Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Alternative Construction Materials of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore and Sustainable Construction at KIT Karlsruhe have received the 2017 SMART Innovation Centre’s Execution Grant and have been admitted to the Innovation Fellows Program for the project “High-Tensile Organic Fiber Reinforcement for Structural Concrete”. The Fellows Program is aimed to work with Faculty, Post Docs and researchers to prepare them to launch their company. The team was previously awarded the 2012 SMART Innovation Centre’s Innovation Grant for the project “High-Tensile Organic Fiber Reinforcement for Structural Concrete”.

Alternative Construction Materials of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore and Sustainable Construction at KIT Karlsruhe, together with University of Newcastle’ Singapore branch (UoN) have received the 2017 Strategic Pilot Grant from University of Newcastle Australia for the project “Structural Behaviour and Applications of Newly Developed Bamboo Composite”. The aim of this scheme offered by UoN is to provide support for researchers to pursue high impact, strategic and collaborative research activities, specifically for young investigators.

The joint research aims to optimize the FCL’s bamboo composite materials for structural applications in the field of timber construction. Several physical and mechanical properties tests are designed to evaluate the bamboo composite material for applications such as beams, floor slabs and joints. The project will run from October 2017 to March 2018 with a potential to be extended further.

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.

In December 2016, the planning of the architecture by the team under the direction of Prof. Dirk E. Hebel was completed with a ready-to-go, realizable project. The adaptation to the local regulations and the approval of the project were also finalized in spring 2017. In April 2017, the earthworks started. First of all, the whole school area had to be raised. The construction site is huge and we will be moving 600’000 m3 of soil. The result is a lake of 110,000m3 which will be used for the irrigation of our agricultural projects in the future. Although the rainy season, which had started too early, leads to delays, we are sure to be able to take up the school operation with the kindergarten and the first school year in November17. More information here.

The Urban Mining & Recycling (UMAR) Experimental Unit is the newest unit of the NEST research building on the campus of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The building design created by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can go hand in hand with appealing architectural form. 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 materials laboratory and a temporary material storage.

The following approaches lie at the heart of the design:

• Temporary removal and borrowing instead of permanent acquisition and disposal
• Maximal modularisation and prefabrication
• The potential for all materials and products to be extracted cleanly, separated out and sorted

The building, which is created on the basis of a modular construction concept, is fully prefabricated and tested in the factory. The supporting structure and large parts of the façade consist of untreated wood, a material that can be reused or composted after the building is dismantled. The façade also includes aluminium and copper, two types of metal that can be separated out cleanly, melted down and recycled. The interior of the unit contains an extremely diverse range of serially manufactured building products whose various constituent materials can be separated out and sorted before being introduced back into their respective materials cycles without leaving behind any residue or waste. Among the technologies used here are cultivated mycelium boards, innovative recycled bricks, repurposed insulation materials, leased floor coverings and a multifunctional solar thermal installation.

Visitors can learn about all of the materials and products used in the project at the entrance to the unit and in the dedicated materials library.

The UMAR unit is not just a material storage, but also a public repository of information that is intended to serve as a model example and a source of inspiration for other building projects. UMAR wants to make a contribution to the paradigm shift that is required in the construction industry. The module functions both as a laboratory and a test run for sustainable building projects and the processes associated with them. In collaboration with partners from the worlds of planning, administration and production, the unit’s goal is to examine resource consumption and the key issues in the construction industry and use its insights to develop a range of innovative tools and approaches.

Opening: February 2018

Project Team:

Concept, Design and Project Planning:
Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, Germany (Project Management, Werner Sobek Office: Bernd Köhler, Frank Heinlein)
Structural Planning and General Contractor:
kaufmann zimmerei und tischlerei gmbh, Reuthe, Austria (Matthias Kaufmann)
HLSKE (Heating, Ventilation, Sanitation, Air-Conditioning & Electrical Systems) and MSR (Measuring & Control Technology):
Amstein-Walthert AG, Zürich, Switzerland (Project Management: Simon Büttgenbach)
Sprinklers:
NBG Ingenieure AG, Bern, Switzerland (Bernhard Zmoos)
JOMOS Feuerschutz AG, Balsthal, Switzerland (Rudolf Jenni)
Fire Safety:
Balzer Ingenieure AG, Chur, Switzerland (Dumeng Wehrli, Christoph Schärer)
Building Physics:
Weber Energie und Bauphysik, Schaffhausen, Switzerland (Moritz Eggen)
Client:
Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland (Enrico F. Marchesi, Reto Fischer)

As populations and aspirations grow, so does the demand for materials and resources to support them. Although such resource demands were once satisfied by local and regional hinterlands, they are becoming increasingly global in scale and reach. This phenomenon has generated material flows that are trans-continental and planetary in scope, and has profound consequences for the sustainability, functioning, sense of ownership and identity of future cities. However, the global concentration of the construction industry on a selected few mined materials puts high pressure on our natural resources. If we talk about the future city, it becomes clear that it cannot be built with the same finite resources.

The 21st century will face a radical paradigm shift in how we produce materials for the construction of our habitat. The linear concept of “produce, use, and discard” has proven itself unsustainable in the face of scarce resources and exponentially increasing urban populations. Instead, to achieve a cycle of production, use, and re-use, we must explore alternative materials and approaches to construction. The Professorship of Sustainable Construction Dirk E. Hebel at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Block Research Group (BRG) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich are combining their knowledge in materials, construction, structures, and geometry to address the problems posed by inefficiency in the realms of current design and material use.

Utilizing the regenerative materials mycelium and bamboo and a design based on polyhedral form and force diagrams controlling the geometry of the structure’s forces, this exhibition presents a full-scale vision for how we may move beyond the mining of our construction materials to their cultivation and urban growth. It suggests ways that efficiency of digital design and engineering and alternative resources can join forces to question current practice and propose more sustainable approaches.

Mycelium is the root network of mushrooms, a fast growing matrix that can act as a natural and self-assembling glue. Digesting plant-based waste products, such as saw dust, mycelium’s dense network of hyphae binds the substrate into a structurally active material composite. The advantages of such products are significant: As mycelium follows a metabolic cycle, building elements or whole constructions may be composted after their original use. The material may be grown locally, reducing both the energy and time required with transportation. And, as they are organic matter, they act to reverse carbon emissions through the absorption of carbon.

Mycelium based materials offer significant ecologic advantages on one hand but offer a comparably low structural strength on the other. When building with such weak materials, good geometry is essential for maintaining equilibrium through compression only. Such so-called funicular geometries have the advantage that their internal stresses are very low. While current conventional development of engineered materials, such as e.g. concrete and steel, is largely focused on making materials stronger by increasing their allowable stress, achieving stability through geometry instead allows the use of weak materials, such as mushroom mycelium, in structural applications.

We believe that local, regenerative and cultivated resources in combination with informed structural design, have the potential to become a very real alternative to established materials within the building industry.

Opening: 02. September 2017
Location: Donuimun Museum Village, Seoul, South Korea

Project Team:
Sustainable Construction, Dirk E. Hebel / KIT Karlsruhe & FCL Singapore
Professorship Philippe Block, Block Research Group / ETH Zürich
Karlsruhe: Karsten Schlesier, Felix Heisel
Zürich: Matthias Rippmann, Tomás Méndez Echenagucia, Juney Lee, Alessandro Dell’Endice, Andrew Liew, Noelle Paulson, Tom Van Mele
Singapore: Nazanin Saeidi, Alireza Javadian, Adi Reza Nugroho, Robbi Zidna Ilman, Erlambang Adjidarma, Hokie Christian, Orion Tan Sheng Yu, Kelly Cooper

Production partner:
Mycotech, PT Miko Bahtera Nusantara Indonesia

With kind support of:
Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
ETH Global, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany

SuperMaterial is a major public exhibition by The Built Environment Trust celebrating the essential, and often hidden, elements of our surroundings. Delving into the world of academia and science, we identify the latest laboratory-based discoveries and demonstrate how they will change our world – informing the R&D departments of today and transforming the buildings of our future. The project will also explore how the historical application of raw elements and minimally processed goods – the ‘super materials’ of their time – have shaped our urban fabric.

The show exhibits bamboo composite reinforcement produced by the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, the ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The display is on show at the Building Centre in London from February through April 2017.

View the SuperMaterial online exhibition 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.

Hebel, Dirk E., Felix Heisel, Alireza Javadian, Mateusz Wielopolski, Simon Lee, Philipp Müller, Karsten Schlesier (2016). Engineering bamboo – a green alternative under basic research Part 3, in: a+u 550, Feature: Vo Trong Nghia Architects, 2016:07, Japan Architecture and Urbanism, Tokyo, Japan

Essay Series: Engineering bamboo – a green alternative under basic research Part 3, Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel: The Advanced Fibre Composite Laboratory in Singapore investigates new methods and procedures to produce a high-strength building material out of natural bamboo fibres. If successful, the research could provide a starting point for the introduction of new and adapted technologies that take a widespread natural resource as their basic premise and give reason for people who live in the tropical belt to foster one of the most common plants in the sub-tropical climate zone.

Knellwolf, Bruno (2016). Der Sandkrieg hat begonnen, in St. Galler Tagblatt: 19–20

Wider Erwarten wird Sand immer mehr zum raren Gut. Bereits spricht man vom Sandkrieg und der Sandmafia, die den Handel mit dem knapper werdenden Baustoff betreibt. Dirk E. Hebel und Felix Heisel zeigen an der Biennale in Venedig Alternativen.

A team led by five inspirational young women and one young man have taken command to realize a large educational facility in Mea Nork, Cambodia, designed for 1000 students. The architectural project involves the construction of a new school, consisting of 24 classrooms, 15 group study rooms, 3 workshop rooms, an administrative wing, a library, cafeteria, community laundry, community medical clinic, toilets, staff dormitories, an outdoor assembly space, playgrounds and a lake.

The gestation of the project began when the students, Lisa Devenoge, Lorine Grossenbacher, Franziska Matt, Elizabeth Müller, and Alina Wyder met whilst undertaking the ‘Schoolhouse Cambodia’ design studio offered by the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel under the request of the NGO Smiling Gecko at ETH Zurich. The studio consisted of 34 students who visited Cambodia and worked over the semester in pairs to produce schemes for the then hypothetical architectural project.

The collective efforts of the design studio were so much of a success that the NGO founder, artist, and philanthropist Hannes Schmid was compelled to commit to realizing the project. At the culmination of the semester, the five women agreed to continue the work of the studio as part of an internship programme. They work full time to document the entire construction package and are assisted by a male colleague, Oliver Faber, who helps out one day a week. The process has involved consolidating the strengths of the individual projects proposed during the semester into a singular, unified scheme, able to be realized under the practical constraints of time, budget and resources. To do this they have had to work in a highly collaborative environment and coordinate with consultants in Cambodia.

The team agrees that the greatest sense of achievement has come through the process of establishing themselves up as an independently functioning entity. From practicalities such as setting up their working environment to the systematic particularities such as the delegation of tasks amongst themselves according to perceived individual and collaborative strengths. Their self-motivation and initiative has been rewarded by an autonomous work ethic encouraged by Dirk E. Hebel, who leads the team and the project with his in-depth experience in developing territories. The skills and capabilities the young students have obtained during their internship will be directly applicable to their future lives, no matter what path they choose to take.

The project is due to commence construction in November 2016.

On Thursday June 2nd, constellation.s – an exhibition by arc en reve centre of Architecture in Bordeaux, France – opened its doors with a contribution by the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel entitled Bamboo Composite Materials. The show displays test samples from the material research, especially focusing on the interface of bamboo composites and concrete.

From the curators: “In response to the worldwide transformations that are profoundly affecting the conditions in which we live, constellation.s will present individual and collective initiatives providing perspectives on tomorrow’s challenges in terms of how the urban environment is made.
 In response to fear, inward-lookingness, and extremism, constellation.s encourages critical thinking to help us understand the world we live in. In response to a rising tide of images, words, and spectacle, constellation.s focuses on creativity and the ways ordinary people invent their daily lives. Constellation.s embraces points of view from a range of disciplines, involving researchers, writers, architects, engineers and economists reflecting upon contemporary reality. Constellation.s will present testimonials, processes, and situations from the four corners of the world: glimmers of hope pointing to new possible horizons and ways of living together in complex societies.”

For more information, please click here.
Constellations will be open to the public until 25th September.

On May 28th, Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel opened the exhibition Daring Growth at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale in the presence of ETH president Lino Guzzella.

The installation calls for a radical paradigm shift in how habitats are materialized. The mining-based mentality must move towards an ethic of cultivating, recycling, recovering, breeding, raising, farming, and even growing future building materials. Decentralized, local and renewable production strategies and methods that do not deplete the planet’s resources or energy reserves must be given priority. A shift in attitude would allow developing societies to provide themselves with the building materials required for secure and dignified shelter without forcing them into economic dependencies.

Our contribution to ‘Reporting From the Front’ takes the form of a laboratory showcasing research work produced at the ETH Zürich and the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore in collaboration with partners such as MycoWorks Inc. in San Francisco and the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the TU Delft. The exhibition features examples of new building materials derived from mushroom mycelium, bacteria, grasses and waste. It also displays the power of an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers, academics and professionals working on commonly defined challenges.

Palazzo Mora, “Time Space Existence”
La Biennale di Venezia, 28 May – 27 November 2016

Acknowledgements
This exhibition would not have been possible without the generous and continuous support of the President of ETH Zürich, Prof. Dr Lino Guzzella, whom we would like to thank for his unrestricted encouragement, trust, and sustenance. We also would like to thank the rector of ETH Zürich Prof. Dr Sarah Springman and Vice President of research ETH Zürich Prof. Dr Detlef Günther for their reassurance and believe in our commitment and research.

We are especially indebted to Annette Spiro, Dean of Architecture at ETH Zürich, not only for her support of this exhibition, but in general creating an atmosphere of unlimited trust and backing without research and innovation would not be possible.

We deeply thank the whole team of the ETH Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, above all Peter Edwards, Stephen Cairns, Kees Christiaanse and Remo Burkhard. Within FCL, relevant research was developed over the past years in various fields, which did not only fuel this exhibition, but scholars and professionals all around the globe and especially at the ETH in Zürich.

We are extremely grateful to Prof. Dr Gerhardt Schmitt and Prof. Dr Marc Angélil for their incredible mentorship, help, and intellectual as well as physical support. Without them, our work would not be possible.

Tobias Klauser and Carlo Lienhardt, through their incredible professionalism and critical assessment of our ideas and work, made this exhibition a project in its own. We would like to acknowledge their unrestricted dedication and support as partners, friends, and advisors.

Special acknowledgements go to ETH Global, Jürg Brunschweiler, for all of his continuous help over the past years. Thanks also to ETH Foundation, Corinna Adler, for her dedication and energy. Also to Hannes Schmid, who opened eyes and doors to new intellectual terrains and professionals. Matthias Büttiger and Markus Reinhard for their encouragement, spontaneous courtesy, and incredible generosity.

We thank GAA Foundation for the possibility to exhibit our work at the 16^th Architecture Biennale in Venice. We are grateful to our partners of TU Delft, Henk Jonkers and Leon van Paassen as well as Mycoworks, Phil Ross, Sophia Wang, and Eddie Pavlu.

Special thanks to all members of our own team: Dustin Fleck, Sophie Nash, Ruben Bernegger, Manuel Fernandez, Christine Wöhner, Raphael Disler, Tobias Fuchs, Aurel von Richthofen, Alireza Javadian, Simon Lee, Philippe Müller, Marta H. Wisniewska, Patrick Chladek, Nikita Aigner, Philippe Jorisch, Amélie Fibicher, Hans Rufer.

Special thanks to Prof. Dr.Philippe Block and his team, especially Cristian Calvo Barentin for all the support and help.

Also to Uta Bogenrieder who did all graphic design works for the exhibition.

Our deepest thanks and gratitude go to all of theses individuals and organizations for their trust and the unrestricted possibilities to operate at the front of our discipline and sometimes even beyond.

Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, Zürich, May 2016

Sponsorship
Our deepest gratitude to all sponsors and supporters of this exhibition:
ETH Zürich, ETH Global
Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich
Future Cities Laboratory Singapore
Chair of Information Architecture Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zürich
Chair of Architecture and Design Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil, ETH Zürich
Markus Reinhard, Nomis Foundation
Matthis Büttiger

Hebel, Dirk E., Felix Heisel, Alireza Javadian, Mateusz Wielopolski, Simon Lee, Philipp Müller, Karsten Schlesier (2016). Engineering bamboo – a green economic alternative Part 2, in: a+u 549, Feature: RCR Arqitectes, 2016:06, Japan Architecture and Urbanism, Tokyo, Japan

Essay Series: Engineering bamboo – a green technical alternative Part 2, Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel: At the Advanced Fibre Composite Laboratory in Singapore, a new mechanical processing for raw bamboo has been developed, which leads to a fibrous material with physical features that are mainly defined by the bamboo species. This material is used as a natural fibre source for the production of a high-tensile fibre reinforced composite material aiming for the construction industry. Thereby, controlling the parameters of the underlying hot press fabrication process turned out to be crucial for a systematic tuning of the tensile capacities of the resulting composite materials.

Paganini, Romano (2016). Forschung: Der Pilz, aus dem die Mauern sind, in: Beobachter 11/, Zürich, Switzerland

An der ETH Zürich erforschen Architekten und Ingenieure das Potenzial von Pilzen. Sie sollen einst Plastik ersetzen. Die Prototypen sehen aus wie hellbraune Backsteine und riechen nach Grosis Estrich. Doch sie könnten das Industriematerial der Zukunft sein. «Es ist ein extrem vielversprechendes Material, dessen Potenzial wir noch gar nicht richtig abschätzen können», sagt ETH-Architekt Felix Heisel schwärmend.

Read full article here.

Ettlin, Anna (2016). Dirk E. Hebel: «Architektur ist eine Lebensphilosophie», in: coop Zeitung, 23.05.2015, Zürich, Switzerland

Dirk E. Hebel forscht über Baumaterialien der nächsten Generation. Sind Bambus, Pilze und Müll eine Alternative, wenn Stahl und Beton knapp werden? Er beschäftigt sich mit der Stadt der Zukunft, als Assistenzprofessor an der ETH Zürich und am Future Cities Laboratory in Singapur. Bekannt wurde Dirk E. Hebel (45) vor allem durch seine Arbeiten mit ungewöhnlichen Baumaterialien, die demnächst an der Architektur-Biennale in Venedig präsentiert werden. Wir müssen im 21. Jahrhundert zwei grosse Fragen beantworten: die Frage nach der Energie und die Frage nach den Ressourcen. In den letzten 150 Jahren haben wir uns angewöhnt, Materialien aus der Erdkruste zu entnehmen, zu brauchen und dann wegzuwerfen. Schon nach dieser relativ kurzen Zeit stossen wir damit an die Grenzen des Möglichen. Sand, der wichtigste Zuschlagstoff des Betons, wird zum Beispiel zunehmend knapp. Allein Marokko hat in den letzten Jahren 50 Prozent seiner Strände verloren. So geht es nicht mehr. Wir müssen Ansätze entwickeln, wie und mit welchen Materialien wir in Zukunft bauen wollen.

Read full article here.

The first installment in an interview series that explores the philosophical concerns of architects exhibiting at “TIME – SPACE – EXISTENCE,” a collateral event at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, features Dirk Hebel of ETH Zürich.

World-Architects first became aware of the materials research that Hebel and his ETH colleagues having been undertaking when we visited a pavilion he designed for the IDEAS CITY Festival in New York City last year. Made from shredded beverage cartons pressed into wallboards, the striking pavilion featured arched structures resting on wood pallets. That project is visible in this four-minute interview with Hebel, who discusses the broader goals of his research, including the need to grow and cultivate materials rather than mining them. More information here.

Essay Series: Engineering bamboo – a green economic alternative Part 1 Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel: Steel-reinforced concrete is the most common building material in the world, and developing countries use close to 90 per cent of the cement and 80 per cent 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. Out of 54 African nations, for instance, only two are producing steel. The other 52 countries all compete in the global marketplace for this ever-more-expensive, seemingly irreplaceable material.

Hebel, Dirk (2016). From break to breakthrough – operating in large-scale metabolic systems, in Breakthroughs – Ideas at ETH Zurich that shaped the world, Gerd Folkers, Martin Schmid (Hg.), ETH Zürich, Chronos Publishers, Zürich, Switzerland.

Every day and perhaps even every hour, there’s a scientist somewhere in the world making the next scientific breakthrough. Indeed, scientific development cannot take place in a vacuum; rather it thrives in an environment that offers inspiration and the necessary framework. One such place is ETH Zurich; it has flourished in this role over the course of its more than 150-year history. It is not presumptuous to claim that Peter Baccini in the 1980s and 90s as Head of Research at Eawag in Dübendorf (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology),developed the scientific fundamentals, tools and concepts of a radical paradigm shift in the waste management strategy of Switzerland that came to regard waste as a recurring resource and no longer solely as an undesirable substance to be disposed of. The pioneering innovation of his work was a new Swiss waste management model in 1986, which was not concerned with technical proposals for solutions to existing problems per se, but rather focused on formulating visionary social objectives of how waste can become an important part of the material management in our habitat.

The publication Building from Waste (Hebel/Wisniewska/Heisel; Birkhäuser, 2014) will be published by a+u in Japanese. The book provides a conceptual and practical look into materials and products which use waste as a renewable resource for architectural, interior, and industrial design. The inventory ranges from marketed products to advanced research and development, organized along the manufacturing processes: densified, reconfigured, transformed, designed and cultivated materials. ”Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover“ is the sustainable guideline that has replaced the ”Take, Make, Waste“ attitude of the industrial age. Based on their background at the ETH Zurich and the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, the authors provide both a conceptual and practical look into materials and products which use waste as a renewable resource. More information here.

As of March 2016, a project team of ETH students and architects formed to continue the planning process for the Cambodian Schoolhouse project. After a successful design semester in fall 2015, Smiling Gecko Foundation, the initiator and client of the project, decided to coninue the work with the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel and support the formation of a planning team. Construction work is scheduled to start in November 2016 in the village of Melanork, two hours north of Phnom Penh.

Hebel, Dirk E., Melakeselam Moges, Zara Gray, in collaboration with Something Fantastic (2015). SUDU – the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit, Manual and Research, Ruby Press, Berlin, Germany

SUDU―the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit―is a full-scale prototype for an affordable, two-story house built with local materials and traditional building techniques in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Developed in a collaborative endeavor between the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development and ETH Zurich, SUDU ties in with the rich tradition of loam construction while at the same time taking a fresh look at how to adapt this tradition to contemporary needs. Recapitulating SUDU’s idiosyncratic construction process in two lavishly illustrated volumes, this publication details the building techniques employed, such as rammed earth, mud bricks, and timbrel vaulting. The first volume additionally explores the history of Ethiopian architecture, the postcolonial nature of its current construction industry, and the challenges of the country’s rapid urbanization. The second volume, a manual with more than 600 detailed drawings and instructions, demonstrates how to build a house, step-by-step, with the most readily available building material―earth.

You can order the book right here.

On December 01, 2015, Ruby Press Berlin publishes SUDU, Research and Manual, edited by Dirk E. Hebel, Melakeselam Moges and Zara Gray.  SUDU—the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit—is a full-scale prototype for an affordable, two-story house built with local materials and traditional building techniques in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Developed in a collaborative endeavor between the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development and ETH Zurich, SUDU ties in with the rich tradition of loam construction while at the same time taking a fresh look at how to adapt this tradition to contemporary needs.

Recapitulating SUDU’s idiosyncratic construction process in two lavishly illustrated volumes, this publication details the building techniques employed, such as rammed earth, mud bricks, and timbrel vaulting. The first volume additionally explores the history of Ethiopian architecture, the postcolonial nature of its current construction industry, and the challenges of the country’s rapid urbanization. The second volume, a manual with more than 600 detailed drawings and instructions, demonstrates how to build a house, step-by-step, with the most readily available building material—earth.

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.

Hebel, Dirk E, Aurel von Richthofen (2015). Sand, eine endliche Ressource, in Wie Sand am Meer, Reihe Kunst und Wissenschaft, Katalog zur Ausstellung, 08–11. München: ERES Stiftung.

Seine Fülle ist sprichwörtlich. Trotzdem gibt es ihn nicht mehr wie Sand am Meer. Wie es dazu kam, welche Alternativen sich abzeichnen und warum Wüstensand als Baumaterial ungeeignet ist.

Keynote speech by Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the World Bamboo Congress in South Korea on September 20th, 2015. From the organizers: “In the last 20 years, the WBC as a series of Sessions & Demonstrations has grown to attract participants from more than 30 countries around the world, including world-renowned experts in bamboo design, construction, and architecture. For any professional that works with this amazing natural resource — whether a botanist, biologist, horticulturist, architect, artist, designer, businessperson, government representative, non-profit organization, or economist, the WBC has been an ideal opportunity to meet and develop collaborations in research and development, project or business development, while at the same time, advancing the social and environmental goals derived from the various applications of bamboo.”

On August 24, focusTerra opened its new exhibition entitled “BodenSchätzeWerte” or Earth’s Treasures at the ETH Zurich NO Building. Focusing on the past and future’s use of our earth’s resources, the exhibition also features several research topics of the Assistant Professorship for Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel.

From the curator:
Mineral resources play a fundamental role in our daily lives. We take their availability for granted and their worldwide consumption is steadily on the rise. What are the long-term consequences of our increasing use of non-renewable resources? What challenges lie ahead for us?

This exhibition is about the formation, mining and use of mineral resources, and how we deal with products we no longer need. What can we do to ensure that resources are extracted in an economical, environmentally friendly and socially responsible way and that they are used and reused for as long and as efficiently as possible?

The exhibition will be on display from 25th August 2015 until 28th February 2016.
More information can be found here.

Watch the ETH Zurich Pavilion being built.

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.

ETH Zurich Pavilion: New York NY, Image (c) Albert Vecerka/Esto

On May 27th, the ETH Zurich Pavilion was officially opened by Ambassador André Schaller, Consul General of Switzerland in New York, Juerg Brunnschweiler, Director of ETH Global, and Felix Heisel, project architect of the ETH Zurich Pavilion. The Pavilion will now be open to the public from May 28-30, 11am to 10pm daily. Please come by and join us for the exciting program.

In April 2015 swissnex San Francisco together with Chair of Architecture and Construction at ETH Zurich organized a one week event called ‘Building From Waste’. During this time everyone interested in the issues of rethinking the use of waste could participate in a series of presentations, a panel discussion, a hands-on workshop and an exhibition.

On the eve of Construction Day 3, the first shell of the ETH Zurich Pavilion is closed and lighting experiments are taking advantage of the dusk.

Construction Day 2 of the ETH Zurich Pavilion concluded with the first few ReWall arches go up and span over the First Street Green. Stay tuned!

On May 22nd, construction of the ETH Zurich Pavilion started at the First Street Green in New York City. The stacking of the recycled pallets was concluded with the installation of the parametric triangular footings for arches made from reused beverage cartons. Within the next 3 days, the team from the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel and the Block Research Group will conclude a 90 m2 pavilion in time for the IDEAS CITY Festival starting on Thursday 28th May 2015.

ETH Zurich brings a cutting-edge artifact of the future to the East Village: a pavilion created from waste materials. Recasting “trash” as a valuable asset, ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion will redefine the notion of waste, acknowledging its value as a resource from which new cities can rise. Read more about the events of next week here.

May 30th, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
First Street Garden, Houston Street and 2nd Avenue, ETH Zurich Pavilion, New York City

The American Institute of Architects NY engage ETH Zurich’s Dirk E. Hebel and Philippe Block in a conversation with NY architects David Benjamin and Mark Wasiuta, Columbia University on cultural practices that define smart cities. The panel discussion will be held underneath the ETH Zurich pavilion and is part of the IDEAS CITY Festival program.

Register free here

ETH Popup Workshop + Gallery
34 E 1st Street

During the month of May, ETH Zurich’s Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel and the Block Research Group together with miLES will transform the storefront at 34 E. 1st Street into a pop-up workshop and gallery for the prefabrication of the ETH Zurich Pavilion across the street at First Street Green Park. The storefront will become a workshop, showcase, and resting stop to visualize the working process behind the construction of a temporary structure by the ETH Department of Architecture. Peek into it, you may find surprises!