studio Hebel “Thought to the point – Contemporary living in the historic Henkels lace factory in Wuppertal” took place. Congratulations to all students!

A selection of designs will be nominated for the Urban Mining Student Award 2023/24, which is seeking visions for the sustainable conversion of the existing building stock. The KIT Faculty of Architecture has already won this competition three times in recent years and we want to tackle the assignment again this year, focusing on the respectful conversion and circular redevelopment of the historic factory site of the former lace factory A.&E. Henkels in Wuppertal-Langerfeld. What is “contemporary living and working”? How can a genuine social mix be generated within the former factory block? How can social housing and luxury apartments co-exist or even create added value for all residents and for the entire district through their co-existence?

Over the course of the winter semester, 35 Bachelor’s and Master’s students approached these complex questions in a variety of ways. Since everyone has worked tirelessly on the project, we are very happy to give you an insight into the results. You can take a look at the diverse solutions until March 6 in a model exhibition at the KIT Faculty of Architecture in building 20.40 on the second floor.

Plastics have shaped our daily lives like no other material. From food containers to electronic devices, from furniture to cars, from fashion to prefab buildings. With their almost limitless malleability, versatility, and economic production, plastics have spurred the imagination of designers and architects for decades. While they have been associated with convenience, progress, and even revolution, in recent years, they have lost their utopian appeal. Plastics are omnipresent – often as waste.

Moving away from a linear economy towards a circular one will require a combination of different strategies and approaches: mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling; a shift from oil-based plastics to plastics that are based on renewable resources and are biodegradable; reduction of single-use plastics. Lastly, legislation will need to support all these developments.

The Vitra Design Museum devotes a major exhibition to the utopian appeal of plastics and to the current challenges that need to be tackled by design, science, and politics. The exhibition ‘Plastic: Remaking Our World’ examines the rise of plastic during the course of the twentieth century, its present ecological consequences as well as current research and design projects towards a new, sustainable use of the material in the future.

The exhibition will be on display in Singapore till 23 June 2024. Afterwards, it’ll move on to Korea and be on show at the Hyundai Motorstudio Busan from August 2024 till May 2025.

An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum, V&A Dundee and maat, Lisbon

Detailed information
Vitra Design Museum
Illustrated Concept
Exhibition Film

Curatorial Team
Vitra Design Museum: Jochen Eisenbrand, Mea Hoffmann
V&A Dundee: Charlotte Hale, Laurie Bassam
maat, Lisbon: Anniina Koivu
Consultant Curators: V&A: Johanna Agerman Ross, Corinna Gardner 

Exhibition Design
Asif Khan

Graphic Design
Daniel Streat, Visual Fields

Exhibition Tour 
26.03.2022 – 04.09.2022, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany  
29.10.2022 – 05.02.2023, V&A Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom 
22.03.2023 – 11.09.2023, maat, Lisbon, Portugal
27.01.2024 – 23.06.2024, National Museum of Singapore
09.08.2024 – May 2025, Hyundai Motorstudio, Busan, Korea

As already teased in a Trailer, the fascinating exhibition “Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity” is still ongoing at Frankfurter Kunstverein.

This month, exciting evening events will accompany the current exhibition: Topics ranging from justice in climate change, to the role of hope and climate activism, to sustainable construction and criminal law in the climate crisis will be covered.

Two events have been organized together with the Research Centre Normative Orders at Goethe University Frankfurt. On February 8 at 6:30 pm, the climate philosopher Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf will give a lecture entitled “Mobilizing Hope. Climate activism, solidarity and the dangers of plutocracy and pessimism”. On February 20, at 8 pm, the lawyer Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther will report on (criminal) law and time in the climate crisis. This will be followed by a panel discussion.

Sustainable construction is a theme in the “Bending the Curve exhibition”, which we will be addressed by the panel discussion “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? About building new, old and completely different” on February 13 at 6 pm, together with experts. Sandra Böhm from KIT as an expert in sustainable materials will be one of the guests. Alex Nehmer, editor of ARCH+, curated the forward-looking exhibition “The Great Repair” at Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Frankfurt architect Claudia Meixner from MEIXNER SCHLÜTER WENDT will report on how ambitious planning can be developed for our city and the Head of Planning and Housing, Prof. Dr. Marcus Gwechenberger, will provide insights into the future of urban transformation.

February begins and ends with public guided tours offered by Paula Maß on February 2 and 28, both at 2 pm. A great opportunity to find out more about the individual exhibits or to deepen your knowledge. You can visit the “Bending the Curve” exhibition until March 3rd.

Further information: https://www.fkv.de

Dealing with existing structures will be one of the most important tasks in Germany and Europe in the coming years and decades. Recently, we offered a reality-based deconstruction-workshop which consists of two parts. Based on this small project, we trained important techniques and basic principles with the aim of realizing the students design ideas.

The first part was a deconstruction workshop of an existing wooden barn in Ehrenkirchen near Freiburg in December 2023. The structure has been dismantled and stored. Before that, the dismantled wooden parts have been measured by students who afterwards set up a digital material depot. This way, they’ve learned how to create simple material passes as a basis for new design.

In a second part, the students are asked to design a storage and service building for the sports club in Ebringen, using the parts obtained from the deconstruction. The original building burnt down a few years ago, but the remains are to be preserved and integrated into the design.

We are very excited about the design presentation next week!

Below please find some impressions from the first part:

The children’s quiz “1, 2 or 3” teaches knowledge in an entertaining and playful way. Bright minds and nimble legs are required. The guessing teams give their answers by jumping on one of the answer fields.

There are over two million species of mushroom worldwide. And you can not only eat mushrooms, you can even use some of them to build houses. Prof. Dirk Hebel explains how this works. The roots of fungi form a very strong tissue. Reporter Leonore uses this so-called mycelium to produce a kind of leather at the Fraunhofer Institute in Potsdam. She finds out from expert Hannes Hinneburg why wood chips are needed for this. Mushrooms are a truly miraculous material. They can not only be used to make leather, but also a meat substitute for plant-based steaks. And even ants grow mushrooms in their anthills as food. But why some mushrooms glow in the dark, spread black liquid, or how they even manage to take on cleaning tasks in nature, Elton wants to know from the guessing teams.

“Primary materials are becoming increasingly rare, especially in our resource-poor region of Central Europe. The circular building method can therefore be an answer to the question of how we can still allow future generations to build according to their needs, ideas and values and thus also be able to realize a dignified life.”

Prof. Dirk E. Hebel explains the principle of the “anthropocene depot” using the example of the “RoofKIT” in a video interview: the city, the built environment, becomes an urban mine from which raw materials are recovered.

The stacking module designed and constructed for the “Solar Decathlon 2022” student competition, which Prof. Hebel supervised as a faculty advisor, has caused a sensation since winning the largest building competition for universities because it has implemented a large number of central architectural themes: Circular economy, adding storeys, biological building materials, timber construction, the use of renewable energies to supply electricity… None of this as a “promise for the future”, as Prof. Hebel emphasizes, but as a module that can already be implemented at this point in time.

Prof. Hebel is one of numerous high-profile guests who will be speaking at the anniversary event of the “Auf Holz bauen” education initiative at the Haus der Architektinnen und Architekten in Stuttgart on December 4:
akbw.de/angebot/kammerveranstaltungen/drei-jahre-bildungsoffensive-aufholzbauen

Due to the complexity of the topics, RoofKIT will be presented in two films. The next part will highlight the student team members’ view of the project.

Without biodiversity, human existence on planet Earth would not be possible. However, this biodiversity has been declining for far too long, and at an alarming rate. This realisation unites the curatorial team of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, which has invited the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Frankfurt Zoo to collaborate in the form of an interdisciplinary partnership. The result is the new exhibition titled Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity, which alludes to the concept of ‘Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss’. The exhibition explores how the negative trend can be halted – or even reversed. This issue is also the focus of the artistic and scientific perspectives presented in the exhibition, which illustrate paths and ideas for ecosystemic recovery and aim to catalyse a turnaround in the biodiversity crisis.

The exhibits and their creation demonstrate where a shift in thinking and action, as well as a new prioritisation of values, may lead to. Built upon the foundation of knowledge, action and care for biodiversity, as formulated in the sub-title, the creators and their works advocate a departure from anthropocentrism towards the concept of transformative ‘naturecultures’, as coined by Donna Haraway. The forward-looking stance of the artists showcased in Frankfurt also stems from their presentation of not just sustainable but regenerative art. Unlike sustainability, which aims to preserve resources and minimise negative impacts, regenerative art focuses on co-existence with ecosystems. This necessitates aligning the coordinates of daily life in a way that creates a liveable social environment while simultaneously contributing to the recovery, renewal, and perhaps even complete health of the environment.

Bending the Curve – Knowing, Acting, Caring for Biodiversity
13.10.2023 — 03.03.2024

Further information: https://www.fkv.de/ausstellung/bending-the-curve/

In collaboration with the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Frankfurt Zoo

Co-Creation Art: Prof. Franziska Nori
Co-Creation Science: Prof. Dr. Katrin Böhning-Gaese

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg / Fernando Laposse / Julia Lohmann / Maurizio Montalti / MYRIAD. Where we connect. / Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Faculty of Architecture / Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior / Walter R. Tschinkel / Frankfurt Zoo

Which new materials can be used to construct buildings in an environmentally friendly and natural way? Julia Nestlen gets to the bottom of this question in SWR “Science Talk” with Professor Dirk Hebel.

“I am glad that the circular economy is becoming increasingly important alongside the climate issue. It’s necessary that we develop new technologies, that we plan better and smarter for deconstruction (of buildings) and not only for the operation phase.”
Prof. Dirk Hebel

Giving science a stage: In the SWR series “Science Talk”, experts from various fields give exciting insights into their new research. Every week, a researcher explains in 30 minutes what science can say about a current topic – and what that means for people’s lives.

Contemporary living in the historic Henkels lace factory in Wuppertal

As part of the Urban Mining Student Award 2023/24, visions for the sustainable use of existing buildings are being sought, both in the sense of redensification and in the sense of preserving important building culture in German cities. The KIT Faculty of Architecture has already won this competition three times in recent years and this year we want to take on the task again.

The focus of the task is the respectful conversion and cycle-compatible redevelopment of a historic factory site on the grounds of the former lace factory A.&E. Henkels in Wuppertal-Langerfeld. The task here is to develop an exemplary, viable and sustainable future concept for historic buildings. This is a task that will increasingly face us in the coming years.

Against the background of the significant increase in land consumption per capita and the increasing soil sealing of recent years, parallel to the urgent need for housing in the cities and the development of new living and working environment requirements, the task aims to develop innovative housing concepts with versatile qualities for a diverse population through spatial and organisational synergies.

The aim is to complement the residential use with a functional and constructively flexible range of spaces that can be used by third parties or adapted spatially, and to answer the design questions: What is “contemporary living and working”? How can a real social mix be generated within the former factory block? How can, for example, social housing and luxury apartments (necessary due to the financing model) co-exist or even create added value for all residents or for the entire district through their co-existence? The goal is to create a lively and flexibly usable residential area of appropriate density with high-quality, greened outdoor spaces and open spaces using as few resources as possible.

Supervised by: Katharina Blümke, Elena Boerman, Hanna Hoss, Manuel Rausch

Supervision: Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays
Location: Studio (20.40, room 103)
1st meeting: 26.10.2023 in our studio
Excursion to Wuppertal: 03.11 – 05.11.2023
Submission: 16.02.2024, 12.00
Presentation: 21.02.2024 and 22.02.2024

Research Seminar / Sustainable Construction

The building stock is becoming increasingly important. Through the preservation of buildings – compared to new construction – immense resources and emissions can be saved, which significantly reduces the ecological footprint and at the same time preserves and strengthens our building culture.

In our seminar we want to lay the basics for understanding the existing building stock. From learning professional measuring techniques and adapted photo documentation to sketching and understanding the most important architectural elements, we will look at an existing building in Würzburg. In the process, a basic knowledge is taught that will later become essential in professional practice.

Supervised by: Katharina Blümke, Elena Boerman, Hanna Hoss, Manuel Rausch

Date: Wednesdays 11.30-13.00
Location: 11.40, Room 26
1st meeting: 25.10.2023
Exam: 07.02.2024

In the Winter Semester 2023/24, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Materials, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total, 11 lectures will address conventional and alternative building materials and their use in construction. Speakers are: Sandra Böhm, Prof. Andrea Klinge, Peter Schöffel, Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian and Elena Boerman. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Friday, 9.45 am at the lecture hall Fritz-Haller in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

In the Winter Semester 2023/24, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the Professorship of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 12 lectures he will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 9.45 am in the lecture hall Fritz-Haller in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

Sustainability is to become the guiding principle of social action and economic activity. At the same time, its ways and means are far from clear. As a holistic praxis, sustainability must combine technical and material as well as social, economic, ecological and also ethical strategies, which have multiple complex interactions and all too often also conflicting goals and priorities. In no other field can these be better observed, addressed and influenced than in architecture and building.

Each volume of “Building Better – Less – Different” details two fundamental areas of sustainability and explores their specific dynamics and interactions. After introductory overviews, innovative methods and current developments are described and analysed in in-depth essays, international case studies and pointed commentaries. The sustainability criteria of efficiency (“better”), sufficiency (“less”) and consistency (“different”) form the framework for each book.

The clean energy transition and digital transformation are essential components of a fundamental shift towards circular construction with significantly lower impacts on the environment and climate. Building design and construction measures become part of a holistic energy concept spanning the entire life cycle. Digital construction technologies offer a means of reinterpreting natural building materials. The mass customization of tailor-made building components minimizes resource consumption. These form the foundations for a profound transformation of the architecture, construction and engineering industries.

Editors: Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel with Andreas Wagner, Moritz Dörstelmann

Will AI soon be building our houses? Artificial intelligence is also taking the architecture industry by storm. The internet is full of AI-generated fantasy architecture. Software generates images of houses and interiors from text commands that are real eye-catchers. And they do it in a matter of seconds. So will we soon no longer need architects? Or will AI become a useful tool?

Under the editorship of Anette Plomin, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and other players in the construction industry are confronted with the issues of AI. Prof. Hebel sees the alternative in construction not primarily in AI, but in the recycling of building materials. In Zurich, he uses the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit to show what a flat could look like that is completely recyclable and compostable. He can also well imagine using AI to better manage building materials and resources in the future, but for him it is clear that only humans can initiate the great processes of change in terms of sustainable and future-oriented building.

Daniela Schneider, doctoral student at the KIT Sustainable Building Professorship, will be taking part in an online panel discussion on the topic of “Cycle-efficient timber building system solutions” at the themed afternoons on timber construction organised by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) on 15 November 2023.

More information about the event here.

Full landfills, ambitious climate targets: By 2050, the European Union wants to introduce a comprehensive circular economy. For the turnaround in construction to succeed, material resources must be fully reused and recycled. Pure and low-polluting building materials that are used in reversible component connections and are simply joined are the basic prerequisite for the circular construction of buildings. This handbook explains how to design and build according to the closed-loop principle. It shows the history and present of cycle-oriented architecture and analyses the basics of single-variety construction with regard to methodology, materials and construction. Joining and connecting techniques are discussed as well as the choice of materials in general and the life cycles of individual layers and their functions. The extensive detailed catalogue with drawings on a scale of 1:20 documents exemplary applications and connections, which are differentiated according to materials.

Editors: Dirk E. Hebel, Ludwig Wappner, Katharina Blümke, Steffen Bytomski, Valerio Calavetta, Lisa Häberle, Peter Hoffmann, Paula Holtmann, Hanna Hoss, Daniel Lenz, Falk Schneemann

Due to the worldwide concrete boom, the granular raw material is becoming scarce. In an interview with Clemens Dörrenberg of the Frankfurter Rundschau, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel talks about the overexploitation of an embattled resource and how it could be replaced in construction. The article appeared in the FR7 magazine of the Frankfurter Rundschau on 23/24 September 2023.

Monday, October 9^th, 2023
8:30 – 18:30 (CET)
Open Space 2 – Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA ETH Hoenggerberg)

The one-day symposium is part of our work in the Future Cities Lab (FCL) research programme.

The event is being organized by the Block Research Group (ETH) and the chair of Digital Building Technologies (ETH), in collaboration with the chairs of Prof. Hortense Le Ferrand from NTU Singapore and Prof. Dirk Hebel from KIT Karlsruhe, with support from the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) and ALIVE, and Holcim Foundation.

Our module BIO – Urban Biocycles Mycelium Digitalisation brings together researchers from the Block Research Group (ETH), the chair of Digital Building Technologies (ETH), Singapore (NTU), and Karlsruhe (KIT) to develop, utilize, and assess mycelium-bound composite materials in building construction.

This event aims to inspire new conversations regarding circularity in architecture and gauge the barriers and opportunities in utilizing bio-materials, with a focus on mycelium-based materials.

Each panel proposes a mix of experts in order to provide perspective on the industry and on the challenges and opportunities in utilizing mycelium-based materials in building construction and architectural applications. 

Please register now for our event – Registration, Lineup, and Schedule here: BIOFRONTIERS

The KIT Materials Library houses an extensive collection of material samples, whose haptic experience and critical assessment are of particular importance for the education of architects in our view. It offers the opportunity to learn about both established, well-known and new, innovative materials and technologies.

The extensive physical collection of material samples – and in the future also associated digital data sets – not only serves to deepen and illustrate the teaching of materials at the faculty, but also provides students with valuable assistance for working on exercises and in the design process. The material samples can be borrowed and used by students in the context of project developments and presentations.

During an evening event on 18 July 2023, the KIT Materials Library was finally ceremoniously reopened after a phase of restructuring and reconstruction. Prof. Dr. Alexander Wanner, KIT Vice President Teaching and Academic Affairs, Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal, KIT Head of Natural and Built Environment, and Dr. Theo Mayer, Vice President R&D & Innovation Polymers, representing Wacker Chemie AG as sponsor, were invited as greeters. In addition, professors, employees and students of the KIT Faculty of Architecture, employees and responsible persons of some other KIT libraries as well as representatives of other universities, the Chamber of Architects and the manufacturing companies and sponsors of material samples took part in the event.

The KIT Materials Library is a central facility at the KIT Faculty of Architecture and is supervised by Sandra Böhm and Elena Boerman from the Sustainable Building Professorship (Prof. Dirk E. Hebel) and Thomas Kinsch.

In the KIT Materials Library, a special focus is placed on building materials that either originate from local availability or local production, that can be composted in the biological cycle or recycled in the technical cycle without loss of quality, or that consist of secondary, reused or recycled raw materials of the anthropogenic stock. These thematic focuses on important questions of the 21st century make the KIT Materials Library an international focal point for targeted research and teaching.

The Materials Library is intended to function as a vessel for knowledge storage and knowledge transfer regarding innovative building materials for the present and the future, in order to educate the new generation of visionary and interested young people who are able to think transdisciplinarily and scientifically and to act sustainably.

Within the framework of the cooperation “Material Library of German Universities MDH”, which currently already includes the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the Münster School of Architecture and whose network will be expanded in the future to include other universities and colleges, the digital component to the material library, the material database, is being developed. This database will be set up, filled and maintained in cooperation with the other universities. In the future, it will also be openly accessible on the website of the KIT Materials Library and contain extensive data sets on the material samples of the Materials Library’s inventory.

Changing exhibitions in the KIT Materials Library provide information on specific topics, such as natural insulating materials, native wood species or recyclable materials. Student work from the subject of materials science (Bachelor’s degree) as well as from materials-specific research seminars (Master’s degree) is firmly integrated into the materials library, both digitally and physically. The students themselves are thus actively involved in expanding the materials library.

The premises of the KIT Materials Library can be used for seminars, workshops and lectures. In addition, there are three open workstations for students in the library gallery, which can be used for further research.

As a central facility of the KIT Faculty of Architecture, the KIT Materialbiblitohek helps our students to critically and intensively deal with the goals and challenges, with the present and the future of construction.

More information about the KIT Materials Library here.

On 18 July 2023, the day the KIT Materials Library reopened, the first event in the new premises already took place with the final presentation of the research seminar “Future-Oriented Materials”.

The students had worked intensively in groups on five materials each, so that they actively contributed to the material library through their research and also gained insights into the work in the backend of the material database. In addition, there were exciting input lectures and even a workshop in which the material hemp-lime was worked with. The result of the seminar was 30 material data sets, which will be fed into the future cooperatively operated database not only at KIT but also within the Germany-wide cooperation of the “Material Library of German Universities MDH”.

In addition, the students designed an exhibition that contains material samples and data sheets as well as the appropriate raw materials for the materials, a self-designed game and further material comparisons.

We are very happy about this very good work in the seminar and the high commitment of the students. The exhibition described can now be visited in the KIT Material Library.