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.

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.

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

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

Please check the full programm here.

On 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.

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

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

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

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.

In the Winter Semester 2020/21, the KIT Faculty of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the Professorship of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 12 lectures will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Speakers are: Daniela Schneider, Prof. Daniel Fuhrhop, Prof. Andreas Wagner, Prof. Matthias Pfeifer, Prof. Markus Neppl, and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 10:00 am online.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

In the Winter Semester 2019/20, the KIT Faculty of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 13 lectures will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Speakers are: Felix Heisel, Daniela Schneider, Prof. Daniel Fuhrhop, Prof. Andreas Wagner, Prof. Matthias Pfeifer, Prof. Markus Neppl, and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 09:45 am in Lecture Hall 9 (HS09) at KIT Campus South, Building 20.40.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

Increasingly scarce resources and the resulting desire to turn away from today’s throw-away mentality result in the construction industry increasingly having to think about multiple use and recycling of materials as well as alternative construction methods. But what does recycling mean for the construction industry? The seminar “Bauen in der Kreislaufwirtschaft” on September 29th at the Empa NEST in Dübendorf will discuss how cycles in construction can be closed, which concepts already exist and where new solutions can be found. Felix Heisel and Sandra Böhm will provide insights into current research at KIT Karlsruhe and the construction of the Urban Mining and Recycling unit.

More information and the registration can be found here.

Dirk Hebel presented the team´s latest work at ASTOC Architects and Planners in Cologne on September 12, 2019. “Since 2016, ASTOC regularly takes time once a month to listen to colleagues who report on their projects or invited guest speakers on various topics relating to architecture and urban planning, to let us be inspired and discuss. This professional exchange helps us to share knowledge and to think outside the box.”

Vortrag JAN GLASMEIER – Simple.Architecture, Bangkok
Donnerstag 23.05.19, 15 Uhr, 20.40 Raum 136 Fakultätszimmer

Dirk E. Hebel speaks at the BAU Munich 2019 on the conference “Renewable, Rediscovered and Recycled – Materials for Sustainable Construction”. The public debate on the energy balance of construction increasingly focuses on the gray energy of buildings. This refers to the total balance of energy consumed in the manufacture, transportation, processing, use and disposal of building materials. Wood and other renewable building materials and resources are experiencing a comeback, especially in environmentally conscious sectors. The conference “Renewable, Rediscovered and Recycled – Materials for Sustainable Construction” addresses materials in and on buildings that are reusable, biodegradable or renewable, thus ensuring a better climate balance in the construction sector as low-CO2 building materials.

See the full program here.

Dirk E. Hebel speaks at the BAU Messe Munich on the question how serial and modular building systems can be a fundamental part of the circular construction economy.

See the full program here.

19 .11. 2 018
Eva Pfannes & Sylvain Hartenberg, Rotterdam in conversation with DIRK HEBEL

SESSION ON TERRITORY is a series of public debates on the political economy of architecture and territory. Focusing on how the epoch of the Anthropocene reframesbour conceptions of the urban and shapes new ecologies,mthe seminar’s objective is to unravel contemporary forces at work in the formation of the built and natural environment, and, as importantly, to spur debates that challenge the status quo. Every intervention by a guest speaker is followed by a panel discussion with invited respondents.

In his capacity as 2018 Harvard GSD Guest Lecturer, Felix Heisel is presenting a lecture titled ‘Resource-Adequate Construction’ on 26th September 2018 at Gund Hall, Cambridge, USA within the reCyclo Design Studio by Visiting Associate Professor in Architecture Caroline O’Donnell. For more information please click here.

On 3rd Juli, Dirk E. Hebel will be speaking at the SFB1244 lecture series “Adaptivität als Utopie” at Stuttgart University. Titled “Material Architektur”, the lecture will start at 7pm at the ILEK, Pfaffenwaldring 14. For more information, please click here.

On 03. Juli, Felix Heisel is speaking at the Re-Cycle, Re-Use conference in Cologne about “innovative building concepts for the 21st century”. The full program and a link for registration can be found here.

Starting in the Winter Semester 2017/18, the KIT Faculty of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Materials, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 13 lectures will address conventional and alternative building materials and their use in construction. Speakers are: Sandra Böhm, Wayne Switzer, Karsten Schlesier, Andreas Mägerlein, Felix Heisel, and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held everyFriday, 09:45am in Lecture Hall Egon-Eiermann at KIT Campus South, Building 20.40.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

Starting in the Fall Semester 2017/18, the KIT Faculty of Architecture will offer a lecture series on Sustainable Construction, organized by the chair of Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel. In total 14 lectures will address the history, state of the art, and alternative futures within the theme. Speakers are: Michael Dax, Daniel Fuhrhop, Monika Goebel, Prof. Petra v. Both, Felix Heisel, Prof. Andreas Wagner, Prof. Matthias Pfeifer, Prof. Thomas Lützkendorf, Jan Wurm, and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel. Please refer to the poster for actual dates. The lecture is held every Wednesday, 09:45 am in Lecture Hall 9 (HS09) at KIT Campus South, Building 20.40.

Poster Design: Uta Bogenrieder

On October 13 – 12pm, Felix Heisel holds a public lecture at Milstein Hall as part of his engagement as Hans and Roger Strauch Visiting Critic at Cornell University, USA. The talk – titled “rethinking abundance, resource-adequate building, and the example of UMAR” – follows the conviction that all 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 returned into circulation once again. Such an approach makes reusing and repurposing materials just as important as recycling and upcycling them (both at a systemic and a molecular/biological level). For event details, please click here.

On September 11, Felix Heisel is holding a public lecture at Cornell University APP titled Building from Waste – the Waste Vault as part of his engagement as Hans and Roger Strauch Visiting Critic the coming semester in New York. He is co-teaching the design study Cyclo: Architectures of Waste with Caroline O’Donnell and Dillon Pranger, which looks at “non-cyclables” as potential materials for new form generation. Cyclo will first map currently obscure recycling networks in the United States and globally, documenting where our various recycling-bound materials go to be processed, and searching for materials that are not recycled (whether due to material qualities or due to economic feasibility). Part two will focus on these non-cyclables as physical objects and investigate methods of using these materials legibly, in order to promote environmental awareness and architectural innovation.
For more information please click here.

Alternativen Konstruieren
Mittwoch 07.06.2017, 19:00 bis 21:00

KIT Karlsruhe / Campus Süd / Englerstrasse 7
Geb. 20.40 / Egon-Eiermann-Hörsaal
76131 Karlsruhe

Prof. Dirk E. Hebel hält am 18.05.2017 auf der Designmesse INTERZUM in Köln die Key-Note “Building from Waste”. Außerdem stellt das Fachgebiet neuartige Baumaterialien aus seiner Forschungsarbeit aus.

Mit Blick auf die steigende Weltbevölkerung und eine auf den Ressourcenverbauch ausgelegte Industriekultur des 20. Jahrhunderts wird in der Circular Economy ein Idealbild für ein Wirtschaften mit den vorhandenen Werkstoffen gesehen. Der Strategieansatz verfolgt das Ziel, Stoffströme zu schließen, Materialien nach Möglichkeit in geschlossenen Kreisläufen zirkulieren zu lassen und den Wert von Produkten so lange zu erhalten, wie es wirtschaftlich sinnvoll ist und qualitativ möglich erscheint.

Die INTERZUM-Konferenz “Circular Thinking” wird am 18. Mai 2017 neben der Sonderausstellung zu gleichnamigem Thema die Potenziale des Denkens in geschlossenen Materialkreisläufen für Innovationsmanager, Designer und Architekten aufbereiten und Lösungsansätze vorstellen. Ausgewiesene Spezialisten diskutieren im Kontext von vier thematischen Schwerpunkten die Innovationspotenziale anhand herausragender Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre.

Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Aurel von Richthofen presented at the first annual FCL conference entitled Future Cities / Challenges in Singapore. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel reported on latest developments in research and first steps of implementation projects and gave an outlook on future vectors of engagement while Aurel von Richthofen presented the Engeneering for Development Summer School held with ETH Global and TU Delft in the Netherlands in July 2016 on the topic of “Sand – an (in)finite resource?”.

More information about the conference can be found here.

This year’s summer school organized by ETH Zürich’s Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel, in collaboration with the TU Delft and ETH Global kicks off today with an introductory lecture by Professor Dirk E. Hebel on “Sand: an (in)finite Resource?”.

Sand is the most used raw material for production of goods on our planet. It is found in concrete, glass, computers, detergents and even toothpaste. But sand is a finite resource: what took millions of years to come into being through erosion and sedimentation, man is mining at rivers and ocean coasts in a so-far unknown speed. In a matter of a few decades, sand will not be a resource anymore for our construction activities. But if finite resources are no longer an option to build the cities of the future, what alternatives are there? And what roles play research institutions as the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore and the ETH Zurich?

For more information on the summer school, please click here.

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

On 22 June, 12pm Felix Heisel speaks at the FCL Lunch Talk + Book Launch in Singapore.

Informality resembles an evolutionary process more than a simple absence of rules. In itself, informality is neither illegal, nor dysfunctional, nor indicative of poverty; in fact, its actors, skills and capital are probably our best chance to solve the world’s growing housing crisis. Thus, Lessons of Informality describes an array of planning strategies and possibly even a roadmap to a resilient city in emerging territories. The book includes a DVD of _Spaces, a series of six documentaries on informality in Addis Ababa.

For more information, please click here.

«Schnittmengen»

More information here: www.jom.ch

Lecture series and workshop at the Institut für Leichtbau, Entwurf und Konstruktion ILEK of Prof. Werner Sobek at the University Stuttgart investigating the theme KONTEXT. Organized and moderated by Irina Auernhammer at May 13th, 2016.

Public lecture by Alireza Javadian, PhD researcher in the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, on November 26^th at  ENAC | School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at EPFL in Lausanne titled “ Bamboo, The Green Reinforcement “. This talk introduced the research on new bamboo composite materials carried out at Advanced Fiber Composite Laboratory in Singapore and Zürich, featuring high tensile capacity composites with applications for building and construction sector.

Public Lecture by Felix Heisel as part of this years ETH Treffpunkt Science City “Rohstoff Erde” on 15th November 2015. Titled “Die Stadt der Zukunft”, the lecture will address waste as a resource for resilient future cities in the hope for a paradigm shift where we stop to distinguish between waste and supply.

The full program of the ETH Treffpunkt Science City can be found here.

Public lecture of Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Institut für Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren ILEK in Stuttgart on October 12, 2015 at 17:30pm.

Public lecture by Asst. Prof Dirk E. Hebel at the fifth World Sustainability Forum in Basel, Switzerland on September 7th, 2015. From the organizers: “The 5th World Sustainability Forum aims to be a platform for researchers to present and engage with research-relevant stakeholders on issues relating to sustainability. We seek to contribute to policy-relevant, change-oriented, and transdisciplinary research and collaboration from science and technology, the life sciences, and the social sciences.”

Full House on May 30th at the ETH Zurich Pavilion in New York, as it hosted a public panel discussion with Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Prof. Philippe Block, Asst. Prof. David Benjamin and Asst. Prof. Mark Wasiuta. The panel, hosted by the AIA Center for Architecture New York Chapter, brought an overwhelming response to the pavilion.

The IDEAS CITY Festival theme for 2015, The Invisible City, borrows from Italo Calvino’s classic novel exploring the invisible constructs that holds a city together. Two panels pursued this theme further by asking “What cultural practices define the future smart city, and where can we chart the boundaries between design methodology and ethical practice?” The first panel explored how material cycles and waste management can be further integrated into design practice. The second panel asked “How invisible ecologies can be represented and made visible and urgent?”

On May 30th, Felix Heisel gave a public guided tour through the ETH Zurich Pavilion, and the connected exhibit of 25 building materials produced from waste.

Daniel E. Schaufelberger, Werner Kaufmann, Lorenzo Pagnamenta, Anna Torriani, Ray Schaeffer, Felix Heisel, and Jürg Brunnschweiler

Entitled The invisible Feedback Loop: Architects, Infrastructure, and Public Space, the ETH Zurich Alumni invited its New York members to a panel discussion on Thursday 28th May at the ETH Zurich Pavilion. Architects, and Urban Planners are in constant dialogue with the evolving  needs and expectations of public space. Moderated by Dr. Werner Kaufmann, Co-Chair ETHZ Alumni New York Chapter, the speakers Felix Heisel, Anna Torriani, Lorenzo Pagnamenta, and Ray Schaeffer briefly described their contribution to the civic realm, their investigations, their ideas, the results and/or proposed solutions. The event was opened by Dr. Jürg Brunnschweiler, Director ETH Global, Zürich.