Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

On Monday, April 07, 2025, in the second event of the talk series Zegeye Cherenet delivered a conversation with Lesley Lokko at Lucerne theatre. 

The “African Voices Lucerne” series brings together prominent figures from Africa to discuss the future of the continent and its place in the world. The guests cover a broad spectrum of expertise: they include scientists, artists, intellectuals, educators, architects, civil society leaders, and religious leaders. Each event brings together a guest from Africa with a person of African descent living in Switzerland.

“African Voices Lucerne” is a joint initiative of the Arthur Waser Foundation and the Lucerne Theater. The series of discussions presents diverse African perspectives and offers nuanced insights that enrich our understanding of Africa and its place in the world.

The second event brings Lesley Lokko into conversation with Zegeye Cherenet.

Lesley Lokko is a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, and bestselling author. She is the founder and chair of the African Futures Institute in Ghana and was the curator of the 18th Venice International Architecture Exhibition in 2023. In addition to her work in architecture, she has published 13 bestselling novels that have been translated into 15 languages.

Zegeye Cherenet is President of the Alliance for Building Communities (ABC) and Assistant Professor at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building & City Development (EiABC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He holds a doctorate from HafenCity University Hamburg and is co-author of the book “Grassroots Urbanization: Architecture in Community and Town-Building in Ethiopia” (2026).

Henri-Michel Yéré, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Basel, will moderate the discussion. Born in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, he has worked in both the private sector and academia. He has also published several volumes of poetry.

Last week, the final reviews of Design Studio “HIRZBERG+ – Micro-Multifunctional Room for a Kindergarten in Freiburg” took place. Congratulations to all students!

The Haus für Kinder am Hirzberg in Freiburg is to be expanded to include a micro-multifunctional room due to a lack of space on its own property. This was the focus of the semester project and will be realised in cooperation with the Freiburg-based architecture office hotz + architekten. The room is to serve as a lounge and work space for employees, as well as a space for curative education activities and parent-teacher meetings. The design centred around a detailed examination of the environmental impacts, structural-economic, structural-technical and building-physical issues, as well as the use of resource-efficient, single-origin building materials such as renewable and secondary building materials, with sustainable, cycle-friendly construction methods and their design-technical effects on function and aesthetics, with planning up to a scale of 1:1.

Over the course of the winter semester, 8 groups of 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 since February 21 until March 6 in the exhibition at the KIT Faculty of Architecture in building 20.40 on the second floor.

On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Sandra Böhm and Elena Boerman delivered a lecture at BAU 2025 in Munich on the “Potentials and Perspectives of Renewable Materials in Construction.” The lecture was based on last year’s publication by Fraunhofer IRB Verlag: “Vom Bauen mit erneuerbaren Materialien – Die Natur als Rohstofflager”.

The presentation took place as part of the conference “Zukunft des Bauens: Biobasierte Baustoffe im Fokus” in the “Innovation Hub” forum.

The event provided a platform to explore the potential of biobased building materials and discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating renewable materials into construction practices. Particular emphasis was placed on how the construction industry can contribute to a more sustainable future through the conscious use of such materials.

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

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

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

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

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

Please check the full programm here.

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

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

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

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

Further information here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Further information here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Detailed information
Vitra Design Museum
Illustrated Concept
Exhibition Film

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

Exhibition Design
Asif Khan

Graphic Design
Daniel Streat, Visual Fields

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

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

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

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

More information about the event here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More information about the KIT Materials Library here.

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.

90 representatives from business, science and politics came together on Wednesday at the new weisenburg headquarters in Karlsruhe for IMMO TALK 2023 of TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe GmbH (TRK GmbH), an event for more sustainability in the construction industry. The head of research at the Sustainable Building Professorship, Dr. Nazanin Saeidi, was also invited to the event.

The subject of this year’s event was “Bioeconomy 1 in building Plant-based building materials in the life cycle of buildings In two top-class rounds, innovative building materials made from plants were presented and discussed how they can find greater use in building practice in the future.

text and photo: TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe GmbH

On 22nd April, the Professorship of Sustainable Construction was a guest in Hall B0 at the BAU2023 Munich to organise, in cooperation with the KIT Department of Architecture and the Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten BDA and supported by Wacker Chemie AG, the Symposium on Sustainable Construction “Does Concrete // in a sustainable world // have a future”.

Watch the full recording of our Symposium on Sustainable Construction at BAU2023 here.

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.

On 22nd April, the Professorship of Sustainable Construction was a guest in Hall B0 at the BAU2023 Munich to organise, in cooperation with the KIT Department of Architecture and the Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten BDA and supported by Wacker Chemie AG, the Symposium on Sustainable Construction “Does Concrete // in a sustainable world // have a future”.

Invited speakers were Prof. Karen Scrivener, Head of the EPFL Laboratory of Construction Materials as well as Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Dehn, Head of the KIT Institute of Concrete Structures and Building Materials, and Koos Schenk, Director of SmartCrusher BV. The event and the panel discussion were moderated by Dr. Thomas Welter, Federal Manager at Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten (BDA). Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT Professor of Sustainable Construction and Dean of the KIT Department of Architecture, welcomed the audience to the event.

Many thanks to all the speakers for their great performance, for valuable food for thought and interesting links that were created through the symposium.

Between 60 and 100 participants were present at the Forum in Hall B0 at the BAU2023 trade fair in Munich. The recording of the event will be available here shortly.

We would like to sincerely thank all those involved in the event for their commitment and organisational efforts, for the great encounters, conversations and new connections that were created at and through the symposium. Many thanks especially to the team of BAU2023 trade fair and Hall B0 for their great efforts around all events in the context of BAU.

Thank you!

More information about the event here.

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 KIT Department of Architecture will be holding a symposium as part of this year’s “BAU2023 – World’s Leading Trade Fair for Architecture, Materials, Systems”, which will take place in Munich from 17 to 22 April. The event will take place on 21 April from 12.00 to 13.30 in Hall B0, a hall with the motto “Investing in the Future”.

In this event, a discourse on the current problems in the use of concrete will be stimulated, the current and future possibilities of recycling old concrete into new concrete will be discussed as well as new application concepts and production formulations for concrete. It will be held in English.

Prof. Karen Scrivener, Head of EPFL Laboratory of Construction Materials, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Dehn, Head of KIT Institute of Concrete Structures and Building Materials and Koos Schenk, founder and director of SmartCrusher BV, are invited as speakers. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel will welcome the audience and introduce the speakers. The panel discussion after the lectures will be moderated by Dr. Thomas Welter, BDA federal manager.

DOES CONCRETE // IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD // HAVE A FUTURE ? 

WELCOME
Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT Department of Architecture, Professor of Sustainable Construction 

INTRODUCTION THEMES – PROBLEMS, LIMITATIONS, ALTERNATIVES
Prof. Karen Scrivener, EPFL Laboratory of Construction Materials, Head of Laboratory 

NEW CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS – RESEARCH VS. STANDARDISATION
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Dehn, KIT Institute of Concrete Structures and Building Materials, Head of Institute 

CIRCULAR RESOURCE ECONOMICS – HOW TO CLOSE THE LOOP OF EXISTING STRUCTURES
Koos Schenk, SmartCrusher BV, Director 

DOES CONCRETE // IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD // HAVE A FUTURE?
Dr. Thomas Welter (BDA), Moderator of Panel Discussion

We are very much looking forward to meeting you there!

The event is organized by the KIT Professorship of Sustainable Construction and kindly supported by Wacker Chemie AG.

Find out more about the symposium on the Symposium Event Page of the KIT Department of Architecture or on the Website of BAU2023 Munich.

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.

Climate change is becoming a particular challenge for our urban life: our cities heat up particularly strongly in summer, and extreme weather such as heavy rainfall pushes infrastructure to its limits. Worldwide, almost 60 percent of people live in urbanized settlements, and the number is steadily increasing. As global temperatures continue to rise, so do the challenges facing cities and the people who live in them. In Berlin on November 8th 2022, several scientists talked and elaborated on the question of how to design and adapt our cities for such challenges ahead. The parliamentary evening was organizezed by Helmholtz SynCom.

On Monday, 7 November, Dirk E. Hebel was invited to the Bundestag by Kassem Taher Saleh, Member of the German Parliament and Chairman of the Committee on Housing, Urban Development, Construction and Municipalities, to discuss which recommendations for political action can be derived from Dirk E. Hebel’s research. Mr Saleh, a civil engineer by profession and member of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, was particularly interested in wood as a building material along the entire value chain (raw material availability and end-of-life scenarios) and strategies for a truely circular economy in the building sector.

At the expert discussion on “Innovative and Sustainable Building Materials” of the Green parliamentary group in the state parliament, to which Gudula Achterberg, member of the Heilbronn state parliament and member of the working group and committee on state development and housing, had invited on 21st October, science and practice met and identified future tasks for building and housing.

The speakers from science and research as well as from construction practice were united by the realisation that the current crises and global interdependencies can also accelerate developments in construction.

Keynote speaker Professor Werner Sobek received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in May as a thought leader for the built environment of tomorrow. The multi-award-winning engineer and architect insists on honest balancing when it comes to innovative and sustainable building materials: when it comes to the consumption of resources, be it sand, gravel, fossil fuels or precious metals. One of the other speakers advocated, for example, the introduction of a building type E for “experimental” for lighthouse projects, for which simplified standards apply in order to facilitate innovation. Dr Anne Braune from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) advocated the use of pure, sustainable building materials and suggested as a parameter for approval: My building should emit a certain amount of CO 2 per square metre per year. She advocated looking “in the package insert” for building materials and for service life-adapted construction.

Dr Nazanin Saeidi, a researcher at the KIT Sustainable Building Professorship, presented an example of innovative building materials. Based on fungi, the award-winning material NeWood is suitable as a substitute for pressboard or for insulation. It is made from 100 per cent organic waste and is recyclable.

The event showed many developments that can and must revolutionise the way we build in the future. Nevertheless, the familiar and the tried and tested can help to overcome upcoming challenges in the construction industry.

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.

In the Winter Semester 2022/23, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Materials, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 11 lectures will address conventional and alternative building materials and their use in construction. Speakers are: Andrea Klinge, Kay Sanvito, Peter Schöffel, Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian, Elena Boerman and Sandra Böhm. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Friday, 9.45 am at the Egon Eiermann HS in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

In the Winter Semester 2022/23, the KIT Department of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the Professorship of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 12 lectures he will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 9.45 am in the HS37 in the building 20.40 at KIT Campus South.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

On Friday 24 June at about 6 pm, the time had finally come – the Competition Director of the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021/22, Karsten Voss, in Wuppertal announced the winning team of the student competition: Team RoofKIT from Karlsruhe! The team was very surprised about this development and expressed their relief, happiness and pride. The moment of the announcement was captured on video by SDE 2021/22:

Second place in the overall competition was taken by Team Virtue from Eindhoven, and third place was shared by Team SUM from Delft and Team Aura from Grenoble. On the website of the SDE 2021/22, all other placements and the intermediate results and awards of the competition can be viewed.

After the award ceremony, Team RoofKIT was visited by WDR and the winning house was shown live on WDR’s Lokalzeit (approx. from minute 20), where some team members were also interviewed about the project.

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction and the Professorship of Building Physics would like to thank all the students and staff of Team RoofKIT and congratulate them on this great competition result!

Our thanks go to the Kaufmann Zimmerei and Tischlerei in Reuthe, Austria and to the Timber Construction Award Jury.