Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 FCL/ETH conference in Zurich, Switzerland on September 10, 2012.  Multiple centers, hubs and nodes increasingly supplement traditional city centers, regional territories and urban clusters. These are embedded in a network of infrastructures to form complex polycentric urban regions that extend far into once rural hinterlands. Research from the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore will be confronted with research from ETH Zurich and elsewhere in order to promote an exchange of knowledge and to bring the Future Cities Laboratory’s work to the attention of a larger audience in Switzerland. Following the question on how a well-tempered environment can be achieved in different situations of affluence, material resources and technological development, Dirk Hebel will introduce first outcomes of his research in Singapore.

Public forum discussion with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the UN-Habitat Confrenece: The Urban Future in Naples, Italy, September 04, 2012. The overarching theme of the sixth session of the World Urban Form “The Urban Future” clearly signifies the need to anticipate, imagine and plan for the future in order to shape it in sustainable ways. The rapid pace of change from global to local levels and related complexities, uncertainties and connectivity necessitate cities to think ahead into the future and adapt their plans, policies and interventions accordingly. Promoting socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally balanced cities requires decision-makers to systematically examine and anticipate future trends, conditions and drivers of change. To become prosperous, innovative and competitive, cities need to critically examine possible and probable scenarios so as to work towards their preferred future.
The future offers enormous potential for achieving sustainable development targets in cities as it can be shaped through actions and decisions taken today.

While the term “future” bears several uncertainties, systematically analyzing the future presents an opportunity to identify alternatives that can guide today’s policies and development at the city, regional and national scales. Futuring is the methodical exploration, creation, and testing of a range of alternative futures to inform decision making, and allow better decisions to inform a better tomorrow. Thus, the objective of future analysis and visioning is not to project the “right” future or make the “right” decisions” but to make more informed decisions in relation to many possible projected scenarios.
Globally, cities have engaged in futuring processes at different scales and in various urban sectors so as to design policies and interventions that take future opportunities and risks into consideration. The results of these processes have not been without challenges, especially when it comes to being translated into action. In many other instances, cities seldom engage in foresight exercises and may be more occupied with addressing current and immediate needs and challenges, especially in developing countries. There is thus a clear need to rethink the role of futuring in urban management and governance to enable cities to better prepare for a complex, uncertain and rapidly changing global context.

UN‐Habitat has recently launched an urban futures initiative called “Futurban” to integrate futuring into urban policy and decision making processes. Futurban undertakes research to anticipate and analyze future trends, conditions and events in order to advance knowledge on the future of cities and contribute to enhanced policy and decision making. In addition, based on a rigorous analysis of alternative scenarios, Futurban assists cities to envision their preferred urban future and set realistic milestones for achieving it through innovative and visionary strategies. By building foresight in policy and decision making processes, it strengthens the ability of cities to capitalize on strategic levers to proactively shape their future.

Public lecture by Felix Heisel on Alternative Building Materials at the Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament on Friday 28th, 2012.

The international conference Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament (GXT) 2012 brings together 20 delegates from four universities – NUS USP, the Australian National University, Peking University, and Oxford University – to discuss problems and propose catalysts for change related to this year’s theme, The Future of Cities. The delegates from these universities are meeting in teams over 10 days in July to propose a cross-disciplinary catalyst with the potential to change a specific issue related to the future of cities in 30 years. They will each bring their unique domain knowledge and cross-cultural experiences in generating their ideas and in giving their presentations at the final symposium during their stay in Singapore.

Public lunch-talk by Felix Heisel at FCL Singapore on July 12, 2012. Addis Ababa, unlike many other African cities, has a history and city fabric to learn from. Even if the physical conditions of the informal settlements are very poor, the social networks, as well as spatial and cultural values developed and embedded in these areas are worth the preservation and study. Due to the current redevelopments, these parts of the city will change for good within the next years. Hence, now is the right time to document a century old way of living in Addis Ababa. We believe that its informal sector can teach important lessons about the use of architecture and its social role.

This movie is an cinematic documentary on the use of space in the informal parts of Ethiopia’s capital. Looking at one typical house for the duration of 24 hours, one can notice how a single room can serve for most daily functions. Interviews with the inhabitants and experts give further insight into the topic. “Disappearing Spaces” is the first of a series of documentaries on spatial developments in Addis Ababa.

The Embassy of Switzerland in Ethiopia with the Swiss Agency for Developmemnt and Cooperation under the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs invited Prof. Dirk E. Hebel as an representative of ETH Zuerich for a symposium on the future Swiss Ethiopian Research & Scientific Cooperation for Development held on July 28, 2012 in Addis Ababa. The forum will focus on Ethiopian experience and implementation of partnerships in Research & Science and on future fields, scope and modalities of Research & Science cooperation for development.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Design Research Society Biennial International Conference in Bangkok on July 04, 2012. The conference hosts 500 world’s leading design academics and professionals for five days of discussion and debate with a special emphasis on the role of design in sustainable development. The conference will provide a platform for educationalists and practitioners in all design fields to share their experiences and develop plans for the future.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Asia Green Youth Challenge in Singapore on July 2nd, 2012, a conference held as part of the WasteMET Asia Conference 2012 at Marina bay Sands. The Asian Green Youth Challenge (AGYC) is an environmental initiative by youth for youth to imagine and realise sustainable and innovative projects. Having recognised the mounting environmental challenges that Asia faces, AGYC seeks to promote ground-up innovation that is financially and environmentally sustainable.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at TU Delft on May 31, 2012. The modernist ‘proto-type’ followed the idea of one ‘ideal’ model configuration, applied in a serial way, while the ‘proto-typology’ defines a flexible and heterogenous form of organization, which can be changed and readjusted instantly and serve different cultural as well as contextual conditions. It is a process rather than a product. The lecture will show different case studies of prototypologies errected in the last years at the Urban Laboratory ETHiopia.

Puplic lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel on March 29, 2012 at the Goethe Institute Bangalore, India, organized by MoD Institute Berlin/Bangalore in the series ‘Talk of the Town’. The lectures series, under the banner of the year of Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities, is organized around the themes of ‘SEE’, ‘ACT’ and ‘BUILD’ respectively, to critically address various issues related to urban transformation in India in applied and innovative ways. The first lecture began with Richard Saul Wurman’s famous call for ‘making the city observable’ to interrogate different practices of seeing the city through cartography and other visual means and how those shape our everyday urban experiences and decisions. The second lecture ‘ACT’ will gather urban practitioners and actors to discuss and compare various strategies and tactics undertaken by them to intervene in city processes. The discussion will focus on how specific ways of ‘acting’ or ‘intervening’ in the city can create or dismantle urban hierarchies, and also what examples of ‘acting’ in the city can be found in the urban discourse in India.