Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Commissioned by ETH Global, the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel and the Professorship of Architecture and Structure Philippe Block will be building a pavilion at New York City’s First Street Garden as part of the New Museum’s IDEAS CITY festival, May 28 – 30th, 2015.

Using waste products as construction material, the structure aims to redefine our perception of refuse, acknowledging its capacity as a substance from which to construct new cities. Waste was seen for centuries as something specific which neither belonged to the family of natural resources nor to the one of finished products. Waste was a by-product, an (ideally) invisible part in the making and existing of our cities.

But waste could also be understood as an integral part of what we define as a resource. This metabolic thinking understands our built environment as an interim stage of material storage. The ETH Pavilion will be an example of this approach using a common waste product: beverage cartons as its construction material. The expressive pavilion is designed to allow the use of a non-standard, weak material in construction.To keep the stresses in the material low, the shape follows the flow of forces, resulting in a vaulted structure in compression. Thanks to its overall double curvature and the triangular sections of the arches, which give the structure a deeper section for the same thickness and weight, the shell is stable and safe.

On Tuesday, April 28, 2015, a stakeholders forum in Butajira city to place to present and discuss further steps of the Rural Housing research project, a combined research project of EiABC and ETH Professorship Dirk E. Hebel, with representatives of Guraghe Zone Administration, City Government, Bete Guraghe Cultural Center, colleagues from Wolkite University and Wolkite Polytechnic College and other stakeholder.

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

swissnex-constructingwaste

Can design reduce waste production? How can small adjustments in the typical life cycle of everyday products drastically minimize waste flow? The search for the answers to those and other refuse-related questions were the goals of this year’s ‘Constructing from Waste’ workshop in San Francisco led by Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel. Participants with different background and experience, including students, school teachers, architects and product designers, worked on eight different proposals. Andreas Müller of Birkhäuser, publisher of the Building from Waste book, awarded the best three proposals with recent publications.

The Constructing Waste: Upcycling and Rethinking Trash workshop was organized in cooperation with Mary Ellyn Johnson of swissnex SF in the frame of a one week long event at swissnex San Francisco promoting the Building from Waste book, which has just entered the US market.

For more information click here.

Photo credits: swissnex SF/ Mayleen Hollero

Building from Waste

Building from Waste

Building from Waste_NewspaperWood

Building from Waste_RecyBlock

Building from Waste_Mycoworks

Building from Waste

The exhibition Building from Waste: Material Showcase accompanied the Building from Waste book promotion week, which took place at swissnex San Francisco between April 20 – 25, 2015

The Asst. Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel brought the Building from Waste: Material Showcase to swissnex San Francisco, items of loan from the Baubibliothek of the ETH-Bibliothek. Visitors had a chance to experience over 20 alternative construction materials produced from waste. The exhibited materials cover a wide range of building elements made from straw or PET bottles, fibers extracted from old newspapers, juice and milk containers, denim jeans, and many more. Additionally the exhibition included an extended display of mycelium lightweight products in different moments of growth produced by local artist and inventor Phill Ross of Mycoworks.

For more information click here.

Photo credits: swissnex SF/ Mayleen Hollero

Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel at swissnex SF

Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel at swissnex SF

Phil Ross- Mycoworks

Thom Faulders- Studio Faulders

Peter Ratto- Recology SF

Panel discussion at swissnex SF

Felix Heisel and Marta H. Wisniewska at swissnex SF

Waste Not Panel Discussion at swissnex San Francisco on April 21, 2015 started a week-long event organized by Mary Ellyn Johnson and the swissnex SF team around the launch of the Building from Waste book for the US market.

Future resilient cities will be constructed out of their own refuse. This hypothesis was the spark for the book, Building from Waste: Recovered Materials in Architecture and Construction by Dirk E. Hebel, Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel from ETH Zurich and the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore.

Felix Heisel and Marta H. Wisniewska gave a conceptual and practical look at materials and products that use waste as a renewable resource during their presentation and panel discussion at swissnex San Francisco. From the local experts, Philip Ross (Mycoworks), Thom Foulders (Foulders Studio) and Peter Ratto (Recology), the guests could hear how mushrooms can be a viable building material, how experiments in architecture are incorporating unique products focused on sustainability and renewal, and how San Francisco’s Recology is working towards zero waste for the city by 2020.

For more information click here.

Photo credits: swissnex SF/ Mayleen Hollero

Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel will be leading several events from 21st – 25th of April at Swissnex San Fransisco in order to promote the recent publication “Building from Waste” in the United States. For detailed information on the events please see here and register your attendance through the swissnex website:

21.04.2015  – 6:30 pm: Lecture Series “Waste Not”
with Philip Ross, Thom Faulders, Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel

21.04. – 25.04.2015: “Building from Waste” Exhibit with 25 construction products made from refuse

25.04.2015 – 9:00 am: Constructing Waste: Upcycling and Rethinking Trash
Workshop with Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel

Article published at Sourceable: Bamboo is one of the world’s oldest structural materials and has been used in construction for centuries. Now new research could potentially bolster its continued resurgence and use as a material in green structures. Steel-reinforced concrete is the most common building material in the world. Developing countries use close to 90 per cent of the cement and 80 per cent of the steel consumed by the global construction sector. According to research by the chair of architecture and construction at Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in the Singapore-ETH Centre, 70 per cent of damage in the built environment today is caused by corrosion of steel inside reinforced concrete structures. In addition, steel is also costly and energy hungry when it comes to production and transportation. Read more here.

Doctoral Researcher Alireza Javadian of the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel spoke on February 13th 2015 as part of the “Friday Talks” at the Urban Redevelopment Authority Singapore (URA) on “Bamboo: The Green Reinforcement”. His talk introduced the audience to the research of new bamboo composite materials, featuring high tensile capacity with a variety of different application possibilities.

More on the Friday Talk Series can be found here.

Bislang sind Häuser und Brücken aus Bambus Einzelfälle. Forscher von der ETH Zürich wollen jetzt aus dem Süßgrasgewächs einen ökologischen und günstigen Massenbaustoff für die Städte von morgen entwickeln. Ein Beitrag von Oliver Ristau im Technology Review Magazin für Innovation. (article in German only)

The ‘Future Cities: Research in Action’ exhibition opened on 23 Jan 2015 at the URA Centre atrium in Singapore It will run till 13 Mar 2015. Focused on cities, urbanisation, and global environmental sustainability, it presents research conducted by FCL towards the development of sustainable future cities. In this context, the Assistant Profesorship of Dirk E. Hebel (who also curated the show) exhibits their work on alternative future building materials. In general, the exhibition features the work of more than 120 FCL researchers from over 30 countries over the past four years. Integrating science, design and technology, they tackle urban challenges at multiple scales, from building materials and systems to neighbourhoods, districts, cities and their hinterlands. Click here for more information.

270.000 tons of plastic waste particles are floating in our oceans. Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel is writing on garbage swirls and plastic materials in the ETH Zukunftsblog (article in German only). Click here to read the article.

The Ministry of Education in Singapore has awarded  the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel together with the Republic Polytechnic Singapore 320.000 Singapore Dollars within the framework of the “Translational R&D and Innovation Fund Grant” for the jointly submitted project: “Maximize bonding between Sustainable Bamboo Composite Reinforcement and Concrete”. The project is set for two years and lead by Dr. Leong Wen Shing in collaboration with the group of Prof. Hebel in Singapore. The award acknowledges the successful collaboration between the Republic Polytechnic and the Future Cities Laboratory which started in 2013.

The bamboo composite research collaboration between the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel in Singapore and the Republic Polytechnic Singapore (Dr Wen Shing) was highlighted again this year from Jan 8^th to Jan 10^th at the Republic Polytechnic Open House 2015 Event.

Swiss daily newspaper Tagesanzeiger recently published a report in the research activities of the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel at the ETH Zürich and the FCL Singapore. You can read the full article here in German.

A selection of twenty alternative construction materials produced from waste will be on display at the Baumuster Centrale Zürich until January 15th 2015, to be experienced hands-on. The material samples are part of the recent publication “Building from Waste – Recovered Materials in Architecture and Construction” by Dirk E. Hebel, Marta H. Wisniewska and Felix Heisel.

Public lecture “Building from Waste” by Felix Heisel and Marta H. Wisniewska on Thursday November 27, 2014 at the Baumuster Centrale in Zürich, Switzerland. The event, combining a talk and a small exhibition of selected waste materials, explains the approach of the Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel to understand waste as a possible resource for the construction of future cities. “The city of the future does not distiguinsh any more between waste and resource”. Quote by Mitchell Joachim

The Chair of Architecture and Construction is exhibiting its bamboo composite material in the exhibition “Magie des Einfachen” (The Magic of the Simple) at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur from 16th November 2014 to 29th March 2015. Featuring the Brazilian Alvaro Abreu and the German Hans Hansen, the exhibition shows a variety of bamboo applications in the fields of art and construction. More information directly from the museum here and below:

Magie des Einfachen
Der Brasilianer Alvaro Abreu schnitzt Löffel aus Bambus, Hunderte, Tausende, seit vielen Jahren. Erst in einer späten Lebensphase hat er damit angefangen. Jeden Tag einen Löffel, immer aus einem einzigen Stück Bambus, keiner ist wie der andere. Der renommierte deutsche Fotograf Hans Hansen hat sich in seiner fotografischen Arbeit eingehend mit dem Werk von Alvaro Abreu beschäftigt und hat unzählige Bambuslöffel sortiert, geordnet und in einen Rhythmus gebracht, mal in strenger Balance, dann wieder in chaotischer Zufälligkeit. Das Gewerbemuseum Winterthur holt Alvaro Abreus Reich der Bambuslöffel gemeinsam mit den fotografischen Arbeiten von Hans Hansen als Schweizer Premiere nach Winterthur.

In collaboration with Haute Innovation, the Chair of Architecture and Construction exhibited its bamboo composite material at two recent international material fairs: from 21st to 23rd October at the Orgatec 2014 in Cologne, Germany as part of the Smart Office Materials exhibition, and between 11th and 14th November at the Subcontractor 2014 in Jönköping, Sweden.

On October 20th 2014, Bisrat Kifle, Fasil Giorghis and Dirk E. Hebel presented alternative housing concepts to the Addis Ababa Housing and Construction Development Board as part of the ongoing research project ADDIS 2050 The aim of the project is the construction of 5`000 low cost housing units to shelter relocated citizens within the inner city of Ethiopia’s capital, preserving existing social and economic networks. The presented typologies resulted in an overwhelming feedback for EiABC and the ETH, featured in the national evening news on the Ethiopian Broadcasting Network EBC. The short clip can be seen below in Amharic.

EBC Evening News from Architecture and Construction on Vimeo.

At this years World Sustainable Building Conference, the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel presented two papers. In Session 48, Felix Heisel talked about “Bamboo Reinforcement – a Sustainable Alternative to Steel”, while Marta H. Wisniewska presented “Waste – a Resource for Sustainable and Resilient Future Cities” in Session 90.

On thursday, October 30th, 12:15pm, Asst Prof. Dirk E. Hebel will give a brown bag lunch talk at the Schweizer Baumuster-Centrale on the research of alternative building materials at ETH Zürich and FCL Singapore. For more information please visit www.baumuster.ch

Building from Waste has been successfully launched and is now available online and in book stores. Together with the book vernissage, also the exhibition Building from Waste was opened on October 8th 2014 at the Baubibliothek at ETH Hönggerberg.

Can a social housing program only provide a structural frame? Will inhabitants start to activate their own skills and financial means to fill this structure according to their needs and desires? And how could this look like? The experimental research project Simulating Incremental Housing is following these questions by implementing a proto-typology of such a structure in a developing settlement in the heart of Addis Ababa’s no-income zones. The simulation tool allows to speculate on different materials and construction methods how such a structure could be populated and used by its inhabitants.

Exhibition Dates: Thursday 9 October to Monday 8 December, 10:00 – 18:00

About the Exhibition
Although long under way, the hybridization of art and science presents itself as the most significant challenge for society today. The boundaries between the sciences are poorly delineated and those between art and science are as well. However, these poorly delineated boundaries form commonly shared areas where the stull unknown can be explored and where points of suture between disciplines can be made. It is here that artistic and scientific forms of knowledge begin to merge and are allowed to develop into hybrid formations which bear new knowledge and offer unique experience. And if hybridity is the landmark of artistic and scientific practice, the exhibition “Hybrid Highlights” is indicative of such hybridized territory that goes beyond art and science while exploring and expanding through the possibilities offered from the still “unknown” of the poorly delineated

Dirk E. Hebel  / Marta H. Wisniewska / Felix Heisel
Building from Waste
Recovered Materials in Architecture and Construction

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. A product directory presents all materials and projects according to their functional uses.

Take a look inside the book here.

At this year’s World Sustainable Building Conference in Barcelona WSBC2014, the Chair of Architecture and Construction is presenting two papers on its recent research. Marta H. Wisniewska is speaking on “Waste – a Resource for Sustainable and Resilient future Cities” on 29th October between 3pm and 4:30pm in Session 90: “Construction systems and materials”. Alireza Javadian is presenting “Bamboo Reinforcement – A Carbon Alternative to Steel” on 29th October between 10am and 11:30am in Session 48: “Resources and Waste”. For the Conference program, please visit here.

‘Bambus statt Stahl’ (Bamboo instead of Steel) has been published in Switzerland’s leading daily newspaper ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ on Sunday 27th July. The article offers an overview on the recent developments of the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel in its bamboo composite material research and led to a wide public interest in Switzerland and Europe. The full article can be accessed here.

Very few developing countries have the resources to produce their own steel, and without this material tall buildings and urban development are all but impossible. But what if there were a local, renewable material that could be used instead of steel in reinforced-concrete buildings? And what if that substitute could be manufactured easily? These questions have motivated Dirk Hebel, an assistant professor of architecture and construction at the Future Cities Laboratory, in Singapore, to investigate a bamboo fiber composite as a possible substitute for steel reinforcement in concrete. The Future Cities Laboratory is a research arm of ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zürich, in Switzerland, and is the first program under the newly formed Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability, which conducts multidisciplinary research to foster urbanization that conforms to the principles of sustainable development. If the tests on the bamboo composite are successful, developing countries will be able to manufacture and build their own urban centers without costly foreign steel imports, according to Hebel.

Read the full article here.

On July 31st, German Radio WDR5 reported on the chair’s bamboo composite research at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore. Above you can listen to the short interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel in German.

Civil Engineering is the award-winning monthly magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Reaching an audience of more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide, this magazine has the largest circulation in the engineering market and provides a compelling editorial mix of engineering projects and trends, engineering science, business and professional strategies, exploration of key issues, and news. The Civil Engineering website provides weekly news and feature content that supplements the content of the monthly print and digital editions.

On July 8th, the magazine published a lengthly interview with Prof Dirk E. Hebel on his current material research at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore titled: Bamboo Reinforcement Could Help Developing Cities. Research on the use of a bamboo composite material in place of steel to strengthen concrete is producing positive results—and could help some developing countries urbanize.

Read the full article here.

“The Zumtobel Group Award that we have curated for the past eight years is not a static object but an evolutionary process. Just as, under the influence of the respective times, the jury helped drive forward future developments through their decision, responding as they did so to social and technological demands and changes, we, as the curators have joined with the initiator of the award to take it forward by adding the “Applied Innovations” category. The large number of submissions, not least in this new category, and the intense debate within the jury only serve to underline the increasing relevance of the interplay between human beings and technology,” said Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell, Founders of Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin (DE) and curators of the award.

The new APPLIED INNOVATIONS category, rewards innovations and technological solutions that make a trailblazing contribution to the realisation of a more sustainable built environment. The award in this category addresses technical universities, research institutions, individual engineers and firms of consulting engineers, as well as technology start-ups. Submissions could include innovations that have been proven in a prototype, a test series or an application in an actual project. From among 50 submissions in this category, the jury has nominated five offices and projects, including CoReSing’s material research on bamboo composite materials for the building industry.

Mor information can be found here.

CoReSing exhibited its Advanced Fibre Composite Materials at this years World Cities Summit in Singapore from June 2nd to 4th at the Swiss Pavilion. The World Cities Summit is a premier event that brings together practitioners and policy makers with leading experts in their field to identify innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing cities today. It is an international conference series on public governance and the sustainable development of cities.

Architectural Blog archdaily reported recently on the ongoing research of CoReSing’s bamboo composite materials for the building industry.

“Developing countries have the highest demand for steel-reinforced concrete, but often do not have the means to produce the steel to meet that demand.  Rather than put themselves at the mercy of a global market dominated by developed countries, Singapore’s Future Cities Laboratory suggests an alternative to this manufactured rarity: bamboo.  Abundant, sustainable, and extremely resilient, bamboo has potential in the future to become an ideal replacement in places where steel cannot easily be produced.”

The full article can be found here.

Kieron Monks asks in his recent article on CNN Innovations “Would you live in a house of sand and bacteria? It’s a surpassingly good idea”. The article gives an overview on recent developments in the field of alternative building materials and quotes Prof Dirk E. Hebel referring to mushroom bricks that “I could imagine every structure you would built out of bricks. No high-rises, but smaller scale structures and houses. The material is stronger than concrete, with better insulation capacities”. Read the full article here.

Impulse, the magazine for the German-speaking community in Singapore, recently published a short article on Felix Heisel in their issue “German Researchers in Singapore”. It describes his motivation to work in Singapore as well as his research in urban design and construction materials. The issue is available online here.

The CREATE Tower in Singapore sets the scene for vertical networking among its various entities. This kind of setting fosters interactions between the institutions on many levels, informally as well as professionally. Marta H. Wisniewska sees this as a strength. For the full article, please click here.

CoReSing exhibits its BaReCo Bamboo Reinforcement Research at this year’s InnovFest on 14-16 April.

InnovFest convenes leading thought-leaders, groundbreaking companies and emerging technologies to provide a holistic and comprehensive glimpse of the innovation & enterprise landscape in Asia. Focusing on “Asian Innovations Going Global” InnovFest 2014 will showcase cutting-edge research & expertise from regional universities, start-ups and industry players.

The documentary movie series _Spaces by Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kifle is currently being screened at the World Urban Forum, Urban Equity in Development – Cities for Life in Medellin Colombia. The movies can be watched at Booth 82 (Ethiopia) from the 5th – 11th of April.

Alternatively, the movies can also be watched online at http://www.spacesmovie.com.

What we throw away may be a valuable renewable resource for building materials. Marta H. Wisniewska explains the future destiny of refuse in her newest blog entry for the ETH Intranet. For the full article, please click here.

The Goethe Institute Addis Ababa opened a new exhibition last week featuring several prototypologies from the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) and the ETH Zurich, Future Cities Laboratory Singapore, Professorship Dirk E. Hebel. Displayed in models, plans and images, SUDU, SICU, SECU and SAMU propose alternatives for the provision of housing in Addis Ababa. The Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit (SUDU), proposes a dense, two- or even three-story structure in a row house typology . The idea is to offer inhabitants a possibility to construct their own houses without waiting for government programs or private/public developers. Furthermore, when constructed over a period of time, depending on the financial resources of its residents, smaller units like SUDU activate private capital for the housing sector. The exhibition was organised by Prof. Dirk Donath and Eva Hartmann.

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 11.02.2014 at 6:30 pm is entitled “Originating and Materializing Spaces”.

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)