Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Keynote presentation by Dirk E. Hebel at the Salzburg Congress on Urban Planning and Development on May 16th, 2014. Imagine cities where our current concepts of waste are thrown away, and instead we envision a city’s waste as resource. In our world, where scarcity and excess define the chasm between the haves and have-nots; exploring the social, environmental and economic dimensions of waste will help us understand more deeply how we manage our Earth’s resources and how we may help to address the inequities intrinsic to this dichotomy. SCUPAD’s 2014 Congress will explore a paradigm shift where cities and regions can develop new ways of managing the planet’s resources where the concept of harvesting becomes the lifecycle of every element of our lives. Reevaluating, modifying, and altering chains of production and consumption are ways of renewing connections to our places and to each other; and practical ways to reduce and reuse waste should be  integral parts of any city’s metabolism. Although each city has its own DNA and thus may manage its resources and waste in different ways, looking at a variety of successful methods that some cities have adopted in the management of their waste streams may offer templates for replication and adaptation. Expanding our understanding of the generation of urban energies can help us realign our relationships with natural systems. SCUPAD’s 2014 Congress will frame waste as a source of creativity, equity, and sustainable development. Please join us as we question, test, and explore ways we can adopt new policies, expand community education, and share practices that inspire citizen engagement and culture change. There is no time to waste.

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel on March 27th, 2014 at the PCI, BASF Engineering Meeting in Rapperswil, Switzerland. “An der zweiten PCI BASF Ingenieurtagung möchten wir einen Ausblick in die Thematik der Umwelt wagen. Die Klimaforschung und deren Modelle zur Entwicklung von CO2 Emmisionen lassen aufhorchen und es werden Fragen gestellt, die heute noch nicht beantwortet werden können. Wir möchten mit den Beiträgen einige Lichtblicke und Lösungsansätze aus dem Baubereich aufzeigen. Mit Mut zu neuen Ansätzen können wir zu einer nachhaltigeren Umwelt beitragen.” (official program)

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich on March 25th, 2014. Momentarely, Dirk Hebel is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Construction at the ETH Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore. Prior to that, he was the founding Scientific Director of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  His research at FCL Singapore concentrates on alternative building materials such as organic fibers and waste. He will elaborate how this extended definition of resources for the building industry can find their way in our contemporary view of construction techniques in developing as well as developed territories.

Date: 25. März 2014, 18.00 Uhr

Location: ETH Zürich, Campus Hönggerberg, Gebäude HIL, Auditorium E 4
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093 Zürich

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel in Singapoe at the SIA / SIKA workshop on February 27th, 2014 at CREATE Tower Singapore. Can we realise zero-emissions buildings in the tropics? How might robots bring innovation to the construction industry? What advantages does bamboo have over steel as a building material? These are just some of the research questions addressed by the Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory (SEC FCL), which is committed to addressing both the potentials and the challenges facing the contemporary city. Through a trans-disciplinary framework, SEC FCL investigates how cities might be designed, produced, managed, maintained and inhabited in a way that supports global sustainability. This presentation will give a snapshot of some of the innovative technologies being developed in the Future Cities Laboratory, ranging from green buildings to 3D city modelling and simulation.

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at the STARS Symposium, Singapore, on February 18th, 2014. The stars symposia and related alumni activities help prepare proven “Leaders of the Next Generation” for their global leadership roles by enhancing a better understanding of the economic, scientific, political, cultural and social challenges, which will impact business and organizations in the next 5-10 years, broadening their horizons through interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue with peers and global leaders from all fields, contributing to their personal development to drive responsible and sustainable actions.

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development EiABC, Addis Abba, Ethiopia on January 23rd, 2014. Steel-reinforced concrete is the most common building material in the world, and developing countries use close to 90 percent of the cement and 80 percent of the steel consumed by the global construction sector. However, very few developing countries have the ability or resources to produce their own steel or cement, forcing them into an exploitative import-relationship with the developed world, as the case of Ethiopia shows very clearly. Out of 54 African nations, only two are producing steel. The other 52 countries including Ethiopia all compete in the global marketplace for this ever-more-expensive, seemingly irreplaceable material. But steel is not irreplaceable. There’s a material alternative that grows in the tropical zone of our planet, an area that coincides closely with the developing world: bamboo.  Bamboo is a highly renewable and eco-friendly material. It grows much faster than wood, is usually available in great quantities, and is easy to obtain. It is also known for its unrivalled capacity to capture carbon and could therefore play an important role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide – another advantage for developing nations in light of the trade in carbon emission certificates. Simply from an economic perspective, most developing nations should be interested in the material. It could strengthen local value chains, bring jobs and trade to those countries, and lower their dependency on international markets. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to build up a industrial production of a renewable, sustainable and local available material, which could be the start of a green industrial alternative in Ethiopia.

CoReSing successfully constructed its second prototype of a pavilion structure made out of recycled PET bottles. The vacummized arches will be used as the exhibition design in the upcoming Zurich meets New York Exhibition. Three pavilions constructed from ‘waste’ will be the spatial framework for different events and exhibitions of this festival.

Here is a short movie of the set-up at the ETH Hoenggerberg:

The documentary movie series ‘_Spaces’ by Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kifle is the basis for the ‘Changing Addis’ lecture series of the Alliance éthio-française in Addis Ababa. In three consecutive events different urgent topics are being discussed by international panelists. Dealing with informal service provisions in Ethiopia, the second evening on Tuesday 21.01.2014 at 6:30 pm is entitled “Listro and Kure-Yalew”.

The evening will start with the screening of ‘Supporting Spaces’ and ‘Recycling Spaces’ to prepare a common basis for discussion by the international panel and the audience.

We are excited to announce the participation of the following panelists:
Mathios Asfaw (General Manager of the Integrated Development Plan Project Office)
Fasil Giorghis (Chair of History and Conservation of Cultural and Architectural Heritage, EIABC)
Bisrat Kifle (Acting Deputy Scientific Director of EIABC)
Felix Heisel (Researcher at FCL Singapore)
Marta Wisniewska (Researcher at FCL Singapore)

Our mobile bamboo composite exhibition has been presented at the OPEN HOUSE EVENT 2014 of our collaboration partner Republic Polytechnic Singapore (http://www.rp.edu.sg/openhouse2014/). It has successfully attracted a number of visitors and highlighted the potential impact of a bamboo composite material for the development of future cities. This has been an important event to promote our research within the Singaporean and South East Asian community.

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at the Lombok International Bamboo Architecture Festival, Indonesia on December 7th, 2013. The event is presented by the Indonesian Institute of Architects – West Nusatenggara Region in association with Budi Pradono Architects and in collaboration with The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, The Government of West Nusa Tenggara and also The Regent of West Lombok.

More than 200 participants consisting of researchers, architects, engineers, artists, and students of architecture from around the world will discuss, exchange their knowledge and apply their skills towards the most common indigenous Indonesian material, which by today is almost forgotten as one of the strongest and most resiliant building substances in the tropics.

Dirk E. Hebel will report on the research under way at the Advanced Fiber Composite Laboratory at FCL Singapore and give insides on an industrialized product design, which upgrades bamboo from its image as a backward and outmoded building material to a high-tech, renewable and green resource for the future.

The documentary movie series ‘_Spaces’ by Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kifle will be the basis for the ‘Changing Addis’ lecture series of the Alliance éthio-française in Addis Ababa. In three consecutive events different urgent topics will be discussed by international panelists. Dealing with the current housing situation in Ethiopia, the first evening on Tuesday 26.11.2013 at 6:30 pm is entitled “Chika bet versus Condominium”.

The evening will start with the screening of ‘Disappearing Spaces’ and ‘Emerging Spaces’ to prepare a common basis for discussion by the international panel and the audience.

We are excited to announce the participation of the following panelists:
Dr. Petra Gruber (Chair Holder of Architecture and Design III, Visiting Prof. at EIABC)
Dr. Alula Pankhurst (Country Director of Young Lives, fmr Asst. Prof. of Social Anthropology AAU)
Mathios Asfaw (General Manager of the Integrated Development Plan Project Office)
Bisrat Kifle (Acting Deputy Scientific Director of EIABC)

Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel on November 18, 2013 in the seminar ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ at the chair of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich. The elective course ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ opens a holistic view on existing and new cities. The goal is to better understand the city by going beyond the physical appearance and by focusing on different representations, properties and impact factors of the urban system.

The installation ‘Innovative Technologies’ is on display at the ‘Swiss Positions – Swiss Scales’ exhibition at the Korea Foundation Cultural Centre in Seoul, South Korea. The exhibition is held in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in the Republic of Korea and Yonsei University in Seoul, and will be on from 7 November 2013 to 20 December 2013.

‘Innovative Technologies’ shows four different innovations in the area of building constructions. The first, titled 342x, questions the fact that traditional air conditioning systems occupy up to 30% of building volumes. Water based systems, replacing air as the means for cooling, can be embedded in the building structure. The second installation explores the possibility of replacing millions of individual air conditioning units with centralized cooling towers, or heatbuses. The increased efficiency reduces electricity consumption and as a result, costs. The third installation demonstrates the possibility to replace expensive, heavy and corrosion-vulnerable steel reinforcements with an alternative, renewable, lighter, and corrosion-free substance derived out of advanced fibre composite materials. The fourth element suggests a complete new way of constructing concrete structures without using formwork and combining the application of reinforcement and concrete molding into one single process. This is achieved by a robotically controlled spatial extrusion method using tensile active material.

CoReSing will be presenting its work on Fiber Composite Reinforcement Materials at the Sunday Showcase at the Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum.

Sunday, 10 November 2013
1:00pm – 7:00pm
ArtScience Galleries, ArtScience Museum

The Sunday Showcase aims to present transdisciplinary works and engage in conversations based on the themes of climate change, environmental futures, and contemporary Asian and future cities. The event is part of the 2013 Art/Science Residency Programme, a partnership between ArtScience Museum and National University of Singapore Arts & Creativity Laboratory, Tembusu College and Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities Laboratory.

Bamboo – The New Steel
The tropical belt of our planet contains one of the most neglected building materials in the world: bamboo, which is also one of the fastest growing, affordable and locally available natural resources. Find out about this remarkable plant and how, with the right treatment, it becomes stronger than steel.

CoReSing is exhibiting the research projects SUDU and SECU as a joint effort of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development and the Bauhaus University Weimar at the AFRITECTURE exhibition of the Architekturmuseum, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany. Additionally, the exhibition features the two movies “Disappearing Spaces” and “Emerging Spaces” from the cinematic research project by Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kifle.

In the accompaning catalogue, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel is featured with three articles (one with Prof. Dirk Donath of Weimar University) explaining the efforts of CoReSing on establishing alternative building materials and construction methods in Africa and how this doing could be reflected in architectural education programs.

Contemporary architectural practice in Africa is witness to many new and innovative approaches in the area of socially committed building: schools, nursery schools, marketplaces, hospitals, cultural centers, sports facilities and assembly halls. It is these public buildings and commonly used spaces in particular where signs of new utility and architectural concepts are made manifest. In many cases, future users are directly involved in the design and building processes. In addition to the use of the latest technology many of the construction projects are being developed with local materials and resume dormant building traditions.

In its exhibition »AFRITECTURE – Building Social Change« the Architekturmuseum der TU München sheds a spotlight on those projects, with a particular emphasis on those that have been initiated by architects and whose conceptualization incorporates global relationships in addition to those of local culture and individual social groups. By taking into account ecological, economic and social aspects several architects have developed sustainable approaches and solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing design challenges. The exhibition comprises twenty-eight projects from ten countries within Subsaharan Africa, including Kenya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and South Africa. All projects have been developed since the turn of the millenium and have been planned by African as well as European and North American architects.

A first prototype out of vacuumized PET bottles was build for the “Zurich meets New York” event in May next year in New York City. CoReSing together with ETH Professor Dr. Philippe Block and Juerg Brunnschweiler from ETH Global developed an architectural concept for part of the event. From May 16-24, 2014, artists, scientists, architects, and public intellectuals from both sides of the Atlantic will converge in New York City for the multi-venue, citywide festival “Zurich Meets New York”. The festival is a joint partnership between the City of Zurich, the Consulate General of Switzerland in NY, ETH Zurich, and the University of Zurich (UZH).

Following up the highly successful Geneva Meets New York in 2012, Zurich Meets New York will celebrate visionary movements and ideas born in Zurich and their impact on American culture and today’s world. One of the festival highlights will take place at Vanderbilt Hall (Grand Central), where Assistant Professors Dirk E. Hebel and Philippe Block, ETH Zurich, and their teams will build two large architectural structures made of recycled waste material (PET and paper). The structures will host various installations and presentations, and feature a catered lounged area hosting one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in Zurich, Haus Hiltl.

Five researchers from the Future Cities Laboratory will be giving a series of lectures and workshops in Seoul, Korea. Yonsei Symposium kicks off with FCL’s Programme Leader Prof Kees Christiaanse delivering a lecture on Open City, followed by a panel discussion with Prof Hong-Chul Rhim (Yonsei University), Prof Jae-Seung Lee (Hongik University), Prof Klaas Kresse (University of Seoul) on 24 October 2013. On  7 November 2013, FCL’s Prof Dr Gerhard Schmitt will deliver a keynote speech on Information Architecture as part of the Swiss Scales event. Architecture Tomorrow is a joint seminar featuring FCL’s Michael Budig and Marcel Bruelisauer alongside Yonsei University’s Asst Prof Ghang Lee of the Building Informatics Group and Dr Seung-Book Leigh of the Centre for Sustainable Buildings.

The Yonsei Symposium wraps up with a lecture by Prof E. Dirk Hebel of the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction on “Constructing Alternatives”. FCL’s “Innovative Technologies” display will also be shown at the Swiss Scales exhibition starting 6 November at the Korean Foundation Cultural Centre.

Public lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at Seoul’s Yonsei University on November 15th in a series called “Swiss Positions – Swiss Scales”.

Five researchers from the Future Cities Laboratory will be giving a series of lectures and workshops in Seoul, Korea. Yonsei Symposium kicks off with FCL’s Programme Leader Prof Kees Christiaanse delivering a lecture on Open City, followed by a panel discussion with Prof Hong-Chul Rhim (Yonsei University), Prof Jae-Seung Lee (Hongik University), Prof Klaas Kresse (University of Seoul) on 24 October 2013. On  7 November 2013, FCL’s Prof Dr Gerhard Schmitt will deliver a keynote speech on Information Architecture as part of the Swiss Scales event. Architecture Tomorrow is a joint seminar featuring FCL’s Michael Budig and Marcel Bruelisauer alongside Yonsei University’s Asst Prof Ghang Lee of the Building Informatics Group and Dr Seung-Book Leigh of the Centre for Sustainable Buildings.

The Yonsei Symposium wraps up with a lecture by Prof E. Dirk Hebel of the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction on “Constructing Alternatives”. FCL’s “Innovative Technologies” display will also be shown at the Swiss Scales exhibition starting 6 November at the Korean Foundation Cultural Centre.

Three public lectures by Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel and Alireza Javadian on November, 12, 2013 at the Future Africa seminar at the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore. The seminar features Jonathan Ledgard, Africa correspondent for the Economist and head of the Afrotech Initiative, EPFL, and is moderated by Ian Smith, Principal Investigator at Future Cities Laboratory and Professor at EPFL. CoReSing will contribute 3 talks to the discussion on political risks and technology opportunities for Africa, titled: “Pedestrian life in African cities”, “Chereka Bet – Risks and opportunities of informal housing” and “High Performance Materials”.

Public Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel at the “Holcim Community of Practice Meeting 2013” on November 08, 2013 in Singapore. Dirk E. Hebel will introduce latest results of the research project on Advanced Fiber Composite Materials used as reinforcement systems in structural concrete.

FCL Midterm Review Exhibition, CREATE Tower Level 6 and 7, September 2013-December 2013

ADDIS 2050 combines the collective activities and collaborations within FCL and African partners over the last few years in Ethiopia, especially in its capital Addis Ababa. The three tables of the installation demonstrate different tools and methodologies in the engagement of differing scales: UNIT, CITY and NATION. The UNIT table suggests five alternative locally available housing construction materials: soil, waste, straw and bamboo. The CITY table allows a possible insight into the future of Addis Ababa following the thesis of clean energy and information abundance. The publication ‘The School, The Book, The Town’ tells the story of the research engagement with Ethiopia, starting with the founding of a school, setting off a series of investigations assembled in a book, and leading to the construction of a town. The NATION table focuses on future energy concepts for Ethiopia. An interactive map allows visitors to simulate different scenarios on alternative energy production and demonstrates how important the visionary thinking is for the future development of the country.

FCL Midterm Review Exhibition, CREATE Tower Level 6 and 7, September 2013-December 2013

Innovative Technologies shows four different innovations in the area of building constructions. The first, titled 342x, questions the fact that traditional air conditioning systems occupy up to 30% of building volumes. Water based systems, replacing air as the means for cooling, can be embedded in the building structure. The second installation explores the possibility of replacing millions of individual air conditioning units with centralized cooling towers, or heatbuses. The increased efficiency reduces electricity consumption and as a result, costs. The third installation demonstrates the possibility to replace expensive, heavy and corrosion-vulnerable steel reinforcements with an alternative, renewable, lighter, and corrosion-free substance derived out of advanced fibre composite materials. The fourth element suggests a complete new way of constructing concrete structures without using formwork and combining the application of reinforcement and concrete molding into one single process. This is achieved by a robotically controlled spatial extrusion method using tensile active material.

Dr. Mateusz Wielopolski presented the research work on composite fiber materials of CoReSing at the Composites Week in Leuven, Belgium from September 16^th to 20^th. The symposium covered the forefront technologies in composite material research, production and manufacturing and hosted a highly prestigious assembly of internationally acknowledged experts in this field. The scientific community included participants from well-known institutions all over the world such as for example the MIT, EPFL, Stanford University, Weizmann Institute of Science and many others. Having been chosen to present the “fresh” results of the CoReSing bamboo project in front of almost 500 hundred participants was a very inspiring and motivating experience.

In 2008, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development has donated CHF 1.5 million to ETH Zurich for the programme “Sawiris Scholarships – Science & Technology for the South”. This programme is a grant scheme providing ten doctoral scholarships of CHF 150’000 each. Over a period of five years, each year two scholarships will be granted. A grants committee selects the candidates according to specific selection criteria.

The goal of the programme is to promote the development of products or methods, which are directly relevant for improving the livelihoods of poor people in developing countries. The topics have to be of high scientific standards and at the same time aim at direct implementation of the results.

Alireza Javadian has been awarded the Sawiris Scholorship for the project “Composite Bamboo Material and its Application as Reinforcement in Structural Concrete”.

Movie Premiere on Friday 21st June 2013 at Goethe Institute Addis Ababa at 6:30pm.

Originating Spaces by Felix Heisel / Bisrat Kifle
A part of the documentary movie series “_Spaces” on spaces appropriation in Addis Ababa.
http://www.spacesmovie.com

Addis Ababa is a city of migrants. Considering that Addis Ababa’s history reaches back only a century and most of the inhabitants of the informal areas of the city are rural migrants, the spatial arrangements of the traditional tukul actually forms part of Addis Ababa’s understanding of space. Based on the claim that traditional and cultural habits, religious and social patterns and income generating mechanisms should be the basis for new developments in Ethiopia’s capital, this movie tries to understand the origin of such conditions.

The movie “Originating Spaces” is a cinematic documentary on the use of space in the rural areas of Ethiopia. Looking at one typical tukul 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.

This movie was kindly supported by the German Embassy Addis Ababa and the Goethe Institute Addis Ababa. For detailed program, please go here. 

Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel presented the research work on composite fiber materials of CoReSing at the ‘Smart Cities’ Symposium at AEDES East Gallery Berlin on June 8, 2013. The panel ‘Smart Materials and Technologies’ here with Eike Roswag, Thorsten Klooster, Felix Heisel and Dirk E. Hebel moderated by Sascha Peters focused on innovative approaches on how to address local and easy available material resources and activate them in the urban creation process. Most of all, economical as well as ecological chances and possible establishments of local value chains inside developing territories such as South-East Asia were foregrounded and discussed.

Public Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel at the ‘Smart Cities’ Symposium AEDES East Gallery Berlin, June 8, 2013. The N.P.O. AEDES East, under the direction of the curator Ulla Giesler, presents an exhibition and symposium as part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin 2013, with the title ‘Smart City’. For the first time, the regional focus will be on South-East Asia with particular emphasis on the formative up-and-coming generation. The exhibition concentrates on the search for intelligent solutions within an urban context. Next to the exhibition, a symposium will discuss innovative “smart city” projects from South-East Asia: buildings, planning, urban interventions, initiatives and visions for the future from internationally known experts as well as young architects from Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, who are making the cities more intelligent, effective and above all improving the quality of life for their citizens. Beyond that, the results of the student workshops, which Aedes initiated in Phnom Penh, Jakarta and Manila to generate the future city visions of the upcoming generation, will be shown. Particularly on a technological level, the fact that some emerging nations and developing countries are skipping certain development stages undergone by the classic industrialized nations, is reflected in form and utilization. However, the idea of an adaptable, integrated and networked ‘smart city’ holds opportunities and challenges for Europe too: old infrastructures, pre-existing networks and behavioral patterns, local services and governmental systems also need to be synchronized in order to retain future viability for them. The exhibition and symposium presents ideas that have relevance far beyond only South-East Asia and represent changed smart behavior in a globalized age.

As of May 15th, Dr. Mateusz Wielopolski as a Post-Doc researcher and Karsten Schlesier as an external advisor joined the research team of CoReSing in Singapore. Both are active in the composite bamboo research and investigate chemical, physical as well as mechanical material properties. Mateusz Wielopolski has received his PhD in Chemistry in Germany at the University of Erlangen. His background in physical chemical and materials sciences has led him through researcher positions in the UK, Japan, Germany and Switzerland. Thereby, his expertise is found in the development and analysis of new materials. In this field he has contributed to more than 20 peer-reviewed journal publications and books. Karsten Schlesier graduated in Civil Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT. As a structural engineer his research activities are focused on non-standardized and alternative construction materials, realizing various prototypical structures in Germany and Ethiopia over the last years. Also, Dr. Dragan Griebel from CoReSings research partner REHAU had his first extended research stay at the Advanced Fiber Composite Laboratory AFCL setting up first test series and establishing production standards.

Photo credits: FCL Singapore

Public Lecture by Felix Heisel on May, 11 2013 at the Digital Arts Week ‘A Culture of SustainAbility’ Symposium on Density and Destiny in the Marina Bay ArtScience Museum. Cities have always been dense places. With density comes diversity, stimulation, new ideas, innovation, wealth. In short, many of the good things of life. But density also brings the potential for crowding, stress, noise, ill-health, marginalization and a whole set of other urban woes. This panel offered some provocative thinking on these issues.

Felix Heisel was invited to speak on the Density and Destiny Panel on May 11th at the ‘A Culture of SustainAbility’ Symposium, a part of the DAW 2013 (Digital Arts Week Singapore) at the Marina Bay Art Science Museum. Together with Prof. Stephen Cairns, Dr Alex Erath, Derek Volmer and Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Felix discussed on the threats and promises of density in a comparative panel discussion on Singapore, Jakarta, Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Cities have always been dense places. With density comes diversity, stimulation, new ideas, innovation, wealth. In short, many of the good things of life. But density also brings the potential for crowding, stress, noise, ill-health, marginalization and a whole set of other urban woes. This panel offered some provocative thinking on these issues. A group of young scholars based in Singapore at the Future Cities Laboratory reflected on these themes from their own perspectives in transport and mobility, landscape ecology, urban heritage and territorial planning.

FCL, including the chair of Architecture and Construction, held a visit to the HDB Building Research Institute in Singapore on 22nd March 2013. Presentations, Q&A sessions and a tour through the research centre opened the floor for multiple possibilities of collaboration between the two insitutions. Main goals of HDB BRI are to introduce new technologies, and upgrade design standards and materials for the market. The visitors had an opportunity to see prototypes of new amenities, which adress safety and living standards in residential units in Singapore.

Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel on April 22, 2013 in the seminar ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ at the chair of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich. The elective course ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ opens a holistic view on existing and new cities, with focus on Asia. The goal is to better understand the city by going beyond the physical appearance and by focusing on different representations, properties and impact factors of the urban system.

Public lecture by researcher Marta Wisniewska at the CREATE Talks in Singapore on 19th April 2013. CREATE Talks is a discussion platform, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers of CREATE Tower institutions, such as ETH, MIT, TUM and BERKLEY. This time the event was hosted by TU Munich and moderated by SMART, while FCL and BEARS representatives gave their talks. The ‘Waste and Want’ presentation by Marta Wisniewska triggered a discussion of smart product design and what kind of impact it can have on the immediate surrounding as their second life cycle is activated. The talk examined exemplary refuse products as possibly one of the biggest material resource in the building industry. Some of the newest waste projects of CoreSing were also presented.

Public lecture by researcher Marta Wisniewska at the CREATE Talks in Singapore on 19th April 2013.CREATE Talks is a discussion platform, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers of CREATE Tower institutions, such as ETH, MIT, TUM and BERKLEY. This time the event will be hosted by TU Munich and moderated by SMART, while FCL and BEARS representatives will give their talks. The ‘Waste and Want’ presentation by Marta Wisniewska will introduce the idea of smart product design and what kind of impact they can have on the immediate surrounding as their second life cycle is activated. The talk will examined exemplary refuse products as possibly one of the biggest material resource in the building industry. Some of the newest waste projects of CoreSing will be also presented.

The Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore was awarded the SMART Innovation Grant in the tune of SG $250.000 on March 22, 2013. The grant supports the research of CoReSing in the area of bamboo composite reinforcemnet systems and will assist to help it reach the marketplace. The SMART Innovation Grant enables the research team to pursue new avenues of extended research and participate in programs that will help accelerate innovations toward commercialization.  The funding will be used to de-risk the technology by developing prototypes or conducting proof-of-concept experiments and determine a go-to-market strategy for the products or services being developed.  The end point of the grant funding would be a well defined business opportunity attractive to start-up company formation or licensing to a commercial firm.

Public lecture by researcher Marta Wisniewska at a meeting of the Future Cities Laboratory with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in CREATE Tower, on 22nd March 2013. The presentation was conducted in order to discuss on possible collaboration platforms between the two institutes. The session was attended by Prof. Tong Yen Wah, the Singapore-based Co-Director of SJTU-CREATE (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) as well as Ms. Karina Yew-Hoong GIN and Mr. Babovic Vladan, Associate Professors of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. SJTU-CREATE is researching two areas: ‘Waste management and energy recovery ‘(including studies of human behaviour) and ‘Emerging contaminants and the effect on human health and ecology’ (including pollutants in reservoirs). The talk of Marta Wisniewska focused on CoReSing’s search for an intelligent design of future refuse products and their second life cycle. The abundance of waste as future building material in cities was an essential part of the presentation.

The Tropical Town is a package of innovative technologies and blueprint plans, environmental principles, supported by capacity building techniques. The package is not a master plan or recipe, but designed to seed the development of environmentally sustainable, socially economically resilient settlements over time. At the centre of this project is an incremental housing type named Rubah, or Rumah Tambah  (‘expandable house’ in Bahasa Indonesia).

The Tropical Town project was developed at the Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities Laboratory (FCL), with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Indonesia, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, the municipal planning department (BAPPEDA) in Batam, the  Dutch/Indonesian architectural firm, SHAU, and the NGO KRUPUC (Knowledge for Rural and Urban Projects Under Construction).  CoReSing recently joined this design team with a focus on materiality and construction.

The project was developed for the island of Batam, Indonesia. Batam functions as a laboratory where the various technical, social, ecological and design principles are explored and prototyped. The Tropical Town project is intended to be ‘scaleable’ and implemented in similar urbanizing regions throughout tropical Southeast Asia. Jakarta could be the first urban testbed for the Tropical Town Project.

“Smart City: The Next Generation”, Focus South-East Asia

How do new projects – from architecture, urban planning to urban interventions – influence the behavior of a city’s inhabitants and users? How do these projects affect the urban fabric and its functionality?

The exhibition “Smart City: The Next Generation” and associated events at the Architectural Forum Aedes am Pfefferberg, will discuss innovative “smart city” projects from South-East Asia: buildings, planning, urban interventions, initiatives and visions for the future from internationally known experts as well as young architects, planners and initiators from Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, who are making the cities more intelligent, sustainable, effective and above all improving the quality of life for their citizens. Beyond that, both the exhibition and the catalogue will showcase the results of the student workshops, which Aedes initiated in Phnom Penh, Jakarta and Manila to generate the future city visions of the upcoming generation.

The exhibition and Symposium is based on the following three questions:
1. How does your project “smarten up” the city?
2. What are the challenges that you face from your (country-specific) urban infrastructure?
3. How does your project affect the behavioral patterns of the city’s inhabitants and users?

Behavioral change on a global scale is what the team of Prof. Dirk Hebel at the Future City Labortory of the ETH Zürich in Singapore has in mind. They investigate the “smart material” qualities of bamboo in the building sector. The idea: replacing steel with bamboo. Because “bamboo concrete” could, taken in the long-term, revolutionize the entire equatorial region, and significantly improve the social value chain as well as the economic conditions of the developing countries to a large extent, and reducing CO2 emissions drastically.

Exhibition Location: Aedes am Pfefferberg, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin, Germany
Exhibition duration: 17 May – 4 July 2013
Smart City Symposium: 8 and 9 June 2013 as part of the APW 2013

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Princeton School of Architecture on April 3, 2013. During the academic year 2012/13 Princeton SoA will stage a series of public conversations around alternative practices in architecture through the work of 85 distinguished alumni from the last 25 years. At a moment when the profession is going through some important questions on a global scale, the series will explore the broad range of practices of recent alumni that spin from or gravitate around architecture, seeking alternatives to the established forms of architectural practice. The series will highlight Princeton’s commitment to experimental work at the edge of the discipline, and on our alumni’s engagement with a wide range of contemporary practices to outline propositions for alternative forms of practice. The lecture series intends to feature these practices as a sample of the issues that the contemporary practice of architecture has to address, to foreground relevant areas of interest and opportunity. Eight sessions will be held during the Fall ’12 term, and eight more during the Spring ’13 term, featuring different practice formats, geographies, ideologies and technologies. Dirk E. Hebel will lecture in the session: New Brave Worlds – Africa and Latin America. April 3, SoA Princeton University, Betts Auditorium, 6pm.

Public lecture by PhD candidate Alireza Javadian at the 1^st Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2013) in Singapore, on March 18th, 2013. The ACE 2013 has been organized by the Global Science and Technology Forum (GTSF) and is the first international conference dedicated to both Architecture and Civil Engineering research. The conference was the premiere forum for the presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of Architecture and Civil Engineering. The conference intended to bring together leading researchers, architects, engineers and scientists in this domain of interest from around the world.  A paper on ‘Engineering Bamboo; New composite reinforcements’ by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel of FCL Singapore was accepted by the ACE 2013 committee for presentation. Researchers of different countries who were present in the conference have shown great interest in the research described in the paper.