Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

The international competition “beyond bauhaus – prototyping the future”, sought ground-breaking design ideas and concepts that address a socially relevant topic and provide creative answers to the pressing questions of our time. Almost 1500 projects coming from 50 countries applied for an award. The 20 award winners convinced the international jury with their ideas and concepts. The spectrum of entries reflects the challenges of our time: it ranges from food cultivation on the water to individually dosed medicine and new technologies for urban development to sustainable building materials. The Professorship of Sustainable Construction Dirk E. Hebel together with Philippe Block and Juney Lee from ETH Zürich (Mycotree) and Werner Sobek and Bernd Köhler from the Werner Sobek Group Stuttgart (UMAR) won two of the awards.

Renewable building material for the city of tomorrow

Steel and concrete—these are the first materials that come to mind when one thinks about building. But our resources are finite, which is why construction must break new ground. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) with its research outpost FCL in Singapore are leading the way by researching alternatives to conventional building materials. A result of years of research is “MycoTree”, a self-supporting structure made of fungal mycelium and bamboo. Design Team: KIT: Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel, Karsten Schlesier, ETHZ: Philippe Block, Juney Lee, Matthias Rippmann, Tomas Mendez Echenagucia, Andrew Liew, Noelle Paulson, Tom van Mele, SEC/FCL: Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian, Adi Reza Nugroho, Robbi Zidna Ilman, Erlambang Adjidarma, Ronaldiaz Hartantyo, Hokie Christian, Orion Tan, Sheng Yu, Kelly Cooper

Closed material cycles in civil engineering

The world’s natural resources are limited, which is why we need to rethink how we use and reuse everything — away from linear material-consumption and towards an economy of recycling. The Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) housing and research unit of the Swiss research institute Empa at “NEST” is demonstrating what this paradigm shift in the construction industry might look like. Architects Werner Sobek, Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel have come up with a building concept that uses entirely separable resources, either reusable or compostable: mortar-free, folding walls made of recycled demolition debris, bathroom cladding made of recycled plastic chopping-boards, or mushroom mycelium as compostable wall-insulation. UMAR is thus not only a material laboratory but also a material depot. It is also proof that responsible use of natural resources and modern architecture can go hand in hand. Design Team: Werner Sobek mit Dirk E. Hebel und Felix Heisel, Bernd Köhler, Frank Heinlein

More information here.

The research-seminar “Build up!” (“Bau auf!”) was held in cooperation with the Staatliche Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe and the Professorship Sustainable Construction of the Faculty of Architecture at KIT. The students got to know the material ceramics as well as its traditional production methods. The challenge in the development of a ceramic building material was the synthesis of tradition and innovation. The production based on 3D printing, had to be justified in the construction or the materiality of the product. The results of the seminar include ideas such as individually combinable shading elements for facades, structures that can be planted and which are to air-condition the interior by means of evaporation cooling, or a brick that combines all the layers of a wall structure. The opening of the exhibition will take place on 17 June 2019 at 3 p.m., together with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Dr. Dieter Kistner.

Exhibition from 17 June to 12 July 2019
Location: Staatliche Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe,
Ahaweg 6-8, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Opening hours:
Tue – Fr: 10 – 18 o’clock
Sat/Sun: 11.30 – 17 o’clock

The exhibition “Local Stone” gives an insight into the new focus “Building Materials from Local Resources of our Region” of the KIT Material Library. Stone as a natural resource seems to be endlessly available. At the same time it is the result of a process that has been going on for millions of years and it`s mining always means a drastic intervention in ecosystems. Because of that the sensitive renaturation of former mining areas and the observance of short transport routes are essential. Finally, a sustainable, efficient and recyclable use of the material in architecture or other fields of application should be ensured.

In past epochs, natural stone stood for a massive construction method that was to radiate a certain social status, prestige, durability and solidity. Today we mostly know it as a popular material for curtain facades. New processing and construction methods using digital technologies, such as robot-assisted surface processing, are increasingly replacing traditional stonemasonry. However, this also resulted in a new aesthetic of surface design and new fields of application within architecture.

In the exhibition, the natural stone is presented in the form of samples using various regional species. These include sedimentary rocks, limestone but also gravel and sand.

Duration of the exhibition: 05 June 2019 – 05 July 2019

The winners of the „Hochschulpreis Holzbau 2019“ have been announced on May 28th 2019 at the LIGNA fair in Hannover. The jury chaired by Prof. Tom Kaden evaluated a total of 62 submissions from 32 professorships at German universities.

It is our pleasure to announce that Sonja Steenhoff received a recognition prize for her design „Tabaktheater“. The project is characterized by a respectful attitude towards an existing wooden building fabric as well as its persuasive integration of contemporary functionalities within it. Especially the revaluation of the historical structure through an convincing interior design strategy convinced the jury, especially also due to the atmospheric visualizations Sonja Steenhoff provided. The design was the outcome of a master-level studio project conducted under the professorship of Sustainable Construction Dirk E. Hebel at the Architecture faculty of KIT. Congratulations.

The first winners of the Baden Architecture Award have been announced. Last Friday, May 24th 2019, an international jury chaired by Dr. Ing. Fred Gresens all submissions spotted, reviewed and a shortlist with three nominees per category compiled. This shortlist was then presented in the Offenburg Hotel Liberty by the award initiator Jürgen Grossmann and patron Frank Scherer in the presence of all the jury members.

It is our pleasure to announce, that the “young talent award” goes to KIT student Anne-Catherine Greiner for her project “Naturgut Horner”, a pioneering idea for the accommodation of seasonal workers. The design was her 3rd year studio project conducted under the professorship of Sustainable Construction Dirk E. Hebel at the Architecture faculty of KIT. The prize is endowed with 2000 euros. Congratulations!

More information here.

At the KIT’s annual celebration, Professor Alexander Wanner, Vice President for Teaching and Academic Affairs, honored lecturers at KIT. The award winner at the Faculty of Architecture is Prof. Dirk E. Hebel with his team of the Professorship of Sustainable Construction.

With faculty teaching awards, the KIT board praises research- and application-oriented teaching modules as well as lectures and teaching teams at the KIT faculties, which are characterized by new forms of teaching and learning, interdisciplinarity and high relevance of the imparted expertise. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and his team are also nominated by KIT for the Baden-Württemberg state teaching award 2019.

The Exhibition “Weniger.Anders.Besser!” opened on 21.05.2019 in the Architekturschaufenster Karlsruhe. Dr. Simone Kraft from Architekturschaufenster, Katharina Helleckes from Volkswohnung GmbH and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT welcomed numberous curious visitors. The Exhibition Design is a collaboration between KIT 3rd year Bachelor Students and the Professorship of Sustainable Construction Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, KIT. It was made possible due to kind support of Architekturschaufenster, Volkswohnung GmbH, Wienerberger AG and Holzhandel Kuhmann & Dill, Karlsruhe.

The Exhibition is opened until 25.05.2019. For more information see here.

The existing lack of affordable urban housing also concerns Karlsruhe. Socially acceptable densification is therefore one of the great challenges of these days.

Architecture students in their 5th semester at KIT therefore devoted themselves to the question of how good and forward-oriented living can be achieved in the future. The question was how living can be thought BETTER, so that OTHER typological models lead to a rethinking of architectural approaches in urban space, while consuming LESS land, as all designs were asked to be top-up additions to an existing structure in central Karlsruhe.

Ten of those design proposals are shown in the exhibition in Architekturschaufenster Karlsruhe, Waldstraße 8, 76133 Karlsruhe. The exhibition is a collaboration of KIT Chair of sustainable Building, Volkswohnung Karsruhe and Architekturschaufenster.

The opening takes place on Tuesday, May 21st, 19:00 h

Success for KIT master students: at the second Urban Mining Student Award cycle, students of the Master course “Glück auf am Theodorschacht” organized and taught by the Professorship of Sustainable Construction at the Faculty of Architecture were extremely sucessfull. They won the first, two 3rd and two recognition prizes.

The age of using fossil resources is coming to an end. Far away from the Ruhr area the last days are counted for the German hard coal mining. The Ibbenbüren colliery in the northernmost tip of North Rhine-Westphalia was one of the last two of its kind and was closed at the end of 2018. The surface facilities of the mine are located at various shaft locations and were asked to be re-designed and reused as a public cultural facility, understanding the existing structures and materials as a new ressource for architectural planning.

The award was organized by the agn Niederberghaus & Partner GmbH together with the University of Wuppertal (BUW) and the Association Urban Mining. It recognizes concepts, ideas and strategies for promoting a consistent circular economy. The reusability of the construction and the recyclability of the building materials, together with the reuse of used components and a high level of repair friendliness, are in the foreground of the considerations. Further criteria were the flexibility of the building structures as a prerequisite for reuse and reuse, low space and water consumption, the highest possible building self-sufficiency with low-tec solutions for operational and energy efficiency as well as the promotion of micro-climate and biodiversity.

Winning projects of KIT:
First prize winners: Sofie Fettig and Torben Ewaldt
3rd prize winners: Marieteres Medynska and Jasmin Amann / Ruth Meigen and Lisa-Maria Behringer
Recognition prize winners: Katharina Blümke and Paulina Hipp / Wenzel Meyer and Corinna Kernl
Sudio organization and teaching: Felix Heisel and Karsten Schlesier
Studio consolidation: Prof. Andreas Wagner

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

In the fall semester of 2018/19, the Volkswohnung Karlsruhe and the Professorship of Sustainable Construction KIT Karslruhe teamed up and offered a special Bachelor Design Studio called Besser. Anders.Weniger! in order to address the existing lack of affordable urban living space in Karlsruhe. Designs for a socially acceptable redensification is one of the big challenges of these days. Architecture students in their 5th semester at KIT therefore devoted themselves to the question of how good and forward-oriented living can be achieved in the future. The question was how living can be thought BETTER, so that OTHER typological models lead to a rethinking of architectural approaches in urban space, while consuming LESS land, as all designs were asked to be top-up additions to an existing structure in central Karlsruhe. The studio was taught in cooperation with the professorships of Prof. Andreas Wagner and Prof. Matthias Pfeifer as well as Kai Fischer.

A selection of eight of these residential visions was presented at an event on April 16th 2019 at the headquarter of Volkswohnung, attended by Katharina Helleckes, Managing Director Stefan Storz and Mario Rösner.

The student designs and efforts made during the semester were rewarded by Volkswohnung Karlsruhe with a prize money of 3.500 Euro for the students.

Studio organization and teaching: Daniel Lenz and Manuel Rausch
Studio consolidation: Prof. Andreas Wagner, Prof. Matthias Pfeifer, Kai Fischer, Simon Schreiber

One of the new focal points of the KIT Material Library is “Building Materials from Local Resources of our Region”. This topic stands in addition to the reuse, recycling and cultivation of building materials, for a responsible use of resources.

Through the worldwide ruthless extraction of the most diverse raw materials and their transport across the globe, we have severely damaged our natural environment. It has been and continues to be exploited that in many countries there are insufficient or no regulations to protect nature.

In addition to research into alternative building materials, we therefore also focus on the environmentally friendly use of local resources, such as indigenous wood species. Through the KIT Materials Library, we can draw attention to this topic and provide comprehensive information. The collection of european wood species has recently been expanded. The exhibition “Local Wood” (“Heimisches Holz”) presents these new additions. Above all, the exhibition is intended to invite visitors to a haptic examination of the materials.

Duration of the exhibition:
15 April 2019 – 20 May 2019

Concept and organization: Sandra Böhm

What ideas and visions do the international generation of architects have for the use of the Multihalle as an open space for an open society in the sense of Frei Otto’s thinking? In 2018, the association Multihalle Mannheim e.V., the Association of German Architects BDA Baden-Württemberg and the IBA Heidelberg launched the international ideas competition “MULTIHALLE – DEMOCRATIC UMBRELLA” with this question. Chaired by Peter Schmal, Director of the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt and Prof. Georg Vrachliotis, architecture theorist at the Südwestdeutsche Archiv für Architektur und Ingenierbau in Karlsruhe, the jury not only agreed on the basic guidelines for the future development of the Multihalle, but also awarded three first place winners after a two-day meeting.

See here the link to the promoter’s website.

Karsten Schlesier was appointed as Professor for Structural Design at Hafen City University HCU in Hamburg, Germany. Before accepting his new position, he worked as a researcher at the Professorship of Sustainable Construction at KIT Karlsruhe and was a Visiting Professor for Structural Design at the GUtech Oman from 2014 till 2017. Between 2008 and 2011 Karsten Schlesier joined Addis Ababa University as a Visiting Professor, holding the Chair of Structural Design together with his Ethiopian counterpart Wondimu Kassa at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development. He graduated in Civil Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (previously TH Karlsruhe) in 1999. Working for different renowned engineering offices, he specialized in the fields of lightweight, membrane and glass structures.

His research activities are focusing on non-standardized and alternative construction materials. During his academic career, he realized various prototypical structures from waste products and cultivated building materials, lately MycoTree, an experimental structure from mycelium for the Seoul Architecture Biennale 2017 and the “Mehr.Wert Pavillon” for the Federal German Garden Exhibition 2019 in Heilbronn. He is partner of 2hs Architects and Engineer together with Felix Heisel and Dirk Hebel.

For a long time, ceramics were mostly used for pragmatic construction solutions. Today, a number of innovative technologies have given it a new significance within architecture. These innovations can be found in the material development, in manufacturing processes or in individual application scenarios. Generative technologies offer high potential in terms of resource-efficient production. This is because the layer-by-layer additive manufacturing process only makes material necessary where it is required due to aesthetic criteria and mechanical stress.

In the research seminar “Build up!” students dealt with the development of innovative building materials using ceramic 3D printing. The seminar was held by the Professorship Sustainable Construction in cooperation with the Majolika Ceramics Manufactory in Karlsruhe. The exhibition in the Material Library uses posters, material experiments and printed objects to illustrate the course of the project and further ideas of the group work.

Exhibition duration and location:
20 February to early April 2019
Material Library (Bld. 20.40, R 141)

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.

take. build. repeat. Symposium für ressourcengerechtes Bauen.
09.11.2018 / 9:30 – 18:00 Uhr

Fachgebiet Nachhaltiges Bauen
KIT Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Egon-Eiermann-Saal, Englerstr. 7, Geb. 20.40

The symposium take.build.repeat. questions the currently practiced throw-away mentality of today’s construction industry: Resources are taken, consumed and subsequently disposed of. Contrary to this linear concept of ressource destruction are ideas of closed material cycles, of newly conceived (re-)building technologies and, in particular, new business models of the circular economy. The symposium addresses the important question of how we can build our cities of the future in times of ever-growing global population and increasing resource scarcity without continuing to exploit and pollute our natural environment. The built environment must represent both a responsible present-day solution as well as the material bank for the future.

The one-day symposium will bring together representatives of science and industry, theoretical and practical approaches as well as practitioners and students to jointly shape the future of building through lectures and discussions. Speaking will be Prof. Dr. Werner Sobek (Werner Sobek Group / University Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Walter R. Stahel (Product Life Institute), Prof. Annette Hillebrandt (University of Wuppertal), Peter van Assche (Bureau SLA), Jasper Brommet (StoneCycling), Stefan Rohrmus (Schüco) and Sabine Oberhuber-Rau (Madaster). The recently opened Urban Mining and Recycling unit (UMAR) at the Empa NEST in Switzerland by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel will be presented in detail.

The event on 09. November 2018 is organized by Sustainable Construction at the Faculty of Architecture of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT and is recognized as Weiterbildungsmaßnahme by the Chamber of Architects Baden-Württemberg with 4 hours.

Registrations at http://www.arch.kit.edu/aktuelles/take_build_repeat.php

More information at www.nest-umar.net

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 October 16th 2018, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel is speaking at the Detail Kongress 2018 »No Waste! Ressource Bau« about the NEST Unit Urban Mining and Recycling by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel. Located at the Oktagon of Zeche Zollverein in Essen, the congress brings together partitioners, researchers and positions aiming to promote a more respectful resource and energy use in the built environment. 

Registration at detail.de/detailkongress

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.

 
Im Zuge der Industrialisierung hat sich unsere Bauindustrie verstärkt auf mineralische, endliche Materialquellen konzentriert, die aufgrund des intensiv betriebenen Abbaus unweigerlich zur Neige gehen. Das 21. Jahrhundert ermöglicht nun einen Paradigmenwechsel: Eine Umorientierung vom Abbau zum Anbau zukünftiger Ressourcen. Cultivated Building Materials stellt industrialisierte Wachstumsmethoden und innovative, kultivierte Baumaterialien vor, wie z. B. Zement aus Bakterien, Ziegel aus Pilzmycel oder Bambusfasern als Betonverstärkung. Mit dem Ziel, eine Brücke von der wissenschaftlichen Forschung zur Produktentwicklung und -anwendung zu schlagen, beschreibt das Buch den Beitrag einer breiten Palette von Fachleuten und Innovatoren.

Dienstag 12.06.2018, 17:00 Fakultätsbibliothek Architektur, Englerstraße 7, 1. OG, Geb. 20.40

We are pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition MaterialArchitektur in the foyer of the KIT Library at Campus Süd on 12th April 2018 at 3:30pm.

The KIT Library, the Library of Architecture, the Materials Library of Architecture and the Department of Sustainable Construction have jointly conceived an exhibition that is intended to raise awareness of the topic of materials in architecture. A selection of relevant publications from the last 167 years is shown. Selected material samples represent the subject matter of the books.

In addition to the treatment of established building materials, this exhibition also deals with the search for alternative building materials. There are books presented that show solutions and provide an overview of the current state of research.

Prof. Dirk E. Hebel will speak a few introductory words at the opening of the exhibition.
If the weather is fine, we offer a refreshment outside after the opening (in the rondel between the KIT library and the canteen).

Prof. Dr. Werner Sobek, Government councillor of the Canton of Zurich Markus Kägi, NEST Innovation Manager Enrico Marchesi, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel (Photo Empa)

On February 8th 2018, Werner Sobek, Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel officially opened Urban Mining and Recycling UMAR, the newest addition to the Empa NEST. 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. 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, e.g. via melting or composting). This conceptual emphasis means that UMAR functions simultaneously as a material laboratory and a temporary material storage.

Felix Heisel, Empa CEO Prof. Dr. Gian-Luca Bona and Prof. Dirk E. Hebel (Photo Empa)

Visitors were very interested in the materials used in UMAR, in this case the mycelium wall insulation MycoFoam (Photo Empa)

Invited by Haute Innovation and Dr. Sascha Peters, KIT’s Sustainable Construction and ETH Zürich’s Block Research Group are exhibiting their recent MycoTree at the ELMIA Subcontractor fair ‘Material Revolution’ from 11. to 14. November in Jönköping, Sweden. MycoTree is a spatial branching structure made out of load-bearing mycelium components. Its geometry was designed using 3D graphic statics, keeping the weak material in compression only. Its complex nodes were grown in digitally fabricated moulds.

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 4th, the prefabrication of all 7 modules of NEST unit UMAR has started at the facilities of general contractor kaufmann zimmerei und tischlerei gmbh in Reuthe, Austria. The building, designed by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel in collaboration with a multitude of academic and industrial partners, aims to prove the feasibility of the circular approach for the building industry. For more information, 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.

“While some architects have been experimenting with mushroom mycelium as a cladding material, architect Dirk Hebel and engineer Philippe Block have gone one step further – by using fungi to build self-supporting structures.

Hebel, who leads the Sustainable Construction unit at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Block, who founded the Block Research Group at ETH Zürich, have created a tree-shaped structure consisting almost entirely of mycelium.

According to the duo, the material – which is formed from the root network of mushrooms – could provide the structure of a two-storey building, if it is designed with the right geometries.”

Read the complete article here.

Opening on 2nd September 2017, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism is entitles Imminent Commons:

In an age of environmental decay and unprecedented wealth inequality, the cities of the world gather in Seoul to explore the urban parliaments where the politics of resources and technologies is enacted. The Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 is an experimental platform for an imminent urbanism that goes beyond human-centered function, ownership, and consumption to a commons of resources, technologies, and production.

The cities of the world stand at a crossroads. Amidst radical social, economic, and technological transformations, will the city become a driving force of creativity and sustainability or will it be a mechanism of inequality and environmental decay? Cities are not only the drivers of social change but are now modifying ecosystems, geological structures, and even the climate. For the first time in history, the crucial questions of the city — climate change, biodiversity, air pollution, food security, automation, unemployment and inequality— are driven by concerns beyond human control and threaten the very survival of the planet.

The inaugural Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism proposes nine essential commons as a viable path towards a sustainable and just urbanism. Emerging from both ecological and technological concerns, this framework foregrounds an exploration not of distant utopias but of the very near future. In other words, these emerging commons are already changing the way we live in cities. Whether met with fear or hope, they will very soon change the way we live in the city. The Seoul Biennale provides a platform for an international array of participants – politicians, policy makers, experts, and citizens at large – presenting global research and engaging with local conditions.

Four Ecology Commons: Air, Water, Fire, Earth
Five Technology Commons: Making, Moving, Communicating, Sensing, Recycling

The exhibition Beyond Mining – Urban Growth by the Professorships Dirk E. Hebel and Philippe Block is part of the Common Earth and will be on display in Pavilion i7 at the Donuimun Museum Village from 2nd September to 5th November 2017.

More information can be found here: http://seoulbiennale.org

The Professorship of Sustainable Construction, as part of the yearly open day of the faculty of architecture at KIT Karlsruhe, is displaying material samples of its current research projects at the material library, Room 141.1. The event takes place on July 19th 2017 in the main building 20.40, from 4pm onwards. For details on the faculty’s program, please click here.

On 07.07.2017, Felix Heisel held a public lecture at the conference “Kreislaufgerechtes Bauen” in Aachen, speaking about the NEST Module UMAR (Urban Mining and Recycling), which is currently under construction in Switzerland. The German magazine Recycling reported on the event with the words: “Felix Heisel vom Fachgebiet Nachhaltiges Bauen des Karlsruher Institut für Technologie forderte Architekten zum Umdenken in der Planung auf. Ein mit dem Architekturbüro Werner Sobek in der Schweiz geplantes Gebäude sei im Bau und zeige neue Möglichkeiten: Alle Bauteile sind hier dekonstruierbar und sortenrein trennbar, um eine Wiederverwendung von Materialien sicher zu stellen. Nur so können Gebäude in der Zukunft als Materiallager dienen.”

Read the complete text (in German) here.

Magdalena Zabek, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des Fachgebiets Nachhaltiges Bauen, veranstaltet in Kooperation mit der Innovationsregion Rheinisches Revier GmbH und der Juniorprofessur Rezykliergerechtes Bauen / RWTH Aachen eine Konferenz zum Thema „Kreislaufgerechtes Bauen“ am 07.07.2017 in Aachen. Es werden Vorträge zu Bewertungsmöglichkeiten von kreislaufgerechten und ressourcenschonenden Bauten stattfinden. Felix Heisel wird seine Erfahrungen mit der Kreislaufwirtschaft in Bauwesen vorstellen. Neben den Vorträgen findet eine Ausstellung zu kreislaufgerechten und umweltschonenden Bauprodukten statt.

Veranstaltungsort:
Ehemaliges Straßenbahndepot
Talstraße 2
52068 Aachen

Nähere Informationen zur Veranstaltung entnehmen Sie bitte dem Programmheft:
http://rheinisches-revier.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/allgemein/170510_Programm_IRR.pdf

Anmeldungen zur Veranstaltung bitte unter folgenden Link:
https://goo.gl/forms/05lm48bWQvolaDzT2

Anmeldeschluss ist der 16.06.2017

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

The Chair of Sustainable Construction of KIT Karlsruhe exhibits outcomes of its newest material research at the Cologne Design Fair 2017 together with Haute Innovation und their contribution Circular Thinking – from Upcycling to Biofabrication.

“Alternative raw materials are increasingly being identified across different manufacturing industries and production systems being optimised with a view to reusing recyclable materials. Ideally, at the end of the product lifecycle, there should be no waste produced, but instead high-quality materials that can be used as a starting point for a new product lifecycle. Recycling becomes upcycling, so waste is not produced at all and resources remain in the cycle. The shift away from “consumption” of a resource to its “use” is of especially high importance to material-intensive industries. New upcycling processes will greatly reduce the use of resources and energy on all levels.

In the congress on “Upcycling and sustainable materials cycles”, these topics will be discussed by Dr Sascha Peters and other experts from the sector, using practical examples for illustration.”