Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Schoof, Jakob (2021), “Eine Zukunft für den Bestand (5): Umbauprojekt RoofKIT für den Solar Decathlon Europe”, in: DETAIL online, 09.12.2021, https://www.detail.de/artikel/eine-zukunft-fuer-den-bestand-5-umbauprojekt-roofkit-fuer-den-solar-decathlon-europe/

Haus-, Wohnungs- und Grundeigentümer-Verein in Wuppertal u. Umgebung e.V. (Hrsg.) (2021), “Café ADA. Solar Decathlon in Wuppertal: Zwei Visionen für die Sanierung”, in: hausundgrund – Magazin für Haus- und Grundstückseigentümer, ed. 10/21, p. 22-27

The magazine Haus und Grund Wuppertal published an article in its 10/2021 issue about two projects in the SolarDecathlon 2021, which will take place from 10 to 26 June 2022 on the Nordbahntrasse opposite Mirker Bahnhof. DETAIl also reports on the project of the Karlsruhe team RoofKIT in an online series entitled “A Future for Existing Buildings”.

The Solar Decathlon is probably the best-known international student competition on the topic of sustainable building and living. Among the projects published in this issue is Team RoofKIT’s vision for Café ADA in Wuppertal. RoofKIT is an interdisciplinary team of students from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. The student team consists mainly of architects and engineers from the faculties of architecture and civil engineering, geosciences and environmental sciences. The team works closely with professors from various KIT faculties as well as interdisciplinary and supporting companies. An interdisciplinary core team consisting of 12 students is responsible for project management and coordination.

Model of RoofKIT © RoofKIT, KIT

Team RoofKIT is developing an urban blueprint on unused land resources in cities: the roof surfaces. The goal is to understand the city as a social factory, urban raw material store and sustainable energy producer. How can we create socio-economically fair housing without destroying our natural resources? How can we transform the building sector so that it does not exacerbate climate change? How can we run a circular construction industry?

The team provides answers to these questions using the example of Café ADA, the famous Latin American dance and event venue in the Mirke Quarter. A construction kit is developed that can find an almost universal application in the urban context and is based on new (single-variety) construction principles and materials. The direct inward redensification of urban space not only has the potential to create new living spaces in the midst of existing structures, but also the chance to optimise a neighbourhood economically, socially and energetically in the long term. The integrated energy concept is also part of the architectural and urban design. In order to be climate-neutral over the course of the year, the RoofKIT system is based on various measures, such as the use of solar energy and daylight, natural ventilation or an improvement of the urban microclimate around the building through green areas.

RoofKIT sees the city as a depot and future supplier of materials. The challenge is to develop new technologies to transform these materials into a new generation of qualitatively sustainable (i.e. ecologically harmless, technically pure and economically attractive) building materials. For precisely this reuse of building materials, single-variety construction principles are being developed that aim at a circular construction method and enable problem-free deconstruction. This allows the state of “urban mining” (urban man-made raw material storage) to be understood as a transitional phase into a true circular economy in the construction sector.

The existing café use will be expanded to include a hotel area. The dance hall will be moved from the first floor to the second. In the resulting “urban gap”, an event space for music, theatre, dance and culture will be created. It radiates into the urban environment and offers residents and users a new attractiveness. The building is completed with two residential floors; the different-sized living spaces in combination with communal areas offer a high-quality living space.

More information about RoofKIT on their Website or their podcast Fighting 40%.

Hebel, Dirk (2021), “Afterword”, in: The Architecture of Waste – Design for a Circular Economy”, 2021, p. 232-233

The Schelling Studienpreis is the student counterpart of the renowned Schelling Architekturpreis, which is awarded every two years by the Schelling Architecture Foundation in Karlsruhe to international architects. The study prize was awarded for the first time in 2015.

This year, nine former students who completed their Master’s degree in the past two years have been nominated. The main award is endowed with 2,000 euros.

Three of the nine nominated master’s theses were submitted to the Professorship of Sustainable Construction. These included the thesis by Hanna Wollny entitled “Gebäude als Materialressource – Am Beispiel eines temporären Hörsaalgebäudes” (Hebel/Wagner) from the winter semester 2019/20, the thesis by Caterina Goerner from the summer semester 2020, who entitled her thesis “Nordschwarzwald Regional – Von der Ruine zur Mine” (Hebel/Wagner), as well as the thesis by Fanny Hirt, who dealt with “Kaufhaustransformation – Neudefinition der Heidelberger Innenstadt” in the winter semester 2020/21.

At the award ceremony on the evening of 25 November 2021, the Master’s theses of Hanna Wollny and Fanny Hirt were each awarded recognition of the Schelling Studienpreis. Clara Süßmann received the Schelling Studienpreis for her Master’s thesis entitled “Auf Schatzsuche im Schwarzwald – Mineralienspeicher Grube Clara”, which was supervised by Prof. Wappner and Prof. Rambow in the summer semester of 2020.

Congratulations to all the laureates! More information on arch.kit.edu.

Mycelium-bound materials would play a significant role in mitigation of adverse climate change effect imposed by material consumption and resource scarcity. This paper, published by KIT researchers in scientific reports as part Nature publishing group, proposes dense mycelium-based composites (DMCs) as a potential green alternative to traditional particleboards.

Mycelium, as the root of fungi, is composed of filamentous strands of fine hyphae that bind discrete substrate particles into a block material. With advanced processing, dense mycelium-bound composites (DMCs) resembling commercial particleboards can be formed.

In this paper the research team including Dr. Nazanin Saeidi, Dr. Alireza Javadian, and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel from the chair of Sustainable Construction at KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany in collaboration with Urban Biocycle project at FCL global and Xin Ying Chan and Prof. Manoj Gupta from NUS, Singapore have investigated the possibility of using DMCs as a green alternative to particleboards. 

A detailed investigation was carried out on the mechanical properties and performance of DMCs under the working conditions of particleboards. The DMC was made using Ganoderma lucidum mycelium grown on a substrate of sawdust and empty fruit bunch collected from the waste byproducts of Sawmills and Palm oil factories. The DMC was then subjected to weathering under tropical conditions over 35 days and tested under flexural, tensile, and compressive loading with reference to international standards. The results over the weathering period reveal that weathering reduces the strength and rigidity of the material.

However, by application of a commonly used natural oil-based coating DMC was able to withstand degradation under tropical weathering conditions. Furthermore, it was shown that some improvements to the material’s consistency could effectively increase the material strength and resistance to weathering with the help of a protective coating. Therefore, DMC could be a promising material as an environmentally friendly substitute for particleboards if such improvements in material production are made.

More information about the scientific report on nature.com.

The Building Sense Now Global Award was presented at a digital award ceremony on November 11, 2021 with the participation of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and in the course of the world climate conference COP26. The Award is looking for new, innovative design strategies from around the world that want to achieve ambitious goals and deal with climate change and sustainability issues. The award is given to work that has made a difference and has shown special qualities on all levels and scales. This award focuses on architects and their design process as well as the philosophical and ethical questions – not just the final solution in the built project. The initiative seeks disruptive thinking that shows the potential to address large-scale problems in a variety of areas, such as: buildings, urban renewal and transformation projects, urban systems and ecosystems, and people-centered urban design.

This year, the award went to the Indian architect Prof. Dr. Anupama Kundoo. She was honoured for her commitment to climate and culture-friendly construction. She has already implemented more than 100 projects with her offices in Pondicherry and Berlin, most of them in India. She currently holds a Guest Professorship at Faculty of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT together with Maarten Gielen of RotorDC and a Professorship for Structural Design at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. She currently offers a master’s design course at KIT Faculty of Architecture on the topic “Circularity: Architecture as a Mechanism of Waste Capture”.

The Green Solutions Awards ceremony took place in Glasgow on Wednesday 10 November 2021. The competition, organised by the international Construction21 platform, rewards outstanding architectural projects that address the challenges of climate protection and sustainability in an innovative way. Winners were selected from 192 entries from 25 countries in eight categories. 16 other projects received recognition from the jury, which is made up of experts in sustainable construction from around the world.

The jury was particularly impressed by these projects because they address the key issues of sustainable construction: economy of materials, energy efficiency, health and user comfort, off-site prefabrication, protection of biodiversity and species, circular economy, and many more. They were also selected because they have the potential to inspire building sector professionals and be adapted and developed on a large scale.

The Mehr.WERT.Pavillon – Top View © Jonathan Preker Copterbrothers, Side view © Felix Heisel

The Mehr.WERT.Pavillon, built up on the Bundesgartenschau 2019 in Heilbronn, was awarded the Sustainable Infrastructure Grand Prize. The building proved that it is already possible today to design and realise sophisticated architecture entirely from the materials of the urban mine, and to apply the principles of the circular economy in its construction without compromise. The materials used for the construction were all selected according to these requirements and joined only with the help of detachable, mechanical connections, so that they can be completely reused or recycled without any loss of value. However, the structure was so convincing that it has now been completely relocated for the time being after the end of the exhibition and will continue to exist for a few more years near its original location – as a material storage facility, social meeting place and physical proof that it is already possible to build in a cycle-friendly manner today.

The jury of the Green Solutions Awards 2020-21 stated: “By betting on the circular economy, it shows how urban areas can be sources of materials. The Mehr Wert Pavilion in Germany is built entirely from recycled materials and can be completely dismantled. A feat in terms of sobriety that should send a signal to all planners and builders.”

The aim of the pavilion was and is to discuss important questions of future building and the associated use of resources with decision-makers from politics, building planning and implementation, and to develop new innovative concepts, applications and methods from this, both in practice and in teaching.

The Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy Sector Baden Württemberg has produced a film about the development process of the Mehr.WERT.Pavilion from planning to construction, which can be viewed here.

Sigmund, Bettina (2021), “Myko-Architektur: Bauen mit Pilzen”, in: DETAIL, 6.2021, p. 32-35

Himmelreich, Jørg (2021), Round Table with Dirk E. Hebel, Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser: “Kreisläufe kultivieren”, in: Das Magazin der SCHWEIZER BAUDOKUMENTATION, 06-2021, p. 18-21

Recruitment from December 2021 or January 2022
If interested, please email elena.boerman@kit.edu.

Dear students,

the Materials Library is looking for support to continue building up its database. A dedicated team is working here cooperatively and meets regularly to exchange ideas. 

Main tasks in the beginning:
– Building up the website of the KIT materials library
– Editing material photographies for the material data sheets

Further tasks:
– Active cooperation in building up the database, analysing and improving the structure.
– Researching building materials
– Evaluating the research results and transferring them into comprehensive material data sheets

The job requires you to work independently and on your own responsibility. You will be actively involved in the team. Basic skills in Excel, Photoshop and Webdesign are required.

If you are interested, please send an e-mail to elena.boerman@kit.edu. In the e-mail, you are welcome to introduce yourself briefly and explain in one or two sentences why you are interested in the position (also in German).

If you have any questions in advance, please contact me via email.

The recruitment is scheduled for December 2021 or January 2022.

31 October was the “Welttag der Städte” (“World Day of Cities”). Fittingly, the architectural models of the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal are exhibited at prominent locations in Wuppertal. They can be viewed there in the coming days and weeks.

The two models of the KIT Karlsruhe SDE team RoofKIT can be visited in the codeks in Wuppertal-Elberfeld.

The “Welttag der Städte” (“World Day of Cities”) on 31 October is a call by the United Nations to work together for sustainable strategies for cities. Currently, about 75% of buildings in the EU are not energy efficient. They cause 36% of CO2 emissions. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings not only saves heating costs, but also protects our climate.

This is exactly where the Solar Decathlon comes in. Together with local partners, Bergische Universität Wuppertal has managed to bring the most important international university competition for energy-efficient building and living to Wuppertal.

With the travelling exhibition, the models are now coming to the people of Wuppertal. From February/March 2022, they will be exhibited throughout NRW. From 10-26 June 2022, all interested parties are cordially invited to experience the built houses and the event and cultural programme live.

The Scientists for Future podcast features monthly conversations with scientists about climate change, sustainability and a livable future.

The building sector is responsible for around 40% of CO2 and greenhouse gases in Europe. The Scientists for Future took this initial situation as an opportunity to join forces with the Architects for Future and dedicate an episode of their podcast to the topic of architecture. To do so, they invited Prof. Dirk Hebel from Professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

“We have to understand our buildings as material stores,” he describes. In addition to the question of raw material consumption and the circular economy, the current podcast episode also talks about urban planning and the new European Bauhaus. Svenja from S4F and Leonie from A4F Kassel also discuss with their guest how architecture and our coexistence must change for a sustainable future. Because it turns out: How we build is not only a technical question but also a cultural one.

The current episode of the Scientists-for-Future-Podcast “Sustainable Architecture” is available here.

In this year’s third edition “BAUEN” of the KIT magazine for research, teaching and innovation “lookKIT”, three different articles report on research and other topics taking place at the Professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Under the title “Realizing recycling-oriented Construction”, Dr. Stefan Fuchs conducted an interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm and Daniela Schneider from the Professorship of Sustainable Construction. The topics of the conversation range from the protection of resources to the problem of land consumption and the need for new forms of living. According to the researchers, in order to anchor the circular economy in construction, it is also necessary to use biological materials in order to close the resource gap.

The spread of such materials can be promoted by including environmental costs in materials of fossil origin. In addition, architects have to start planning again with traditional and other simple joining techniques in order to ensure the correct use and quality-preserving dismantling of materials. Hebel, Böhm and Schneider place great hopes in the introduction of a material pass to anchor digitization and documentation in the construction industry. Finally, the author also points out a video with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel on the question “Why build sustainably?”.

In “The Future City as Resource Supply” by Sandra Wiebe, the RoofKIT team demonstrates that it is possible to integrate the building sector in a functioning circular economy. Taking part in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021/22 the team is developing a concept for heightening the roof of Café ADA in Wuppertal. In a reduced on-scale version, they will realize their project on the Solar Campus in Wuppertal in June 2022.

The project is composed of three important topics of the implementation of circular economy in the construction sector: to use the built environment as a new mine, to enable buildings to be fully disassembled after use and to harvest energy sustainably in order to reach climate neutrality. According to the head of project Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, RoofKIT’s design is of relevance to novel, socially centered living spaces supporting future-oriented urban society.

An online version of the article is available here. Find out more about the RoofKIT team here.

Two architecture students campaign for a sustainable future of the construction sector as a whole with their newly founded local group of the “Architects for Future” in Karlsruhe. Alisa Schneider and Elena Boerman both did their master thesis on adaptive reuse projects at the Professorship of Sustainable Construction in summer 2021.

The author of the article, Regina Link, points out their central focus of a radical turnaround in the construction sector. In the name of their Germany-wide association, the two graduates call on people to consider the entire life cycle of buildings and thus break through the linear system of construction. Society must become aware of the value of buildings and the resources they contain: The goal must be to make building and rebuilding a circular system in which waste no longer exists and materials are used in and removed from buildings for reuse and recycling.

An online version of the article is available here. Find out more about the association Architects for Future here.

The climate podcast WELTWUNDERKUGEL from SWR deals with topics related to the function of our planet. The makers are interested in understanding what defines our earth and the climate and how we can hand over a healthy earth to future generations.

The current episode “A home for the future – climate-friendly building and living” is about sponge cities, high-rise forests, eco-villages and biological building materials. In the search for the “Home of the future”, voices from science and society are heard and various projects on the topic are presented by the SWR1 editor Christiane von Wolff.

In this context, Dirk E. Hebel from the KIT Professorship of Sustainable Construction addresses the idea of sustainable development. He also reports on the many possible uses of mushroom-based materials in the construction industry and on dealing with today’s building stock. “Garbage as a design error” is the keyword here: it is important to understand that the consistent recycling economy in the construction industry is the only way to seriously implement resource conservation in the construction industry.

Listen to the full episode here.

Fuchs, Stefan (2021), Interview with Sandra Böhm, Daniela Schneider and Dirk E. Hebel: “Wir müssen einfacher, intelligenter und sortenrein bauen”, in: looKIT, 03/2021, p. 10-14.

Wiebe, Sandra (2021), “The Future City as Resource Supply” (about RoofKIT), in: looKIT, 03/2021, p. 34-37.

Link, Regina (2021), “Das Bauwesen braucht eine radikale Wende” (about Architects for Future Karlsruhe) , in: lookKIT, 03/2021, p. 46-49.

Backhaus, Anne (2021), “Die Zeit der Pilze wird kommen”, in: Energiewende-Magazin, Nr. 9/2021, p. 46-55.

How do we want to live in the future? And how can we also be sure in the future that there will be enough raw materials to provide everything needed in daily life? Clari, Jana, Ralph and André from the “Sendung mit der Maus” are looking into securing raw materials and urban mining.

For this purpose, they are opening a future flat-sharing community for four weeks in the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit in the NEST research building on the EMPA campus in Dübendorf, and from there they are exploring where and how the various components of the research unit were produced.

The first part is about the recycling of bricks into new masonry units. The focus is also on the MycoLab of the KIT in Karlsruhe and the production of insulating material from mycelium there. The second episode shows the viewers the production process of glass ceramics and plate material from melted plastic. The third episode deals with the production of table tops from used beverage cartons and with recyclable carpets. The fourth episode focuses on technical innovations and the deconstruction of materials from urban mining.

The four-part series “Urban Mining” from the “Sendung mit der Maus” conveys an understanding of the responsible use of our raw materials in a child-friendly way.

At the “Door opener day with the mouse”, the 3 October 2021, upcoming ideas, innovative plannings, exciting projects and much more will be presented to children under the motto “Hello Future” all over Germany. One of the numerous participatory activities will take place at the KIT in Karlsruhe.

At the MycoLab at KIT, the Professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Faculty of Architecture, Prof. Dirk Hebel, is conducting research on alternative building materials. The team is working on the conversion of organic waste into alternative, cultivated and biological building materials. This involves the use of mycelium, the route of mushrooms, which is fed with biological waste so that stable, pressure-resistant forms can subsequently be realized. 

The MycoLab has already been featured by ZDF PUR+ last year, and in the program “Sendung mit der Maus” on its 50th anniversary a few months ago.

On the “Door opener day” the MycoLab team aims to show the participating children how alternative sustainable resources can be regrown faster than wood without any negative impacts on our forests and biodiversity as well as our climate by utilizing the wood and agricultural waste resources and turning them into sustainable, biobased and green building materials with the power of mushrooms.

To join the event, please registrate here.

On the occasion of the 50th birthday of “Die Maus”, numerous special episodes are being filmed this year. In this context, “Die Sendung mit der Maus” also visited the Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) housing and research unit of the Swiss research institute Empa at “NEST” in Dübendorf near Zurich in Switzerland.

In the middle of June, NEST Innovation Manager Enrico Marchesi invited Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Sandra Böhm from the Professorship of Sustainable Construction to present the housing unit, the building materials used there, and the construction and material concept to the viewers of the “Sendung mit der Maus” after a brief welcome. The Urban Mining and Recycling Unit of the EMPA is still one of a few lighthouse projects of circular construction. Many innovative, forward-looking construction techniques are used in exemplary applications, which allow the sorted disassembly and the later reuse of all used materials. The unit was created in 2017 by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Bernd Köhler and Frank Heinlein.

Ralph, Jana, Sihan, André from “Die Sendung mit der Maus”, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm and Enrico Marchesi were present for the filming session in the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit at NEST at EMPA in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The programme will be broadcast as a special episode as part of the Mouse’s 50th birthday events in August 2021.

More information about the 50th birthday of “Die Maus” here.

In the current episode of NANO, a scientifical documentation series by 3sat, the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit of the EMPA in Zurich has been published as one of the lighthouse projects of sustainable construction. The presenters also visit the KIT mycelium laboratory at the Westhochschule where the fungal mycelium is researched by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and his team.

The short contribution shows the inevitable relevance of an increased use of recycled materials and renewable raw materials as the basis for the building materials of the future.

Watch the full episode of NANO on 3sat here.

Hebel, Dirk E., and Cordula Rau (2021), Cordula Rau im Gespräch mit Dirk E. Hebel: Mit der künftigen Konzipierung rückbaubarer Gebäude können Städte zu ihrem eigenen Material-Reservoir werden, in: architektur. aktuell: the art of building, June 2021, p. 14-15.

Recruitment from 1 September 2021
If interested, please email sandra.boehm@kit.edu by 1 July.

Dear students,

the Materials Library is looking for support to continue building its database. A dedicated team is working here cooperatively and meets regularly to exchange ideas – currently still online, hopefully soon live and in colour again. 

Tasks:
– Active cooperation in building up the database, analysing and improving the structure.
– Researching building materials
– Evaluation of the research results and their transfer into comprehensive material data sheets.

The job requires you to work independently and on your own responsibility. You will be actively involved in the team. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to sandra.boehm@kit.edu by 1 July. In the e-mail, you are welcome to introduce yourself briefly and explain in one or two sentences why you are interested in the position.

If you have any questions in advance, please contact Thomas Kinsch (thomas.kinsch@kit.edu).

You will then receive initial feedback from us from 5 July.
The recruitment is scheduled for 1 September.

Regina Gebauer and Anne-Catherine Greiner are two of a total of ten winners of the aed neuland 2021 young talent competition in the Architecture and Engineering category. They each received the silver award for their semester designs, which were both created at the Professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and were supervised by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Manuel Rausch and Daniel Lenz.

In her project “Bis sich alles bewegt” (“Until Everything Moves”), Regina Gebauer deals with the inward densification of urban spaces in European city centres in an exemplary manner in terms of sustainability. The addition to an existing building in Wuppertal with the clear formulation of the joint between old and new convinced the jury. With the consistent implementation of the themes of circular economy in construction, single-variety construction and the Urban Mine, it demonstrates a self-confident architectural stance.

Find out more about the project here.

Anne-Catherine Greiner proposes a playful solution for the Mea Nork kindergarten of the NGO “Smiling Gecko” near Phnom Penh in Cambodia as an extension of the existing school. Taking into account climatic conditions and honouring local community and ecosystems, the organic structure offers children the opportunity to learn with and from each other. By using natural materials and applying local building traditions, it shows a way to address environmental and social issues through architecture.

Find out more about the project here.

More information about the competition and all winners here.

The book “Urban Mining and Circular Construction. The city as raw materials warehouse”, published in May 2021, edited by Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, questions the throwaway mentality currently practiced in the construction industry: raw materials are taken from established natural cycles, used and then disposed of without using or even recognizing their potential for continuous value creation.

Materials are consumed and used instead of being borrowed from biological or technical cycles and then returned there. This linear approach has profound consequences for our planet. We are fundamentally changing existing ecosystems.

International experts examine from very different perspectives, and on the basis of future-oriented project examples, how this paradigm shift can succeed and how the technical, logistical and organizational challenges of a circular economy can be met with completely new methodological approaches. A collection of selected material examples shows the special aesthetics and value of reused and recycled building materials and components.

Through positive incentives and impulses, the book shows possible ways to a circular construction industry – because a complete circular economy must become the central and common goal of our society in order to conserve our natural resources.

Images: Insights in the publication © Fraunhofer IRB Verlag
More information about the publication on www.baufachinformation.de .

Heisel, Felix, Dirk E. Hebel, (Ed.) (2021), Urban Mining und kreislaufgerechtes Bauen. Die Stadt als Rohstofflager, Stuttgart: Fraunhofer IRB Verlag, 2021.

Hebel, Dirk E., and Jenny Keller (2021), Bricolage 3: Nachwachsende Rohstoffe, in: werk, bauen + wohnen, Materialkreislauf, 5-2021, p. 30-31.

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 .

From 22 May until 21 November 2021 La Biennale will take place in the Arsenale and the Giardini in Venice. The curator Hashim Sarkis calls on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together in different ways, in the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities.

Last year, the team ‘ETH Zurich | KIT Karlsruhe | EiABC Addis Ababa’, led by Marc Angélil and Dirk E. Hebel, developed a contribution entitled “Quo Addis? Conflicts of Coexistence” to the major architecture exhibition. In an urban model of Addis Ababa, the historical and architectural development of the Ethiopian capital from the age of Menelik’s empire in the 19th century until today is depicted in an abstract and at the same time precise and clear way. A film produced by Jenny Rodenhouse completes the exhibition contribution and brings the visitor closer to life and coexistence in the different quarters of the city.

The entire installation was brought to Venice at the end of April by a team of six around Dirk E. Hebel and Katharina Blümke and was set up in the Arsenale. The construction of the model was documented by the team in a short film:

Photography: Katharina Blümke, Elena Boerman, Luca Diefenbacher
Film: Elena Boerman

More information about the project “Quo Addis? Conflicts of Coexistence” here.
Find out more about La Biennale di Venezia here.

The podcast “Fighting 40%” was created as a part of the international competition Solar Decathlon Europe 21. The RoofKIT podcast team presents topics relating architecture and urban design, but above all sustainability and future-oriented thinking.

In the current second episode released on 10 Mai 2021, two podcast team members discuss about “Urban Mining” with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, the Faculty Advisor of team RoofKIT.

Since the post-war period, we have been surrounded by an anthropogenic warehouse of over 50 billion tons of material. This warehouse grows every year by another 10 tons per inhabitant. Much of it is located in buildings. Wouldn’t this warehouse be a potential resource for the construction industry of the future?

Listen to the podcast episode on Campusradio Karlsruhe or on Spotify.
To find out more about Team RoofKIT, visit their RoofKIT weblog for SDE21.

Welzbacher, Christian (2021), Grüne Architektur oder grüne Märchen?, in: Deutsches Architektenblatt, NACHHALTIG, 05/2021, p. 16-21.

Hebel, Dirk E., and Angela Kratz (2021), Bauen als Stoffkreislauf, in: IBA Magazin No. 4, Heidelberg für alle, April 2021, p. 24-25.

Angélil, Marc, Sarah Graham, and Cary Siress (2021), Recycling through leasing, in: Constructing Sustainability, Lafarge Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, 2021, p. 36-37.

The two architecture master’s students Alisa Schneider and Elena Boerman report in the KIT student magazine clicKIT about their activities in the local group of the nationwide association Architects for Future in Karlsruhe.

In their work, the two are committed to ensuring that the building industry experiences a sustainable and future-oriented turnaround. Among their demands as Architects for Future are the critical questioning of building demolitions, the increasing use of healthy, regional and climate-positive materials instead of cheap and foreign materials, circular construction and the perception of the urban mine as a storehouse of materials, as well as the preservation and creation of living spaces by avoiding new land sealing.

Read the full article in the KIT student magazine clicKIT here.

The Norman Foster Foundation (NFF) presents the ‘On Cities’ Masterclass Series, a series of thirty-minute-long masterclasses which explores the most pressing and compelling topics related to contemporary cities. Given by twenty leading experts in the fields of architecture, urbanism, economics and mobility, this video series supports the NFF’s extensive educational programme by promoting an exchange of knowledge across a range of geographic and disciplinary perspectives.

Although cities may offer significant advantages for inhabitants, urbanisation is widely regarded as one of the fundamental challenges for public health, social equity and sustainability. To meet these challenges, speakers touch themes such as urban leadership, equity, urban informality, urban food systems, urban sustainability, urban materiality, urban mobility, and urban economics, among other key topics.

In his introductory masterclass to the series, Norman Foster (President, Norman Foster Foundation) considers the future of cities and the crises that cities have overcome throughout their history, arguing that the current pandemic has accelerated important trends already in motion, such as a return to green and open public space and compact urban areas that provide inhabitants with services and leisure within a walking distance:

In light of the finite nature of the world’s resources, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel (Professorship of Sustainable Construction, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) explores the ways in which materials can be reused through ‘urban mining’, referencing the research of new recycled and organic materials in his masterclass, titled ‘Sustainable Materials’:

The contributing speakers also include the following experts:
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone)
Joseph G Allen (Director of the Healthy Buildings Program
T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University)
Deborah Berke (Dean, Yale’s School of Architecture)
Luis Bettencourt (Inaugural Director, Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, University of Chicago)
Richard Burdett (Director, LSE Cities)
Vishaan Chakrabarti (William W. Wurster Dean, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley)
Robin Chase (Cofounder, ZipCar)
Fonna Forman (Founding Director, Center on Global Justice, University of California, San Diego)
Sou Fujimoto (Founder, Sou Fujimoto Architects)
Edward Glaeser (Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University)
Francis Kéré (Founder, Kéré Architecture and Kéré Foundation)
Anupama Kundoo (Principal, Anupama Kundoo Architects)
Kent Larson (Director, MIT City Science Research Group)
Giuseppe Sala (Mayor of Milan, Italy)
Carolyn Steel (Director, Kilburn Nightingale Architects)
Tim Stonor (Managing Director, Space Syntax)
Belinda Tato (Cofounder and Codirector, Ecosistema Urbano)
Theresa Williamson (Founder and Director, Catalytic Communities)

Watch the full ‘On Cities’ Masterclass Series on YouTube here.

Urbanisation in Europe reached approximately 75%, and the tendency is growing; thus, European cities face several urgent problems, which should be solved to comply with the EU targets to fight climate change.

To name a few critical problems aligned with the scope of the project: 

• Available living space is getting rare within the existing boundaries due to the increasing rate of migration from people into cities and the constant growth of the consumption of square meter per person.

• Environmental quality in cities is strongly affected by pollution, mainly caused by combustion (traffic, heating), and increasing temperatures as well as heat waves during the summer due to urban heat island effects.

• Most buildings of the existing building stock in European cities were built with a low energy efficiency standard which results in high energy consumption (mostly for heating) and related CO2-emissions.

• Lastly, the building materials are not only slowly getting scarce and affect the quality of the living spaces, but the building sector is also responsible for a large amount of waste.

To tackle this, Team RoofKIT choses a holistic approach: The extension of buildings with an additional living unit requires combined urban design and architectural strategies, considering the specific requirements of the site but at the same time seeking a more general solution regarding adding living units on cities’ rooftops. RoofKIT‘s goal here is to take up the local potentials of the site and neighbourhood and improve it together with the building design by creating synergies. Together with the outdoor space, the extension will be an exemplary project that will fit into various other contexts in the neighbourhood, the city, and beyond, thanks to ist modularity. It is important that the outdoor space makes no distinction between residents, neighbours or visitors enabling flexibility, multiple uses, capacity, creativity and freedom of use.

Whole Building Design Approach
Although topping up allows creating living space with very low impact on neighbours and users of the existing building, RoofKIT decided to enhance the current situation and to upgrade the existing building by economic, social and energetic terms. Therefore, the interior layout is revised according to the needs of the different functions. Based on the analysis of the existing functions of Café Ada, strategies have been developed to strengthen them further: The ball room that attracts tango dancers from all parts of the world as well as theexisting sleeping facilities for them are not appropriate to the situation.  For this reason, an ‘urban gap’ is created, which forms a transition between the existing structure and the extension and presents the dance hall to the public. The load bearing structure from the early 20st century will be further used and partly reinforced.

House Demonstration Unit Design Approach
In order to transfer the concept from the overall building to the house demonstration unit, RoofKIT has chosen the southwest corner of the building as a cutout. It is perceived as a two-story structure that represents the two main components of our building: The residential units and the urban gap. Just as in the overall design, the HDU is built in modular timber construction and consists of a total of four modules. The module that is placed in front of the others in a transverse direction functions as a terrace and represents the shared spaces of our building design. Inside, the interior design is also characterized by modularity in the form of custom-made furniture, which allows flexibility and is especially space-saving at the same time. Furthermore, the open floor plan allows for high space efficiency since no pure traffic zone exists.

Structural Design
The challenge for the RoofKIT design is to base on an already existing building, whose bearing structure has almost reached its load limits. The structural design of the project keeps the established building almost free from additional loads. This works because the thick external brick walls bears the load of the addition. An examination of the walls and foundations will show whether they need to be strengthened. The internal supporting structure has to be reinforced, to bear the increased live loads of the ball room in the urban gap. To keep the additional loads for the top-up to a minimum, a lightweight wooden frame construction was chosen.

Solar System Integration
As the RoofKIT top-up is a new construction with a high energy efficiency standard, the total energy demand (including appliances and e-mobility) will be covered by solar systems on the building envelope. As part of the goal, the sizing of the RoofKIT’s PV and battery system will focus on a high self-coverage of the energy demand as well as on stabilising effects of the grid. In other words, the feed-in of surplus electric energy during solar peaks and heavycharging of grid energy during peak load times will be avoided by a smart building energy management including the building and mobility solutions. A balanced energy threshold over the year (consumption and generation) as a function of available solar radiation, actual energy demand and grid requirements will be achieved by load shifting or any other sort of demand-side management. RoofKIT does not regard the use of solar systems as a mere necessity but as a possibility to design the building on an architectural level. 

For better insight, RoofKIT’s second short film reveals more details and goals about the project. Stay Tuned!

RoofKIT links: https://linktr.ee/RoofKIT
Instagram: www.instagram.com/roofkit_
Solar Decathlon Europe 21: www.SDE21.eu
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sde21_wuppertal

The Urban Mining and Recycling unit (UMAR) in NEST was listed as a showcase project of circular construction by the New European Bauhaus on 6th April 2021. The project shows how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can also go hand in hand with an appealing architectural form. Life-cycle thinking has led the design process: all the resources required to construct the unit are fully reusable, recyclable, or compostable.

The Urban Mining and Recycling housing and research unit in NEST, the modular Research and Innovation Building of Empa in Dübendorf (Switzerland), is demonstrating what a paradigm shift in the construction industry reacting to the limitation of the world’s natural resources might look like. Turning away from linear material-consumption and towards an economy of material recycling, multiple use, alternative construction methods and the use of entirely separable materials – UMAR works as a material laboratory but also as a material depot. It is a proof that the responsible use of natural resources, the recycling of materials and modern architecture can go hand in hand.

The building design was created by Werner Sobek in collaboration with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Bernd Köhler and Frank Heinlein.

Visit the Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) website here.

Learn more about the New European Bauhaus on their website or on Instagram.

Komm ins Team RoofKIT! Solar Decathlon Europe 2021
06.04.2021, 17 Uhr auf zoom

Sommersemester 2021: Mitarbeit am SDE21
(Seminar, Praktikum,…)

Thema: Introduction to RoofKIT
Uhrzeit: 6.Apr..2021 05:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien

Zoom-Meeting beitreten
https://kit-lecture.zoom.us/j/63671528170?pwd=MFd6czlzQXNMWDBZdUhYWTJ4ZWJrUT09

Meeting-ID: 636 7152 8170
Kenncode: 567334

Mehr Informationen über RoofKIT und den SDE21: https://roofkit.de

The current episode of planet e., a documentation series by ZDF, examines the state of sustainability in the German construction industry and shows perspectives for building with recycled concrete and products out of construction waste.

This is because the construction industry in Germany is responsible for more than half of the waste generated, accessible raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce, and the production of building materials such as cement causes greenhouse gases that contribute significantly to the warming of the atmosphere. Nevertheless, construction waste in Germany still ends up in landfills to a large extent. Only a few companies in Germany work in the sense of a circular economy when demolishing buildings and take the responsible initiative to recycle the resulting materials.

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Urban Mining and Recycling Unit, EMPA Zurich © planet e. (ZDF)

The editors compare German laws with those in other European countries and highlight what the German “Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz” could achieve. For example, in the Netherlands or Switzerland, sustainable construction with innovative building materials and assembling methods is particularly important in the construction of public buildings. In this sense, the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit of the EMPA in Zurich has been established, which is one of a few lighthouse projects of circular construction.

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Impressions of the KIT mycelium laboratory, Professorship of Sustainable Construction © planet e. (ZDF)

Dirk E. Hebel, sustainability researcher, architect and professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, was also involved in this project. He calls for a clear and responsible change of course in the German construction industry. The increased use of recycled materials and renewable raw materials as the basis for the building materials of the future, such as the fungal mycelium he is researching with his team at the Karlsruhe laboratory, are inevitable and are imminent for the construction industry in Germany.

Watch the full episode of planet e. on ZDF here.

Fachgebiet Nachhaltiges Bauen KIT, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Elena Boerman, Daniel Lenz, Manuel Rausch (Hrsg.) (2021), Kindergarten Kambodscha. Professur Dirk E. Hebel. Master Studio KIT Karlsruhe Sommer 2019, Karlsruhe 2021.