Concern of the building stock – Ten strategies for architecture
Welter, T., (2020), Sorge um den Bestand: Zehn Strategien für die Architektur, in: der architekt, 6/2020, p. 76.
Xenius by arte: Future building materials
In a new episode of Xenius by arte, the hosts Dörthe Eickelberg and Pierre Girard set out in search of alternative building materials.
Up to now, the building industry has mainly used concrete and steel. In order to be able to build more ecologically and sustainably in the future, scientists are looking for alternative building materials. And there are some innovative ideas. Mycelium, paperboard or popcorn – nothing is impossible!
The hosts also interview Prof. Dirk E Hebel about his research with mycelium as an alternative, cultivated biological building material. The mycelium is simply fed with biological waste and can be shaped into stable, pressure-resistant forms. In the Urban Mining And Recycling Unit, which was created in collaboration with researchers from the ETH Zurich, many other innovative, forward-looking construction techniques are also used in exemplary applications, which allow the sorted disassembly and the later reuse of all used materials.
In this episode of Xenius, some other ideas for future building materials are presented. For example, scientists of the Technical University of Darmstadt are researching a way to build houses out of cardboard without any additional wood coatings or protective foils. In Munich, a visionary architect is growing trees into each other in such a controlled way that load-bearing structures are formed that will support bridges or even entire houses years later. Prof. Alireza Kharazipour in Göttingen aims to replace plastic materials as much as possible with the renewable raw material corn.
Watch the full episode on arte.tv here.
Further information:
http://nest-umar.net
https://www.wernersobek.de
https://changelab.exchange
UMAR and Mycelium Research in “Die Sendung mit der Maus”
In the current 50th anniversary episode of “Die Sendung mit der Maus”, Armin Maiwald, one of the hosts, is looking for how people will live in the future. Therefore he visits the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit (UMAR) created by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel.
The building design demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can go hand in hand with appealing architectural form. The project is underpinned by the proposition that all the resources required to construct a building must be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable. This places life-cycle thinking at the forefront of the design: Instead of merely using and subsequently disposing of resources, they are borrowed from their technical and biological cycles for a certain amount of time before being put back into circulation once again. In that way UMAR functions simultaneously as a material laboratory and a temporary material storage.
After having visited UMAR, Armin Maiwald also takes a look at the mycelium laboratory in the Westhochschule in Karlsruhe. Here our researcher Dr. Alireza Javadian shows the TV host of the children’s program how the mycelium grows in the laboratory, how it is shaped and how resistant it is afterwards.
Watch the full episode of “Die Maus” on WDR here.
local material, local design, local built.
Böhm, Sandra (2020), Local material, local design, local built., in: archlab.docs #3, KIT Research Preprint, Karlsruhe 2020.
build up & dismantling/ cultivation/ development
Böhm, Sandra (2018/19), Bau auf! & Abbau/Anbau/Aufbau, in: archlab.docs #2, KIT Research Preprint, Karlsruhe 2018/19.
We will soon be building houses out of mycelium?
Hebel, Dirk E., BILD der FRAU (2021), Nachgefragt bei WELTbewegern: Bauen wir bald Häuser aus Pilzen?, in: BILD der FRAU.
Results of the Stegreif: “Lern doch wo du willst”
In form of a “Stegreif”, the Professorship of Sustainable Construction jointly with the KIT Zukunftscampus, launched a competition for future outdoor learning spaces at KIT campus. A structure was to be designed that would enable learning and working in an outdoor environment. The design was to be independent of a specific location but should be considered as a flexible object for many possible spots and create a recognizable landmark for the KIT community.
1st prizes: “KONRAD” (D. Faltien), “Lerninsel+” (A. Resch), “Lern doch, wo du willst” (M. Weber)
Acknowledgement: “toolKIT” (E. Boerman)
All proposals developed have a high degree of practicality and are basically suitable for implementation. During their judging session, the jury decided in favor of three first prizes and one acknowledgement. The three first prizes were given to the projects of Dominic Faltien, Alexander Resch and Milena Weber, the acknowledgement was given to the work of Elena Boerman. The three first prize projects will be further elaborated in regards to the construction and consequently realization of a prototype.
More information soon on https://www.zukunftscampus.kit.edu
RoofKIT – KIT team participates at the Solar Decathlon Europe 21 competition within the field of sustainable construction
“The future city makes no distinction between waste and supply.”
Joachim Mitchell, New York
How can we create social-economic fair living space without destroying our natural resources? And how can we create ecologically sensitive building structures, acknowledging the finite state of natural material supplies, and avoid any state of “waste”, but understand the existing building stock as an urban material bank for the future? How can we create alternative solar harvesting systems as part of an urban mining ideology and propose paradigm-shifting innovations as first-of-their-kind worldwide? And how can we apply urban mobility systems as an integrative part of the immobile building sector?
The Solar Decathlon Europe 21 (SDE21) is a publicly held competition for sustainable building and urban living, which will take place in 2022 in Wuppertal, Germany, where it will be judged. The motto: „design-build-operate.“ This means that, unlike in other architectural competitions, the participating teams will actually build their designs. The aim of the competition is to find innovative and at the same time tangible solutions to the technical, architectural and social problems we face in our cities.
The first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002 by the Department of Energy of the United States on the National Mall in Washington D.C., followed in 2010 by the first European version in Madrid. With the SDE21 comes the world‘s 21st edition of the competition for the first time to Germany – with a new and urban profile and the question of how we should deal with limited ressource in future constructions and how to apply the necessery and politically demanded concept of a circular economy within the building industry.
18 university teams from 11 countries will construct fully usable demonstration units of approx. 80 sqm each on the Solar Campus in Wuppertal which is locatad on the Utopiastadt site in 2022. The teams will compete with their buildings in 10 different disciplines.
The RoofKIT team of the KIT Faculty of Architecture will address those urgent questions in the competition by exploring a gigantic surface resource within our cities: rooftops. By applying the idea of the circular economy towards the identification of new possible building sites within our cities, and by applying the concept also towards the material as well as the energy question, the project will show that it is possible to integrate the building sector in a functioning sustainable system already today. The city of today will be the resource for the city of tomorrow. It needs a new generation contract for both – the society and young architects, engineers and planners at large.
Different Views © Team RoofKIT
The impact of such a radical paradigm shift is not debatable. In the light of a world-wide climate crisis, we need to shift our way of how we think, design and construct architecture. RoofKIT will be a demonstrator for a new generation of buildings, that take their responsibility seriously. It will show that social sustainability in form of affordable high quality living space interacting with their neighbourhoods is a question of good and informed design, that solar harvesting will not be an accessory but a mandatory part of any design process and mobility concept and that resources coming from the urban mine and designed as a material bank can and will be interwoven to a synergetic resilient design as they are enabled to move unrestrictedly in a future circular economy.
More information on www.roofKIT.de and the www.SDE21.eu
OFFSPRING: The KIT material library
Hebel, Dirk E., and Böhm, Sandra (2020), NACHWUCHS: Die KIT-Materialbibliothek, in: ASF Journal 2020, p. 46.
From breeding, cultivation, seeding and harvesting of biological building materials
Presentation of some projects of the symposium grow.build.repeat.
Schimmelpfennig, Nadine (2021), Vom Züchten, Kultivieren, Säen und Ernten biologischer Baumaterialien, in: Deutsche Bauzeitschrift, Zukunftsfähig Bauen, January 2021, p. 40-43.
KIT Material Library: impressions of the construction site
Work in the materials library is progressing. More and more parts of the old raw building fabric are becoming visible.
The renovation of the premises of the material library began some months ago and a lot has already happened. For example, current new electrical installations are being installed and a new modern lighting design has already been completed and will be implemented soon.
After many areas have been uncovered, a contemporary repair of the ceiling and walls is now taking place as well as the preparations for the new glazing.
The new material library will thus become a spacious, airy room, which will already provide generous views from the outside. We will continue to report on the development status of the new KIT material library here on the ChangeLab platform.
The renovation of the premises is supported by Wacker Chemie AG.
Images: Bernd Seeland, Faculty of Architecture, KIT Karlsruhe
Design through and with material knowledge
An interview with the Dean of the KIT Faculty of Architecture Dirk E. Hebel and seminar leader Sandra Böhm of the Professorship of Sustainable Construction about their design strategies and the compatibility with materials science in architectural education.
The KIT Faculty of Architecture has a long tradition in understanding architectural design in close interaction with and in dependency on structural design, building construction, building physics, social studies and material science. The students deal critically and actively with the pressing questions of our times and are looking for ways to align their own actions with these findings.
The focus at the KIT Faculty of Architecture is on integrated design, so that conceptional, ecological, economical, structural, physical, sociological, historic, artistic, communicational, urban, landscape and theoretical questions are understood and treated as a holistic interdisciplinary project in the design itself. Thus, design studios serve as a field of experimentation and students are given the opportunity to show and test their ideas and conceptions in innovations and experimental studies.
This also includes the rediscovery of traditional materials and their possibilities in terms of the synergy of tradition and innovation. In the research seminar “Bau auf!” held together with the Karlsruhe Majolika, the students dealt with the material ceramic and the possibilities of 3D printing.
The innovation platform “Changelab! Wacker KIT Innovation Platform for Pioneering Sustainable Construction” builds a bridge to cooperation with the industry and is intended to bring together students, architects, engineers, and construction experts who are looking for new approaches in the field of material development and construction methods for a circular economy.
Published in “DER ENTWURF – Magazin der DBZ für junge Architekt*innen und Ingenieur*innen”, edition November 2020, p. 14-17
Materials science during studies
Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm (2020), Materialkunde im Studium, in: Der Entwurf – Magazin der DBZ für junge Architekt*innen und Ingenieur*innen, November 2020, p. 14-17.
Rammed Earth Seminar – the Video
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
From the circulating, sowing and harvesting of future building materials
Hebel, Dirk E. (2020). Vom Zirkulieren, Säen und Ernten zukünftiger Baumaterialien, in: Bauen im Wandel. Zukunft Bau Kongress 2019, BBSR. p. 74-79. Bonn, Germany
Exhibition: MycoTree in `Critical Zones` at ZKM
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.
Images: Arno Kohlem and the Bio Design Lab HfG Karlsruhe
View the exhibition: https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2020/05/critical-zones
Tremendous possibilities – the city as a raw materials warehouse
KIT professor Dirk E. Hebel writes about Germany as a country with an incredibly large anthropogenic material store but with a lack of ideas how to use it. Our cities have the potential to be transformed into urban mines, to consumers and suppliers of resources. The challenge of an infinite cycle of resources lies in new construction methods and technologies to reach a new generation of building materials and methods that are qualitatively sustainable, ecologically harmless, technically pure, economically attractive and endlessly recyclable.
The Mehr.WERT.Pavillon serves as a clear example for this. All materials used in the project have already gone through at least one life cycle, in the same or modified form. The Mehr.WERT.Pavillon proves overall the applicability of the raw material warehouse – also in structural applications – and shows the beauty inherent in the respective materials.
Tremendous possibilities
Hebel, Dirk E. (2020). Ungeheure Möglichkeiten, in: der architekt. material der stadt. 4/2020 (Bund Deutscher Architekten BDA), Berlin, Germany
Radio interview: Architecture of mushroom and bamboo – Dirk E. Hebel talks about constructing sustainability
Marie-Dominique Wetzel, cultural correspondent from SWR2, talks with KIT professor Dirk E. Hebel about his vision of sustainable architecture as a part of the movement against climate change and the destruction of the environment. He emphasizes the importance of research on new building technologies in consideration of the fact that the earth’s resources are more and more declining. Therefore a change in awareness to the cycle-oriented and gradual use of building materials is inevitable for present and future architects.
Video on: https://www.swr.de/swr2
Constructed from mycelium
Klaaßen, Lars (2020). Aus Pilz gebaut, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 18.07.2020, München, Germany
The opportunities of the urban mine
Hebel, Dirk E. (2020). Die Chancen der urbanen Mine. Wie ein kreislaufgerechtes Bauen die Ressourcenfrage der Zukunft decken kann, in: PLANERIN. Mitgliederfachzeitschrift für Stadt-, Regional- und Landesplanung, p. 21-24. 3_20, Berlin, Germany
Diskrepanz zwischen Anspruch und Realität ist groß & Die Stadt wird zum riesigen Rohstofflager
Ulrich Coenen, BNN: Interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel (2020)
The two-part-interview is about Sustainable Thinking, Acting and Building, technical and biological circulations, unmixed and pure construction methods and the application and practice of urban mining. Furthermore they discuss practices of energetic redevelopment of existing buildings and the establishment of new building materials and future energy efficient technologies.
in: Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 11th & 18th February 2020: no. 34 & 40
Build Sustainably and Act Future-Oriented
Interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel (2020). Build Sustainably and Act Future-Oriented. (Interview about his research as the head of the Department of Sustainable Building at KIT, specific challenges facing the construction industry concerning the reuse of materials and their sustainability and about the KIT being part of the SBM Summit taking place at Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre on 18 and 19 June 2020.), in: stories, 01/2020: 22-24
Die Stadt wird zum riesigen Rohstofflager
Ulrich Coenen (2020). Die Stadt wird zum riesigen Rohstofflager. (Second part of an interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel about the practice of urban mining, the energetic redevelopment of existing buildings and the establishment of new building materials and future energy efficient technologies.), in: Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 18th February 2020: no. 40, 17
Diskrepanz zwischen Anspruch und Realität ist groß
Ulrich Coenen (2020). Diskrepanz zwischen Anspruch und Realität ist groß. (First part of an interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel about Sustainable Thinking, Acting and Building, technical and biological circulations, unmixed and pure construction methods and the application of urban mining.), in: Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 11th February 2020: no. 34, 17
Kreislaufgerechtes Bauen – Kultivierte Baumaterialien: UMAR & MycoTree
Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel (2020). Kreislaufgerechtes Bauen – Kultivierte Baumaterialien, in: H2O – Das Kundenmagazin von Keramik Laufen und Similor, January 2020: 22-23
Second-hand is on Trend: Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR)
Sabina Strambu (2020). Second-hand is on Trend, in: DETAIL selection – Special Publication Products 2020. Recycling – Materials, Systems, Concepts: 4-6
Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) and Research Seminar ‘Bau auf!’
Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR)
The Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) housing and research unit in NEST, the modular Research and Innovation Building of Empa and Eawag 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. Design Team: Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Bernd Köhler, Frank Heinlein
Bau auf! Kreislaufgerechte Architektur in der Lehre
Traditional materials combined with new technologies: the building material ceramic is undergoing a revival in the research seminar „Bau auf! Kreislaufgerechte Architektur in der Lehre“, offered by the Majolika Karlsruhe and the Department of Sustainable Construction at Karlsruhe’s KIT. The creation of awareness that traditional materials and old material knowledge combined with digital planning methods can lead to innovative solutions was one of the main objectives of the seminar. In the end, innovative facade systems, shading elements and plantable spatial structures were created. Seminar leadership: Sandra Böhm, Dirk E. Hebel
in: BAUART – Architektur und Kultur, inspiriert durch Heimat, Ausgabe 03/2020
Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) and Research Seminar ‘Bau auf!’
Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel (2020). Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR), and Dirk E. Hebel, Sandra Böhm (2020). Bau auf! Kreislaufgerechte Architektur in der Lehre, in: BAUART – Architektur und Kultur, inspiriert durch Heimat, Ausgabe 03/2020
Elena Boerman
M.Sc of Architecture, KIT, Karlsruhe, 2021
Contact: elena.boerman@kit.edu
Teaching Assistant and Researcher at the Chair of Sustainable Construction KIT Karlsruhe 2021 – present / Student Assistant at the Chair of Sustainable Construction KIT Karlsruhe 2020-2021 / M.Sc. Architecture, KIT, Karlsruhe 2018-2021 / AAg LoebnerSchäferWeber Freie Architekten BDA, Heidelberg, 2018-2021 / Schenk & Fleischhaker Architekten, Hamburg, 2017-2018 / B.Sc. Architecture, KIT, Karlsruhe, 2014-2017
Elena Boerman is currently working as a teaching assistant and researcher at the Chair of Sustainable Construction at KIT Karlsruhe. She holds a Master and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT).
In her master’s thesis, she dealt with the urban spaces and architectures of post-war modernism and their contemporary and sustainable transformation. She showed both urban planning and architectural strategies for making the treatment of the existing the starting point for the architecture of tomorrow. For her master’s thesis with the title „The Value of an Architecture of Permanence – The Climate and Resource Appropriate Transformation of the Architectural Heritage of Post War Modernism“ she won recognition of the Friedrich-Weinbrenner-Prize 2021.
Han Jun Yi
M.Sc ETH in Architecture, 2014
Contact: han.yi@kit.edu
Researcher and Teaching Assistant at the Chair of Sustainable Construction KIT Karlsruhe, 2024 – present / Doctoral candidate at the Architectural Association School of Architecture London, 2023 – present / Max Dudler, Berlin, 2018 – 2023 / Kleihues & Kleihues Architekten, Berlin, 2017 – 2018 / Yi Architects, Cologne, 2014 – 2017 / Master of Science ETH in Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 2014
Han Jun Yi is a registered German Architect. He gathered practical experience from collaboration with distinct international design offices, including Yi Architects, Kleihues&Kleihues and Max Dudler. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ).
Fanny Amelie Hirt
M.Sc of Architecture, KIT, Karlsruhe, 2021
Contact: fanny.hirt@kit.edu
Teaching Assistant and Researcher at the Chair of Sustainable Construction KIT Karlsruhe 2024 – present / Architect at SSP ag, Karlsruhe 2021 – present / M.Sc. Architecture, KIT, Karlsruhe 2018-2021 / rw+ Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH, Berlin 2017-2018 / B.Sc. Architecture, btu, Cottbus, 2013-2017
Fanny Amelie Hirt is currently working as a teaching assistant at the Chair of Sustainable Construction at KIT Karlsruhe. At the same time, she is employed as an Architect at SSP ag, Karlsruhe where she is working with an integral planning team on public construction projects such as a conversion of a concert hall.
She holds a Master of Science in Architecture from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technologie (KIT) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the Brandenburgischen Technischen Universität Cottbus. In her master’s thesis, she dealt with the transformation of a large department store in the urban context of Heidelberg. She showed material, architectural and urban planning strategies for re-integrating a monostructures in the heterogeneous urban setting. For her master’s thesis with the title „Transformation Department Store – Redefining Heidelberg City Centre “ she won recognition of the Schelling Student Prize 2021.
