Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

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

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

A large hands-on exhibition on new (and old) building materials is located in a warehouse in the future Backnang-West neighborhood: programmed wood, insulation made from old clothes, concrete foam. Selected exhibits from research and industry are on display. The focus is on various materials and their further development.

There is also an exhibition contribution from the KIT Faculty of Architecture, which consists of a documentation of the RoofKIT project and an excerpt from the material library. Among others, the University of Stuttgart, ILEK/ITKE/Biomat, FRA UAS Frankfurt and selected industrial partners are also involved.

The exhibition is open from 07.07. to 22.07 always on Thursdays and Fridays from 14 to 19 clock and Saturdays from 10 to 15 clock. All interested parties are cordially invited.

On the evening of 07.07. the exhibition opening took place with a Science Night including a short presentation of all exhibits by the exhibitors. Elena Boerman, research associate at the Chair of Sustainable Construction, presented the KIT contribution to an interested audience.

On Saturday, May 13, the KIT Campustag will take place again. All KIT faculties will present their study programs and offer great hands-on activities, experiments, guided tours and much more. In addition, there will be a stage on the forum, where a colorful live program will be offered. Various bands, science slam, theater groups, university groups, and many more will show what KIT has to offer besides studies.

The Faculty of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology also cordially invites you to its annual exhibition “Reinschauen”. From May 11 to 17, 2023, all professorships, workshops and studios will present works and projects from the past academic year and provide an insight into the range of teaching and research at the faculty. The program includes presentations, short lectures, taster lectures and guided tours.

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction presents its wide-ranging work in teaching, research, exhibitions, events and other projects in the foyer of the 1st floor. The RoofKIT project is also part of this exhibition.

The building prototype of RoofKIT, which has been located on the KIT South Campus since November 2022 (building 30.79, intersection Straße am Forum / Richard-Willstätter-Allee), will open its doors in the context of the Campus Day on May 13 from 1 pm. Team RoofKIT cordially invites you to talk about the project and to have a look at the building prototype.

WHEN: Saturday, May 13, 2023 from 1PM
WHERE: RoofKIT (building 30.79), intersection Straße am Forum / Richard-Willstätter-Allee

RoofKIT was one of 18 entries to the Solar Decathlon Europe 21-22, in which student teams from international colleges and universities each constructed a fully functional building prototype in Wuppertal in the summer of 2022, with which they competed in ten different architectural and structural engineering disciplines. With the RoofKIT project, the team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology won the Solar Decathlon Europe 21-22. In two and a half years of intensive interdisciplinary teamwork in teaching, research and practice, students and teachers addressed the issues of sustainable resource consumption, renewable energy generation and coexistence in the city of the future from an architectural perspective.

At this year’s BAU World’s Leading Trade Fair for Architecture, Materials, Systems in Munich from April 17 to 22, 2023, the KIT Material Library of the Department of Architecture is presented.

An excerpt from the physical sample stock of the material library is shown. On a small exhibition area, some material samples of different material groups, especially materials from secondary raw materials and biological building materials, will be displayed. In addition, the ideas and goals of the already existing cooperation of the Materialbibliothek Deutscher Hochschulen (MDH) are presented.

We cordially invite you and you to stop by at booth 210.B in hall B0 to see the exhibition.

Click here to see the exhibited materials.

The exhibition Plastic: Remaking Our World, which was initially on show at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, will be on display at the V&A Dundee in Scotland from 29 October 2022 until 5 February 2023.

The exhibition examines the history and the future of this controversial material. From its early origins when it was intended as a sustainable alternative to natural resources, to its meteoric rise in the twentieth century.

More information here.

The exhibition Plastic: Remaking Our World, which was initially on show at the Vitra Design Museum, will be on display at the V&A Dundee in Scotland from 29 October 2022. The contribution of the Sustainable Building Professorship will also travel from Weil am Rhein to Dundee.

Plastic: Remaking Our World will again feature prototypes, new technologies, and cutting-edge materials as designers grapple with a material that has changed our world. 

The exhibition will feature product design, graphics, architecture and fashion from the collections of the V&A and Vitra Design Museum, as well as collections all over the world. This is the first exhibition produced and curated by V&A Dundee, the Vitra Design Museum and maat, Lisbon, with curators from V&A South Kensington.

As part of the 17th “Karlsruher Frischpilzausstellung” of the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, the MycoTree was exhibited in the pavilion in the Nymphengarten on the 8th and 9th October. The exhibition displayed 250-300 species of mushrooms and presented various literature on mushrooms. The weekend exhibition was visited by almost 1300 people interested in mushrooms.

The MycoTree, a spatial structure made of the cultivated materials mushroom mycelium and bamboo, supplemented the exhibition with the topic area ‘Building materials from natural resources’. At 2 p.m. on both days, Sandra Böhm and Elena Boerman gave a short lecture on the exhibited project, which was created in 2017 as a cooperation project between the KIT Sustainable Building Professorship and the Block Research Group of ETH Zurich.

The assembled elements of the MycoTree can be disassembled again into their original materials and returned to the natural cycle as nutrients. In this way, it shows how digital design, technology and resource-saving materials could come together in the building industry in the future.

The exhibition shows, among other projects, student work from the design studio “Circularity – Architecture as a Mechanism of Waste Capture”, which took place in the winter semester 21/22 as part of Anupama Kundoo’s sto visiting professorship at KIT, Chair of Sustainable Building. Supervisors Prof. Dr. Anupama Kundoo and Daniel Lenz.

The exhibition can bee seen until September 30th in Roca Gallery Barcelona http://www.rocabarcelonagallery.com/expositions/anupama-kundoo-co-creation-architecture-is-collaboration

All Photos (c) Roca Gallery Barcelona

On 2 April 2022, nestbau AG Tübingen invited to an open day at the “Neschtle” in Pfrondorf. In addition to a greeting by Gunnar Laufer-Stark from nestbau AG and the presentation of the timber construction planned on site in Pfrondorf (architecture bürohauser), the event also included a small exhibition of student work from the design course “(H)Austausch!”, which was created in the winter semester 2020/21 at KIT.

The students dealt with the question of how a synergetic solution can be found for the two coinciding phenomena of housing shortage (e.g. for young families who need space) on the one hand and housing overflow (e.g. due to changed life situations such as children moving out, widowhood, etc.) on the other. Architectural ideas were developed on how such a “house swap” could look like: Close-to-the-environment, adapted, attractive, but also sufficiency-oriented living space for people who are willing to leave their flats and houses that have become too big.

Daniel Lenz represented the Chair of Sustainable Building and, together with the students present, answered questions from the visitors.

(de)

Am 2. April 2022 lud die nestbau AG Tübingen zum Tag der offenen Tür ins “Neschtle” nach Pfrondorf. Die Veranstaltung umfasste neben einem Grußwort von Gunnar Laufer-Stark von der nestbau AG und der Präsentation des am Ort in Pfrondorf geplanten Holzbaus (Architektur bürohauser) auch eine kleine Ausstellung der Studierendenarbeiten des Entwurfskurses “(H)Austausch!”, der im Wintersemester 2020/21 am KIT entstand.

Die Studierenden beschäftigten sich mit der Frage, wie für die beiden zusammentreffenden Phänomene Wohnungsknappheit (z.B. für junge Familien, die Platz benötigen) auf der einen Seite und Wohnraumüberfluss (z.B. durch veränderte Lebenssituationen wie Auszug der Kinder, Verwitwung, etc.) eine synergetische Lösung gefunden werden kann. Es wurden dabei architektonische Ideen entwickelt, wie solch ein “Haustausch” aussehen könnte: Umfeldnaher, angepasster, attraktiver, aber auch suffizienter Wohnraum für Menschen, die dafür bereit sind ihre zu groß gewordenen Wohnungen und Häuser zu verlassen.

Daniel Lenz vertrat die Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen und stand zusammen mit anwesenden Studierenden den Besuchern Frage und Antwort.

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

The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein presents the exhibition ‘Plastic: Remaking our World’ as an exploration of the history and future of the controversial material. Plastics have symbolized a world of carefree consumerism and revolutionary innovation, opening the doors for designers and architects for decades. Of course today, the dramatic consequences of the plastic boom have become so obvious that the material has lost its utopian connotation.

The exhibition begins with a large-scale video installation spotlighting the conflicts linked to the production and use of plastic. Timeless images of unspoilt nature are juxtaposed with film documents from one hundred years of plastic industry that convey the ambiguous fascination of increasingly fast-paced automated production at rapidly diminishing costs. The formation of fossil resources such as coal and oil took more than two hundred million years, while the synthetic materials made from them needed little more than a century to become a problem of planetary scale.

The second part of the exhibition describes the evolution and the shifting perceptions of plastics from their beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century to their global omnipresence today. The first plastic materials were plant- or animal-based: for centuries, horn and tortoiseshell were used to create drinking vessels and to embellish cutlery. In 1907, Leo Baekeland invented the first plastic made of purely synthetic components and named it Bakelite. It was hailed as the material of infinite uses. Being nonconductive, Bakelite was soon used for light switches, wall sockets, or radio sets and played a central role in the electrification of everyday life.

While early plastics were often developed by independent inventors and tinkerers, from the 1920s onwards the expanding petrochemical industry took a leading role. This marked the beginning of an era of »petromodernity«. When industrial design emerged as a profession of its own in the 1930s, its proponents were quick to embrace the possibilities of the new materials. Also Architects began to discover plastics as a building material and in 1957 Monsanto installed the all-plastic »House of the Future« at Disneyland.

A few years later, a growing fascination with space flight shifted the focus to plastic’s utopian potential, which was reflected in futurist shapes and new interior design concepts. In the 1960s, based on the notion of convenience and fuelled by the packaging industry, the idea of single-use plastics was introduced and a new throwaway culture began to spread. The oil crisis in 1973 meant lower supplies and higher prices for the resource from which most plastics were made, but it had little long-term effect on the plastic boom. While global plastic production soon picked up again, strategies for reducing plastic waste were slow to emerge.

Today, plastics are globally omnipresent and an intricate part of our lives. Like no other, the human health sector exemplifies the plastic paradox – its positive, sometimes lifesaving qualities as well as its negative, even life-threatening impacts. The issues arising from the plastic boom have etched themselves in our collective consciousness: from microplastic in the soil, in the oceans, and in our bodies to mountains of packaging waste that are often disposed of or burnt – with immense ecological consequences on a global scale.

How can we overcome the global plastic waste crisis? And what role can design – alongside industry, consumers, and politics – play in the process? These are some fundamental questions addressed in the final part of the exhibition. In recent years, many scientists and designers have started exploring materials that are based on renewable rather than fossil resources and often referred to as bioplastics.

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction of the KIT Department of Architecture was asked to exhibit their ongoing research of building materials made from mycelium. Therefore the team prepared the different steps of growth of a mycelium brick to show biological alternatives for the building sector.

As a whole, the exhibition »Plastic: Remaking Our World« offers a critical and differentiated reassessment of plastic in today’s world. It aims to address the bigger picture of plastic and its complex role in our world: by analysing how we came to be so dependent on it, by reassessing where the use of plastic is essential and where it can be reduced or replaced, and by reimagining possible futures for this contested material.

The Opening Talk and the Vernissage of the exhibition took place on the 25th March 2022. It will be shown in the Vitra Design Museum until 4th September 2022 and then move to the V&A Dundee London and the maat in Lisbon. (Text: Vitra Design Museum)

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

“Plastics have shaped our daily lives like no other material: from packaging to footwear, from household goods to furniture, from automobiles to architecture. A symbol of carefree consumerism and revolutionary innovation, plastics have spurred the imagination of designers and architects for decades. Today, the dramatic consequences of the plastic boom have become obvious and plastics have lost their utopian appeal. The exhibition »Plastic: Remaking Our World« at the Vitra Design Museum will examine the history and future of this controversial material – from its meteoric rise in the twentieth century to its environmental impact and to cutting-edge solutions for a more sustainable use of plastic. Exhibits will include rarities from the dawn of the plastic age and spectacular objects of the pop era as well as numerous contemporary designs and projects ranging from pragmatic product innovations to solutions for cleaning up the oceans and bioplastics made from algae or mycelium.” (Official announcement by the curators)

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction has been invited to present extracts from their mycelium research in this exhibition. The exhibition will take place at the Vitra Design Museum from 26 March 2022 to 04 September 2022.

The KIT Professorship of Sustainable Construction (Nazanin Saeidi and Alireza Javadian) was asked by the Brazilian-Swiss artist Pedro Wirz to build a human figure out of mycelium, which has since become part of his exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel.

With the playful and colourful exhibition “Environmental Hangover”, the artist pleads for more sustainability. He draws attention to the fossil age in various ways and, on this occasion, also deliberately softens the boundaries between nature and technology in places. In addition, he uses the contents of the exhibition to criticise the unmistakable permanent traces that humans leave on the earth and in cities.

The legendary Curupira, the imposing protector of the forests and animals from mycelium, closes the exhibition. With this object, too, the artist draws attention to the importance of sustainability in all areas of life.

The exhibition can be seen in the Kunsthalle Basel until the 1st May 2022. More information on the website of the Kunsthalle Basel.

The “Solar Decathlon Europe” is one of the most important competitions for students in the field of architecture and construction. Here, in a multi-semester effort by interdisciplinary teams, solutions are to be found for the enormous challenges facing our society and its architecture.

The KIT Faculty of Architecture is participating with the RoofKIT project. The exhibition uses the project as an example to show what these challenges are and how we can face them: Radical reduction of energy consumption, circular construction, use of the city as a resource, use of renewable raw materials in modular and single-variety construction, space-saving forms of living together and intelligent concepts of urban redensification.

Exhibition Photography © Dominic Faltien

The exhibition shows in a concrete and comprehensible way how the coming generation of architects will put these ideas into practice and thus shape a more sustainable future for all of us. It can be visited from 11.01.2022 until 04.02.2022 in the Architekturschaufenster in the Waldstraße in Karlsruhe.

More information on www.architekturschaufenster.de or on polis-magazin.com.

The DAZ in Berlin hosts an exhibition by the BDA as a plea for the preservation of the existing. In the exhibition, named after the publication “Sorge um den Bestand. Zehn Strategien für die Architektur” published in November 2020, architects and urbanists present their concern for the existing building stock, for grown social structures and for the continuation of the earth.

In addition to Dirk E. Hebel from the Professorship of Sustainable Building at KIT, Katja Fischer, Roland Gruber, Jörg Heiler, Ayşin İpekçi, Maria Isabettini, Simon Jüttner, Jan Kampshoff, Kamiel Klaasse, Andreas Krauth, Urs Kumberger, Tabea Michaelis, Peter Nageler, Michael Obrist, Ben Pohl, Eike Roswag-Klinge and Verena Schmidt are among the participating architects and urban planners.

The exhibition of the Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten BDA was curated by Olaf Bahner, Matthias Böttger and Laura Holzberg. They invite you to read the permanence of what has been built and what has grown and plead for further thinking and careful repair of living spaces and living cultures. They show how new perspectives arise in the urban and regional context through networked approaches, through cooperation oriented towards the common good and through participation concepts. For the future, the buildings erected today, strategies for the circular use of materials and an openness to future requirements are being developed.

The exhibition takes places in the DAZ in Berlin from 03 December 2020 until 27 June 2021. Visiting the exhibition is possible again since 21 May 2021.

More information about the exhibition on www.bda-bund.de or on www.daz.de .
Take a look at the book publication here .

The KIT professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Faculty of Architecture is part of an exhibition and publication by the Association of German Architects BDA. In ten strategies, architects and urbanists present their concern for the existing building: taking care of the building stock, for growing social structures and for the continued existence of the earth. They invite you to read the permanence of what has been built and what has grown and plead for further thinking and careful repair of living spaces and living cultures. They show how new perspectives arise in the urban and regional context through networked approaches, through cooperation oriented towards the common good and through participation concepts. For the future, i.e. the buildings erected today, strategies for the circular use of materials and an openness to future requirements are being developed.

The exhibition of the Association of German Architects BDA was curated by Olaf Bahner, Matthias Böttger and Laura Holzberg. Exhibition design: Marius Busch – ON / OFF and Christian Göthner – lfm2 “Sorge um den Bestand” is a project in the “Experimental Housing and Urban Development” research program of the BMI / BBSR and is financially supported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Home Affairs. Comprehensive information on the exhibition project can be found at www.bda-bund.de/sorgeumdenStock

more information here

From technique to application: in a joint seminar of the KIT Professorships of Sustainable Construction and Building Technology, a small rammed earth garden house was being built near Freiburg. The seminar consisted of testing the material, building the suitable formwork, bringing the clay in and compacting it by manual work.

In addition the students received the basic and background knowledge in advance and had the possibility to learn about the geological local conditions afterwork on site.

This way they gained practical experience in this construction method under adapted conditions to obtain technical know-how and to experience the possibilities and the materiality of rammed earth on a building site.

See the results from the Design-to-Build Workshop in the movie on https://vimeo.com/470219295

Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, the exhibition Critical Zones at ZKM questions the way we deal with our living space on earth. The exhibition explores new and possible forms of coexistence between all forms of life and shows ways of dealing with the current critical situation.

With the presentation of the MycoTree, the Chair of Sustainable Construction of the KIT Faculty of Architecture wants to contribute to this important discourse.

After all, future economic and ecological development worldwide is strongly linked to the question where our resources for future prosperity will come from. As our mines dry up and CO2 levels reach alarming levels, we have to radically rethink in all economic sectors. Until now, the earth’s natural resources have been extracted and disposed of in a linear process. This approach has profound consequences for our planet, which will become even worse unless a circular process is installed. Fungal research aims to establish new biological cycles in the construction industry.

HFG_BIO-DESIGN-LAB_4

HFG_BIO-DESIGN-LAB_3

HFG_BIO-DESIGN-LAB_2

HFG_BIO-DESIGN-LAB_1

Images: Arno Kohlem and the Bio Design Lab HfG Karlsruhe

View the exhibition: https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2020/05/critical-zones

The student exercise ‘Vom Gartenhaus zum Räumling’ aimed to validate the potential of the urban mine. Using a garden shed near Karlsruhe as material depot, we carefully deconstructed the house and diligently documented each element. As a group, the students then designed a spatial installation utilizing only the harvested elements using no glue or permanent fixtures. After all, also this installation had to be designed for disassembly, providing building materials for yet another structure.

Project credits:
Mohammad Mouaz Alez, Katharina Blümke, Laura Maria Ganz, Felix Heisel, Ann-Kathrin Holmer, Hannah Hopp, Marie Kamp, Sophie Klaß, Antonia Kniep, Jan Matthies, Katrin Oldörp, Manuel Rausch, Andrea Cecilia Santos Rodríguez, Pia Antonia Thissen, Arta Topallaj, Lars-Erik de Vries

From shed to spatial object / Vom Gartenhaus zum Räumling by Felix Heisel on Vimeo.

Model Venice Biennale 1

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

Model Venice Biennale 2020

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction at KIT Faculty of Architecture together with Marc Angelil of ETH Zürich and Bisrat Kifle of EiABC in Addis Ababa are presenting their long-standing research on Ethiopia and its capital Addis Ababa at the Venice Biennale 2020.

In Addis Ababa, the hybridization of territory comes in the form of shiny ensembles overshadowing indigenous settlements, traffic arteries disrupting the labyrinth of pedestrian paths, and agro-industries springing up next to what is left of subsistence farms, to mention just a few of the more striking spatial juxtapositions – and all this superimposed on the residue of past layers of nation-building processes. 

Woven into this already complicated spatial hybrid are mixed modes of social organization (ethnic affiliations, religious groups, agricultural cooperatives, neighborhood associations, trade unions), along with various modes of production (agricultural, industrial, microentrepreneurial, service-oriented), all coexisting in multiple forms to produce a composite economy, including those practices that are considered informal.

This is the terrain on which the coming iterations of Ethiopia will have to be articulated, rather than it being wished away in some blank-slate development venture or beautification scheme.

The installation Quo Addis? – Conflicts of Coexistence (in the Co-habitats section of the exhibition) includes a fictional model of the city of Addis Ababa. The model is made of multiple layers, each representing a particular political regime whose traces remain in Addis Ababa’s urban socio-spatial fabric: (a) the Age of Empire, 1889–1936; (b) the Italian occupation, 1936–1941; (c) US- and European-sponsored modernization under Haile Selassie, 1941–1974; (d) the USSR-backed socialist regime, 1974–1991; (e) European Development Assistance, 1991-2005; (f) Meles Zenawi’s grands projets, 2005-2012; and (g) contemporary mega-development ventures sponsored by foreign actors – UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, etc. (2012-today).

To this amalgam, one more layer is added – namely, one foregrounding alternative ways of how Addis Ababa might live together.

Team: Marc Angélil, Dirk Hebel, Felix Heisel, Jenny Rodenhouse, Bisrat Kifle Woldeyessus

Willy Abraham, Nikolai Babunovic, Emmanuel Bekele Fulea, Katharina Blümke, Elena Boerman, Uta Bogenrieder, Sascha Delz, Sarah Graham, Andreas Heil, Ben Hooker, Philipp Jager, Anita Knipper, Ephrem Mersha Wolde, Manfred Neubig, Manuel Rausch, Bernd Seeland, Cary Siress, Sonja Steenhoff, Marta H. Wisniewska

Luca Diefenbacher, Georg Heil, Sebastian Kreiter, Selin Onay, Rouven Ruppert, Philipp Schmider, Julius Schwartz, Clemens Urban

The research-seminar “Build up!” (“Bau auf!”) was held in cooperation with the Staatliche Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe and the Professorship Sustainable Construction of the Faculty of Architecture at KIT. The students got to know the material ceramics as well as its traditional production methods. The challenge in the development of a ceramic building material was the synthesis of tradition and innovation. The production based on 3D printing, had to be justified in the construction or the materiality of the product. The results of the seminar include ideas such as individually combinable shading elements for facades, structures that can be planted and which are to air-condition the interior by means of evaporation cooling, or a brick that combines all the layers of a wall structure. The opening of the exhibition will take place on 17 June 2019 at 3 p.m., together with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Dr. Dieter Kistner.

Exhibition from 17 June to 12 July 2019
Location: Staatliche Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe,
Ahaweg 6-8, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Opening hours:
Tue – Fr: 10 – 18 o’clock
Sat/Sun: 11.30 – 17 o’clock

The exhibition “Local Stone” gives an insight into the new focus “Building Materials from Local Resources of our Region” of the KIT Material Library. Stone as a natural resource seems to be endlessly available. At the same time it is the result of a process that has been going on for millions of years and it`s mining always means a drastic intervention in ecosystems. Because of that the sensitive renaturation of former mining areas and the observance of short transport routes are essential. Finally, a sustainable, efficient and recyclable use of the material in architecture or other fields of application should be ensured.

In past epochs, natural stone stood for a massive construction method that was to radiate a certain social status, prestige, durability and solidity. Today we mostly know it as a popular material for curtain facades. New processing and construction methods using digital technologies, such as robot-assisted surface processing, are increasingly replacing traditional stonemasonry. However, this also resulted in a new aesthetic of surface design and new fields of application within architecture.

In the exhibition, the natural stone is presented in the form of samples using various regional species. These include sedimentary rocks, limestone but also gravel and sand.

Duration of the exhibition: 05 June 2019 – 05 July 2019

The Exhibition “Weniger.Anders.Besser!” opened on 21.05.2019 in the Architekturschaufenster Karlsruhe. Dr. Simone Kraft from Architekturschaufenster, Katharina Helleckes from Volkswohnung GmbH and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT welcomed numberous curious visitors. The Exhibition Design is a collaboration between KIT 3rd year Bachelor Students and the Professorship of Sustainable Construction Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT. It was made possible due to kind support of Architekturschaufenster, Volkswohnung GmbH, Wienerberger AG and Holzhandel Kuhmann & Dill, Karlsruhe.

The Exhibition is opened until 25.05.2019. For more information see here.

The existing lack of affordable urban housing also concerns Karlsruhe. Socially acceptable densification is therefore one of the great challenges of these days.

Architecture students in their 5th semester at KIT therefore devoted themselves to the question of how good and forward-oriented living can be achieved in the future. The question was how living can be thought BETTER, so that OTHER typological models lead to a rethinking of architectural approaches in urban space, while consuming LESS land, as all designs were asked to be top-up additions to an existing structure in central Karlsruhe.

Ten of those design proposals are shown in the exhibition in Architekturschaufenster Karlsruhe, Waldstraße 8, 76133 Karlsruhe. The exhibition is a collaboration of KIT Chair of sustainable Building, Volkswohnung Karsruhe and Architekturschaufenster.

The opening takes place on Tuesday, May 21st, 19:00 h

One of the new focal points of the KIT Material Library is “Building Materials from Local Resources of our Region”. This topic stands in addition to the reuse, recycling and cultivation of building materials, for a responsible use of resources.

Through the worldwide ruthless extraction of the most diverse raw materials and their transport across the globe, we have severely damaged our natural environment. It has been and continues to be exploited that in many countries there are insufficient or no regulations to protect nature.

In addition to research into alternative building materials, we therefore also focus on the environmentally friendly use of local resources, such as indigenous wood species. Through the KIT Materials Library, we can draw attention to this topic and provide comprehensive information. The collection of european wood species has recently been expanded. The exhibition “Local Wood” (“Heimisches Holz”) presents these new additions. Above all, the exhibition is intended to invite visitors to a haptic examination of the materials.

Duration of the exhibition:
15 April 2019 – 20 May 2019

Concept and organization: Sandra Böhm

For a long time, ceramics were mostly used for pragmatic construction solutions. Today, a number of innovative technologies have given it a new significance within architecture. These innovations can be found in the material development, in manufacturing processes or in individual application scenarios. Generative technologies offer high potential in terms of resource-efficient production. This is because the layer-by-layer additive manufacturing process only makes material necessary where it is required due to aesthetic criteria and mechanical stress.

In the research seminar “Build up!” students dealt with the development of innovative building materials using ceramic 3D printing. The seminar was held by the Professorship Sustainable Construction in cooperation with the Majolika Ceramics Manufactory in Karlsruhe. The exhibition in the Material Library uses posters, material experiments and printed objects to illustrate the course of the project and further ideas of the group work.

Exhibition duration and location:
20 February to early April 2019
Material Library (Bld. 20.40, R 141)

We are pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition MaterialArchitektur in the foyer of the KIT Library at Campus Süd on 12th April 2018 at 3:30pm.

The KIT Library, the Library of Architecture, the Materials Library of Architecture and the Department of Sustainable Construction have jointly conceived an exhibition that is intended to raise awareness of the topic of materials in architecture. A selection of relevant publications from the last 167 years is shown. Selected material samples represent the subject matter of the books.

In addition to the treatment of established building materials, this exhibition also deals with the search for alternative building materials. There are books presented that show solutions and provide an overview of the current state of research.

Prof. Dirk E. Hebel will speak a few introductory words at the opening of the exhibition.
If the weather is fine, we offer a refreshment outside after the opening (in the rondel between the KIT library and the canteen).

Invited by Haute Innovation and Dr. Sascha Peters, KIT’s Sustainable Construction and ETH Zürich’s Block Research Group are exhibiting their recent MycoTree at the ELMIA Subcontractor fair ‘Material Revolution’ from 11. to 14. November in Jönköping, Sweden. MycoTree is a spatial branching structure made out of load-bearing mycelium components. Its geometry was designed using 3D graphic statics, keeping the weak material in compression only. Its complex nodes were grown in digitally fabricated moulds.

“While some architects have been experimenting with mushroom mycelium as a cladding material, architect Dirk Hebel and engineer Philippe Block have gone one step further – by using fungi to build self-supporting structures.

Hebel, who leads the Sustainable Construction unit at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Block, who founded the Block Research Group at ETH Zürich, have created a tree-shaped structure consisting almost entirely of mycelium.

According to the duo, the material – which is formed from the root network of mushrooms – could provide the structure of a two-storey building, if it is designed with the right geometries.”

Read the complete article here.

Opening on 2nd September 2017, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism is entitles Imminent Commons:

In an age of environmental decay and unprecedented wealth inequality, the cities of the world gather in Seoul to explore the urban parliaments where the politics of resources and technologies is enacted. The Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 is an experimental platform for an imminent urbanism that goes beyond human-centered function, ownership, and consumption to a commons of resources, technologies, and production.

The cities of the world stand at a crossroads. Amidst radical social, economic, and technological transformations, will the city become a driving force of creativity and sustainability or will it be a mechanism of inequality and environmental decay? Cities are not only the drivers of social change but are now modifying ecosystems, geological structures, and even the climate. For the first time in history, the crucial questions of the city — climate change, biodiversity, air pollution, food security, automation, unemployment and inequality— are driven by concerns beyond human control and threaten the very survival of the planet.

The inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism proposes nine essential commons as a viable path towards a sustainable and just urbanism. Emerging from both ecological and technological concerns, this framework foregrounds an exploration not of distant utopias but of the very near future. In other words, these emerging commons are already changing the way we live in cities. Whether met with fear or hope, they will very soon change the way we live in the city. The Seoul Biennale provides a platform for an international array of participants – politicians, policy makers, experts, and citizens at large – presenting global research and engaging with local conditions.

Four Ecology Commons: Air, Water, Fire, Earth
Five Technology Commons: Making, Moving, Communicating, Sensing, Recycling

The exhibition Beyond Mining – Urban Growth by the Professorships Dirk E. Hebel and Philippe Block is part of the Common Earth and will be on display in Pavilion i7 at the Donuimun Museum Village from 2nd September to 5th November 2017.

More information can be found here: http://seoulbiennale.org

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction, as part of the yearly open day of the faculty of architecture at KIT Karlsruhe, is displaying material samples of its current research projects at the material library, Room 141.1. The event takes place on July 19th 2017 in the main building 20.40, from 4pm onwards. For details on the faculty’s program, please click here.

The Chair of Sustainable Construction of KIT Karlsruhe exhibits outcomes of its newest material research at the Cologne Design Fair 2017 together with Haute Innovation und their contribution Circular Thinking – from Upcycling to Biofabrication.

“Alternative raw materials are increasingly being identified across different manufacturing industries and production systems being optimised with a view to reusing recyclable materials. Ideally, at the end of the product lifecycle, there should be no waste produced, but instead high-quality materials that can be used as a starting point for a new product lifecycle. Recycling becomes upcycling, so waste is not produced at all and resources remain in the cycle. The shift away from “consumption” of a resource to its “use” is of especially high importance to material-intensive industries. New upcycling processes will greatly reduce the use of resources and energy on all levels.

In the congress on “Upcycling and sustainable materials cycles”, these topics will be discussed by Dr Sascha Peters and other experts from the sector, using practical examples for illustration.”

SuperMaterial is a major public exhibition by The Built Environment Trust celebrating the essential, and often hidden, elements of our surroundings. Delving into the world of academia and science, we identify the latest laboratory-based discoveries and demonstrate how they will change our world – informing the R&D departments of today and transforming the buildings of our future. The project will also explore how the historical application of raw elements and minimally processed goods – the ‘super materials’ of their time – have shaped our urban fabric.

The show exhibits bamboo composite reinforcement produced by the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, the ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The display is on show at the Building Centre in London from February through April 2017.

View the SuperMaterial online exhibition here.

Dirk E. Hebel, on the invitation of a+u `Japan Architecture and Urbanism` magazine and the Faculty of Architecture, lectured on June 29th 2016 at the University of Tokyo on his research on Cultivated Building Materials. In particular he introduced the teams research on new bamboo fiber materials, which was featured in the last three consecutive issues of a+u magazine from May to July 2016. Also, an exhibition on Green Steel – Advanced Fiber Composite Materials in Architecture and Construction accompanied his lecture in Tokyo. a+u will also feature the book publication `Building from Waste` (Birkhäuser 2014) in Japanese language later this year.

On Thursday June 2nd, constellation.s – an exhibition by arc en reve centre of Architecture in Bordeaux, France – opened its doors with a contribution by the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel entitled Bamboo Composite Materials. The show displays test samples from the material research, especially focusing on the interface of bamboo composites and concrete.

From the curators: “In response to the worldwide transformations that are profoundly affecting the conditions in which we live, constellation.s will present individual and collective initiatives providing perspectives on tomorrow’s challenges in terms of how the urban environment is made.
 In response to fear, inward-lookingness, and extremism, constellation.s encourages critical thinking to help us understand the world we live in. In response to a rising tide of images, words, and spectacle, constellation.s focuses on creativity and the ways ordinary people invent their daily lives. Constellation.s embraces points of view from a range of disciplines, involving researchers, writers, architects, engineers and economists reflecting upon contemporary reality. Constellation.s will present testimonials, processes, and situations from the four corners of the world: glimmers of hope pointing to new possible horizons and ways of living together in complex societies.”

For more information, please click here.
Constellations will be open to the public until 25th September.

On May 28th, Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel opened the exhibition Daring Growth at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale in the presence of ETH president Lino Guzzella.

The installation calls for a radical paradigm shift in how habitats are materialized. The mining-based mentality must move towards an ethic of cultivating, recycling, recovering, breeding, raising, farming, and even growing future building materials. Decentralized, local and renewable production strategies and methods that do not deplete the planet’s resources or energy reserves must be given priority. A shift in attitude would allow developing societies to provide themselves with the building materials required for secure and dignified shelter without forcing them into economic dependencies.

Our contribution to ‘Reporting From the Front’ takes the form of a laboratory showcasing research work produced at the ETH Zürich and the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore in collaboration with partners such as MycoWorks Inc. in San Francisco and the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the TU Delft. The exhibition features examples of new building materials derived from mushroom mycelium, bacteria, grasses and waste. It also displays the power of an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers, academics and professionals working on commonly defined challenges.

Palazzo Mora, “Time Space Existence”
La Biennale di Venezia, 28 May – 27 November 2016

Acknowledgements
This exhibition would not have been possible without the generous and continuous support of the President of ETH Zürich, Prof. Dr Lino Guzzella, whom we would like to thank for his unrestricted encouragement, trust, and sustenance. We also would like to thank the rector of ETH Zürich Prof. Dr Sarah Springman and Vice President of research ETH Zürich Prof. Dr Detlef Günther for their reassurance and believe in our commitment and research.

We are especially indebted to Annette Spiro, Dean of Architecture at ETH Zürich, not only for her support of this exhibition, but in general creating an atmosphere of unlimited trust and backing without research and innovation would not be possible.

We deeply thank the whole team of the ETH Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, above all Peter Edwards, Stephen Cairns, Kees Christiaanse and Remo Burkhard. Within FCL, relevant research was developed over the past years in various fields, which did not only fuel this exhibition, but scholars and professionals all around the globe and especially at the ETH in Zürich.

We are extremely grateful to Prof. Dr Gerhardt Schmitt and Prof. Dr Marc Angélil for their incredible mentorship, help, and intellectual as well as physical support. Without them, our work would not be possible.

Tobias Klauser and Carlo Lienhardt, through their incredible professionalism and critical assessment of our ideas and work, made this exhibition a project in its own. We would like to acknowledge their unrestricted dedication and support as partners, friends, and advisors.

Special acknowledgements go to ETH Global, Jürg Brunschweiler, for all of his continuous help over the past years. Thanks also to ETH Foundation, Corinna Adler, for her dedication and energy. Also to Hannes Schmid, who opened eyes and doors to new intellectual terrains and professionals. Matthias Büttiger and Markus Reinhard for their encouragement, spontaneous courtesy, and incredible generosity.

We thank GAA Foundation for the possibility to exhibit our work at the 16^th Architecture Biennale in Venice. We are grateful to our partners of TU Delft, Henk Jonkers and Leon van Paassen as well as Mycoworks, Phil Ross, Sophia Wang, and Eddie Pavlu.

Special thanks to all members of our own team: Dustin Fleck, Sophie Nash, Ruben Bernegger, Manuel Fernandez, Christine Wöhner, Raphael Disler, Tobias Fuchs, Aurel von Richthofen, Alireza Javadian, Simon Lee, Philippe Müller, Marta H. Wisniewska, Patrick Chladek, Nikita Aigner, Philippe Jorisch, Amélie Fibicher, Hans Rufer.

Special thanks to Prof. Dr.Philippe Block and his team, especially Cristian Calvo Barentin for all the support and help.

Also to Uta Bogenrieder who did all graphic design works for the exhibition.

Our deepest thanks and gratitude go to all of theses individuals and organizations for their trust and the unrestricted possibilities to operate at the front of our discipline and sometimes even beyond.

Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Zürich, May 2016

Sponsorship
Our deepest gratitude to all sponsors and supporters of this exhibition:
ETH Zürich, ETH Global
Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich
Future Cities Laboratory Singapore
Chair of Information Architecture Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zürich
Chair of Architecture and Design Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil, ETH Zürich
Markus Reinhard, Nomis Foundation
Matthis Büttiger

Paganini, Romano (2016). Forschung: Der Pilz, aus dem die Mauern sind, in: Beobachter 11/, Zürich, Switzerland

An der ETH Zürich erforschen Architekten und Ingenieure das Potenzial von Pilzen. Sie sollen einst Plastik ersetzen. Die Prototypen sehen aus wie hellbraune Backsteine und riechen nach Grosis Estrich. Doch sie könnten das Industriematerial der Zukunft sein. «Es ist ein extrem vielversprechendes Material, dessen Potenzial wir noch gar nicht richtig abschätzen können», sagt ETH-Architekt Felix Heisel schwärmend.

Read full article here.