Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

The ‘Environmental Session’ of the Constructing Waste Seminar of the Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL was led by Prof. Rainer Stegmann on 25 October 2012.

Prof. Dr.-Ing Rainer Stegmann is Professor Emeritus of the University of Technology in Hamburg, Germany. As Head of the Institute of Waste Resource Management, he continues doing research in the field of solid waste management and co-owns two patents with his colleagues. Prof. Stegmann is currently a Visiting Professor at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and Director of the Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C) at NTU.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

The 5th week’s CONSTRUCTING WASTE talk was led by Mr. Ong Seng Eng, former Director of Waste and Resource Management Department of National Environment Agency Singapore.

Mr. Ong is a chemical engineer and responsible for solid waste management in Singapore. His duties include the promotion of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), regulatory control on waste collection and management of waste disposal facilities such as waste-to-energy incineration plants and the Semakau Landfill.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

Assoc. Prof. Wang Jing-Yuan gave an introductory talk of the 4th Week’s CONSTRUCTING WASTE seminar.

Prof. Wang is an Associate Professor of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and is currently Director of the Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre of NTU.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

The conference ADDIS 2050 – an alternative pathway into Ethiopia’s future – was held on October 9th and 10th 2012 at the campus of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development EiABC in Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa belongs to the fastest growing urban centers in the world. Migration from the rural areas as well as massive redevelopment strategies of the City Government put the African capital under enormous pressure. Infrastructural deficiencies, water and energy shortages, environmental hazards and mobility challenges question the current modus operandi in place.

The Green Forum Ethiopia under the leadership of Heinrich Boell Foundation in Addis Ababa commissioned the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development EiABC to invent an alternative “green” scenario for the city of Addis Ababa in the year 2050. The conference concentrated on the issues of Energy, Mobility, Cultural and Social Space, Housing and Information. The event was visited by more than 500 people and arose immense interest from the media as well as the City Administration. As guest of honor, the Swiss Ambassador H.E. Dominik Langenbacher attended the conference as well as delegates from several federal ministries and the UN-Habitat. In the meantime, the Department of Masterplanning and Vision of the City Adeministration invited the speakers to present the work in their offices.

Team FCL Singapore:Dirk Hebel, Felix Heisel, Marta Wisniewska, Alireza Javadian, Gerhard Schmitt, Stephen Cairns, Remo Burkhard, Eva-Maria Friedrich, Matthias Berger, Stefan Mueller Arisona, Ludger Hovestadt, Jorge Orozco, Alex Erath, Max Hirsh, Sonja Berthold, Ying Zhou, Edda Ostertag, Naomi Hanakata, Lindsey Ann Sawyer, Cheryl Song, Noor Faizah Binte Othman, Kevin Lim, Amanda Tan

Team EiABC: Joachim Dieter, Bisrat Kifle, Addis alem Fekele, Tewedaj Eshetu, Yosef Teferri, Eyob Wedesu

Team Green Forum/Heinrich Boell Foundation: Patrick Berg, Ayele Kebede, Jonas

Energy Today

Today, in 2012, over 70 million Ethiopians live without electricity. This is more than 80% of the population without access to the electricity grid. As a result, 90% of Ethiopian households use firewood for cooking, resulting in the deforestation of almost 1500 km2 every year.

Research by Ludger Hovestadt and Jorge Orozco

Developed by Eva-Maria Friedrich, Matthias Berger and Stefan Mueller-Arisona

Energy 2050 – An Alternative

Tomorrow, in the year 2050, Ethiopia produces more renewable energy than it consumes.

Every home is electrified, every citizen, regardless of his or her location, his or her religion, his or her income or his or her ethnic origin has access to electrical energy. No firewood is needed any more for cooking; forests are growing again in Ethiopia, protecting our soil for agricultural production to feed our people. Water is pumped with solar energy to every household and every square meter of farmland. No toxic exhausts are threatening us anymore, because we live in a zero emission society.

In the year 2014, the Ethiopian government handed over solar panels in the value of 200 USD for every family of Ethiopia including a battery storage system. Like that, every family was able to produce 100 Watt of electrical energy per hour, which, at that time, was enough to supply their homes with light during the evening hours, to run a radio or small refrigerator and to charge their cell phones and other small battery systems. In order to do so, only half of one year’s foreign aid going into Ethiopian was needed.

Solar panels became over the years cheaper and cheaper and the cooperative started to add capacities to their small networks until bigger systems were able to support urban areas with their energy. With their cell phones, the farmers started to sell their energy on locally installed energy stock markets. They decided when and how much of their energy was sold to customers.

Here, the farmers could actually store energy, inside their plants, vegetable and cattle. But also other systems became very attractive. Production of Butane gas for example. With easy machines, water and CO2 out of the air, many farmers became bio-gas producers, filling thousands of Butane bottles per day.

This Butane gas became by now the most used cooking energy in Ethiopia. Women did not have to find firewood all day long, covering thousands of kilometers every year. The gas did not harm their health any longer, because burning it, did not create any black carbon particles, of which so many died every year before.

But also producing hydrogen with the abundant energy produced became a very lucrative business. The cooperative started around 2030 to install hydrogen separators as a tertiary energy source to be sold to the cities. Hydrogen buses, trucks and even airplanes were introduced to Ethiopia step by step, because the fuel was there and it was cheap.

By 2045, electricity export increased by around 70% every two years. Like that, Ethiopia became the first sub-Saharan country to support the DESERTEC network built in the Sahara desert, supporting an international effort to build a global sustainable energy market, where farmers in the rural areas of Ethiopia play and important role.

Ethiopia’s slogan ‘13 month of sunshine’ became well-known in a globalized energy market.

Mobility Today

Mobility 2050 – An Alternative

Tomorrow, in 2050, Addis Ababa is the first African city that reached its goal of establishing a ‘Zero Emission’ society.

Through a collective effort in the past 40 years, Ethiopia achieved something remarkable – the decoupling of economic growth and mobility from burning fossil energy carriers. As a result, the capital Addis Ababa, this year received the title of “most livable city in Africa” for the second time in a row. This is mainly due to reasons connected with the management of emissions, social space initiatives, public transport concepts, education possibilities, ecological driven industries and safety concepts in the city combined with a long term strategy of economic growth through ecological strategies put in place by the city government.

It all started in 2015, when rural farmers received an Energy Harvesting Kit, consisting out of a solar panel and a battery. Gradually, Ethiopia developed a new approach towards energy generation, based on individuals and small-scale grids. Already just after a few years, electrical energy in rural and urban Ethiopia was available for everybody. Consequently, the country experienced a paradigm shift on how to produce and use energy.

While such developments rapidly urbanized the countryside, it took a few years to affect the cities. A key development might have been the opening of the first Electrical Mobility Manufacturing EMM near Addis Ababa in 2020. Individuals with an entrepreneurial understanding had been following the energy development in Ethiopia closely and understood the potential of the country. As energy costs started to drop because of the tremendous amount that was produced by energy farmers in the countryside, production costs also dropped tremendously. But even more important, this energy was available for everybody and therefore people started to drive vehicles that could be charged at home. No expensive petroleum, diesel or benzin was necessary any more. With this, a mobility revolution started in Ethiopia.

It was very fortunate that mayor Amanuel Takele realized a common fact: more car lanes also produce more car traffic. Reversing the trend, he used the already existing asphalt for a more diverse functional mix – pedestrian walk ways, bike lanes, public transport and individual traffic shared now what was originally planned just for fossil fuel driven cars. This was possible, because the electrical vehicles did nit harm anyone anymore through heat, noise and exhausts. The days of black exhaust clouds were over, people could start to breath again in public space.

Considering the mind-blowing shift in mobility, the public transport system needed a quick renewal. Hitchhiking on the already existing movement towards renewable energy driven vehicles, the Administration declared the ‘Green Public Transport Act’ in early 2026. Public bus lines, the extension of the already existing electrical tramway and the transformation of the taxi system were the most important steps on the agenda.

In 2042, Ethiopian Airlines – as the first airline in Africa and the third worldwide – changed his whole carrier fleet towards a hydrogen fuel system. Like that, Ethiopian Airlines uses a sustainable, environmentally friendly and most of all renewable energy source, harvested mostly by small energy farmers in the country-side.

Combined with the incredible fascinating developments in the housing sector, it also changed our understanding of building and living in a city. Cities are now seen as multiple dense clusters of local networks: Kebeles harvest energy, organize sewage systems or even build roads within a bigger plan. More important however is the social layer within our new Addis Ababa. The closeness and mixture of functions in a low-rise, dense, heterogeneous megapolis also decreased our need for mobility. Friends, family, work and shopping are usually within walking distance. The air we are breathing is not polluted by carbon or dioxin particles any more, noise is not disturbing our daily activities any longer, bicycling on the new dedicated lanes is fast and fun. And for longer distances, public transport is installed to be fast and reliable. Out of this, car ownership in recent years has been on a constant decline.

We changed our mobility and in return it changed our lifes.

Culture Today

Culture 2050 – An Alternative

Tomorrow, in 2050, life in Addis Ababa is vibrant, diverse, public and secure. We enjoy our social heritage, our cities as cultural centers and our public spaces as an expression of an open, active, inventive, green, and responsible society.

At the end of the 20th century, housing shortages, energy blackouts, old and outdated mobility concepts, and inefficient or not existing infrastructures challenged the future of our nation. Additionally, health risks resulting from high levels of air pollution and other environmental hazards made the capital difficult to enjoy.

But combining economic growth and our own life prosperity with an alternative renewable energy concept for Ethiopia changed the way we lived. Migration slowed down, identity was strengthened, local habits and traditions could survive in the regions and Ethiopia therefore was able to protect its incredible rich culture and history.

Instead of following trends and fashions from the outside, the society developed into a trendsetter itself for other nations. Today, we are a role model for so many other countries, delegations come from all over the world to learn about our culture and how technology is used to strengthen local identities instead of destroying them. We harvest the energy we have, sun, water and wind, and we build small towns and cities of close proximities, where the Ethiopian social culture of closeness, tradition, family sense andcharity are expressed and enhanced.

And even existing cities were changed. In Addis Ababa, a new educational mile was introduced ranging from Arat Kilo to Addis Ababa University, where cars are
banned, trees are planted and extremely attractive spaces were designed by our young architects. The National Museum, the Ethnographical Museum, the Ethiopian History Museum, the new Central Library and other cultural institutions like the Goethe Institute, the Alliance Francais, and Addis Ababa University with its many institutions along the way are now accessible through a common public space which became a garden of knowledge and exchange.

Scholars are meeting and discussing here, tourists come and exchange their knowledge with us, friendships are build and research collaborations are negotiated. It became the urban think tank for our industry and economy. This spatial interaction favors again the humans and NOT the cars, it favors knowledge production over pure apllication, it favors exchange and openness over retraction and close mindedness.

The National Museum, the Commercial Bank, the Ministry of Defense, all of those were reopened and revitalized as public buildings around the area, which had an immense effect on the immediate surroundings as a public space of interaction. Restaurants opened their doors, traffic is re-routed in the evening hours and the National Theater opened an outside stage, which strengthened the role of the building as a magnet for social activities in the midst of the city.

The area is known as the “Cultural Mile” of Addis Ababa. It’s strategic location in the heart of the City makes it a popular space for all generations, small businesses, restaurants, artists and students are to be found, shaded by trees and a densified urban layout to create a real ‘Piazza’ for the people.

Another heritage building, the old station at the lower end of Churchill Road, sparked an additional social and economic important corridor in the city. The “Rail Line Project” started in 2032, connecting “La Gare” with Bole Airport following the old rail tracks of the Addis-Djibouti line.

The artificial topography of the project offers a contemporary and transformative breeding ground for small production and retail stores, spaces for entrepreneur companies, pockets for various markets, test grounds for new technologies, niches for cafes and restaurants, shops and small fabrication places for craftsmen and artists, all enhancing the economic base of the neighborhood. One finds also spaces for religious celebrations, very small open-air cinemas and all kinds of performances along with traditional festivals.

The ‘Kebena River Nature Park’ offers today a remote and piece full place in midst of a vibrant and environmental successful city. The Ethiopian rural history and culture can be combined with an urban future, as long as the urban does not destroy the biggest treasure we have: tradition, history, and our incredible nature.

Housing Today

Housing 2050 – An Alternative

Tomorrow, in 2050, Addis Ababa can offer to every citizen a place to live. It is a beautiful city characterized by its diverse and dense building stock, amble spaces for social and private interaction and heterogeneity of functions. Today, we live and work in the same area, we walk to get our groceries and meet our friends in front of the door.

Addis Ababa is a city of millions, but composed of small characteristic neighborhoods and families; a city of chances for the individual to thrive. Addis is my city of choice.

When it became clear to the government in 2016, that it neither had the money to construct social housing for the ever-growing millions of new migrants, nor the design for an Ethiopian way of life, a bold and visionary decision was made. The Ethiopian Prime Minister at that time allowed the implementation of a “Incremental Housing Program”, whereby the state only provided a minimum construction to guarantee safety and regulations, but where individuals and families were able to complete their own homes in several steps, according their income and family size. This gave opportunities to the individuals and shifted responsibility from the government in order to activate the capital of the citizens to build and shape their own way of life. It is hard to say where this idea originally came from. Scholars speculate today that a cooperative in Kebele 12 imported the idea from Chile in the year 2017, copying a project from Elemental SA. Working in a similar framework as Ethiopia, these architects developed an alternative social housing concept in 2005, providing only a framework with basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and a sewage system, as well as security to house owners. This made the project affordable on one hand, but more importantly, activated the creativity and capital of its owners to finish the given structure.

Apparently, Ethiopians quickly adapted the basic idea step by step to their own context by considering the climate, available building materials, as well as social and cultural needs. Most of these houses today are raised from the ground, leaving the ground floor open for income generating activities by the owner or public events. An exiting side effect of this idea is the dense network of paths and connections in Addis Ababa’s neighborhoods today, where people pass underneath houses from one active courtyard to the next.

Starting with the first floor, connected by a private staircase, the framework offers the possibility for an individual arrangement of private and semi private rooms. Usually starting with the front door to control access to the area, the owner’s needs determine the order of indoor and outdoor spaces, the choice of material and the speed of development. Windows, façade elements, shading devices and stairs can be constructed individually. This allows for a maximum of individual freedom within a given urban framework and community infrastructure network.

Cooperatives and private investors together consequently built a heterogeneous, dense and mixed Addis Ababa in the following years. The development, based on private, vertical row houses actually proved to be denser than expected. Quickly gaining popularity, this typology now frames streets and community courtyards as well as public spaces, offering house owners the possibility for income generation and housing at once. It is surprising how a small decision in the year 2016 influenced the city so greatly. At a surprising speed, thousands of families moved in their basic structures and started the completion. Low income, no income, middle and upper class all formed new neighborhoods and continued to build a Mixcity.

As we already heard earlier, families started harvesting energy on an individual level in 2024. A similar approach was developed to provide most of the other necessary infrastructure networks as well. Because of the fast development of the city, the government was unable to catch-up with the supply of networks. As a result, the kebeles decided to take it into their own hands and started building infrastructures and public network systems. On a community level, people started to collect waste and sell it to recyclers for the production of biogas or building materials. Small-scale sewage systems proved to be more efficient and cheaper than a city-wide grid. Out of economic reasons, even fresh water grids tend to be relatively small these days. Solar power and hydrogen supports these decentralized systems with the necessary, renewable energy.

This new development proved to be the starting point of today’s Addis Ababa. What had started in small cooperatives and self-built structures of individuals and their creativity, grew in to a new city structure, into a new understanding of urbanity, developed out of the Ethiopian culture, tradition and social networks.

The 3rd week’s CONSTRUCTING WASTE presentation ‘Why Waste Waste?’ was held on 4 October by Dr Sun Xiaolong.

Dr Sun Xiaolong majored in Materials Science & Engineering. His research areas are waste-to-resource and environmental applications of materials science. Dr Sun works at R3C NTU.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

Prof. Dr. Stephen Cairns opened the 2nd Week’s session of CONSTRUCTING WASTE with his talk ‘Rubbish Theory‘.

Stephen Cairns is Scientific Co-ordinator of the Future Cities Laboratory in the Singapore-ETH Centre, and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of KRUPUC, an independent inter-disciplinary, multi-sectorial research, planning and design platform focused on issues of urbanisation in the Southeast Asian region.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

On 20 September 2012 Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel introduced the FCL Fall Seminar: CONSTRUCTING WASTE. The goals and expectations of the course were presented on the example of the United_Bottles Project.

Dirk Hebel is currently holding the position of Assistant Professor at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, a research project of ETH Zurich with the National Research Foundation Singapore.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

The Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore is organizing an
FCL-SEC Fall Semester 2012 Seminar CONSTRUCTING WASTE.

Hundreds of tons of waste are produces in Singapore every day. These wastes represent an invaluable pool of resources, which could be activated by rethinking their designs. The ‘hands on the material’ seminar CONSTRUCTING WASTE will interrogate the concept of up-cycling strategies in order to minimize the overall refuse amount being produced in Singapore. The focus on design questions should create second life cycles for otherwise waste products.

The seminar will be conducted as a combination of input lectures, reading seminars and the production of full- scale up-cycling design products. Students will be asked to map the nature and flows of an everyday product through different research methods and finally to change the product design in order to influence both waste and material stock and flows in the future. 10 weeks of seminar will result in  project descriptions and an up-cycling prototype in full scale.

On a recent visit to China, CoReSing visited several factories for bamboo flooring. The so called WSB (Woven Strand Board) is commonly produced from 5-year old Moso bamboo culms, a fast and very tall growing species. After its harvest, the culms are immediately cut into approximately 2m long sections, sliced lengthwise into splits and finally processed into strands. They are then boiled and carbonized. Next, they are submerged into a pool of an adhesive agent and then left out to dry. Placed into molds, the pressing of the strands produces blocks of varying sizes. These can then be cut into boards or pieces as desired. To create WSB flooring boards, the most common application in this process, they will be sanded and coated with up to 7 layers of PV finish.

CoReSing is currently evaluating the possibility to incorporate this process into its research. During the visit, potential collaborations with manufacturers of machinery for bamboo processing as well as INBAR, the international network for bamboo and rattan have been discussed.

The Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore together with Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development is organizing an international workshop to develope a vision for Addis Ababa in the year 2050. The African population is growing fast and urbanization will shape the coming decades. Existing cities are changing rapidly and new infrastructures and buildings are constructed at an enormous speed, ambitious plans are in place to create dozens of new cities from scratch. Currently, the focus of this development seems to be “catching up” with developed or emerging economies. In many cases, a ‘copy/paste’ mentality to urban development includes a repetition of the mistakes made elsewhere: expensive imported construction materials such as cement, glass and steel are preferred over locally available and more sustainable solutions, public spaces are diminishing, an increasing separation of working and living quarters enlarges transportation needs and traffic concepts concentrate on cars and individual rather than public transportation.

The aim of the workshop is to demonstrate the advantages of realizing bold visions rather than a continued ‘business as usual’ by envisioning a possible alternative development path of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa over the next 30-40 years. The results will be presented at a two-day conference held in Addis Ababa in October 2012, open to both an Ethiopian and a wider African as well as intenational audience of academics, politicians, government representatives from relevant ministries and authorities and experts from continental institutions based in Ethiopia. A particular focus of this debate will be on the opportunities of constructing much of the needed infrastructure for the first time in the context of expanding cities – as opposed to cities faced with the challenge of adapting existing infrastructure to new challenges.

PhD Candidate Lara Davis of the Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at SEC/FCL Singapore held this seven day intensive workshop to introduce students of architecture and urbanism and local technical-vocational (TVET) trainees to the concepts and practical aspects of building with earth with contextual sensitivity in Ethiopia.  For each day of the workshop, one half-day was devoted to field study and practical exercises, which allowed students to develop hands-on material-based knowledge.  Afternoon lectures provided the conceptual framing for theoretical study, documentation, and reflection.

The topics covered attempted to demonstrate the link between the fundamental properties of soil, its effective use as a building material, and strategies for context and climate-responsive design in earthen masonry.  Lectures and practical sessions addressed:  sampling and selection of soils in the field, properties and behavior of soil, empirical methods of soil testing and modification, chikka plastering and adobe block production, techniques and design principles of earthen masonry, mechanical properties of earthen masonry (compression, shrinkage and shear), construction of arches and vaults, applied structural principles, and climate-responsive detailing for weather and site conditions.  Beyond the various activities, students constructed a single curved earthen vault with the Nubian vaulting technique.  The workshop was concluded with student presentations.

Singapore is one of the highest populated areas in the world. Consequently, the stock and flow of waste became one of the most important challenges on the island in recent years. Understanding the flow of waste materials and mining this incredible resource is one of the interests in the research of the Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL.

So far, Singapore is using mostly incineration plants to burn the majority of the unrecyclable waste material. Incineration reduces the volume of refuse up to 90% while the remaining 10% are later disposed off at Semakau Landfill, constantly increasing the surface area of the peninsula. This technology uses ash filled parcels in the open see. The amount of refuse production increases constantly, which leaves approximately 20 more years until Semakau Landfill runs out of space. Thus, innovative ways of waste handling have to be developed.

The Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL initiated a design research seminar in the winter semester 2012, which focuses on design questions in order to minimize the overall refuse amount and creates second life cycles for otherwise waste products.

Addis Ababa/Singapore/Zuerich April 2012

The EiABC together with the Bauhaus University Weimar and the Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL Singapore completed successfully the first construction of a double storey dwelling unit out of straw panels world wide. The so-called Sustainable Emerging City Unit (SECU) workshop arose immense interest from nation wide media and the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction. During the workshop, State Minister Heilemeskel Tefera announced to support the project to make the technology available for mass housing projects in Ethiopia. In near future, building codes need to be established, further research has to be conducted and production facilities need to be erected. The Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL Singapore commited itself to be a strong partner of EiABC in the years to come to achieve these goals. We want to thank all partners for their immense energy and work, especially to all students who attended the workshop from EiABC, Bauhaus University Weimar and ETH Zuerich.

EiABC: Prof. Dr. Dirk Donath, Helawi Sewnet, Belay Getachew, Denamo Addissie, Ingo Oexmann, Jakob Mettler, Peter Dissel, Karsten Schlesier, Sami Tsegu, Fahmi Girma, Melakeselam Moges, Nejmia Ali, Mintesinot Tekle, Samrawit Tazezew, Henok Teshome, Habtamu Regassa, Aknaw Yohannes, Seyume Weldeyesuse, Estifanos Kiflu, Mohammed Jemal, Seife Abdulsemed, Nejat Hassen, Peniel Tekle, Regbe Hagos, Fruta Haddish, Samia Ibrahim

Bauhaus University Weimar: Prof. Dr. Bernd Rudolf, Stephan Schuetz, Timo Riechert, Michael Baer, Carolina Kolodziej, Nadine Wolz, Tereza Spindlerová, Paul Eikemeier, Mona Volkmann, Amelie Wegner, Johannes Martin, Victoria Goldmann, Anna Rodermund, Sebastian Linder

FCL/ETHZ: Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Marta Wisniewska, Felix Heisel, Martin Kugelmeier, Sarah Sassi, Tanja Studer, Christian Schwizer and Nike Himmels

Special thanks: Chair of Building Construction EiABC Prof. Dirk Donath, BAM – Federal Material Testing Institute Berlin, AAiT, ICEAddis, D-Arch BUWeimar, D-Arch ETH Zuerich, ETH Sustainability, ETH Global, FCL Singapore, Chair of Information Architecture ETHZ Prof. Gerhard Schmitt, Strawtec Group AG Berlin Eckhardt Dauck and Dirk Niehaus, Frank Wildenhayn, Dr. Karola Hahn, Joachim Dieter, Fasil Giorghis, Prof. Elias Yitbarek, Bisrat Kifle, Teddy Kifle, Binyam Kifle, Prof. Dirk Donath and his energetic and highly motivated EiABC team

see also www.eiabc.edu.et/secu-project

National Media, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, State Minister Hailemeskel Tefera, Prof. Dirk Donath, advisors to the State Minister

Photo credits: Marta Wisniewska.

Addis Ababa/Singapore/Zuerich April 2012

In collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) and the Bauhaus University in Weimar, the Assistant Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore, ETHZ is conducting a one-week workshop to construct a full-scale double-story building out of straw panels in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Five students of the Department of Architecture of ETH Zürich were offered the opportunity to join this international workshop, which concentrates on testing a building material, produced completely out of straw. New settlements are emerging in developing territories like Ethiopia almost every day, growing fast into urban conglomerates. One of the biggest problems in emerging cities is next to infrastructure measurements, available and affordable building materials and techniques for shelter production. The SECU (Sustainable Emerging Cities Unit) research project is focusing on the development of innovative and low-weight construction materials for emerging cities in developing territories, based on agricultural “waste” products like straw.

The company STRAWTEC© in Berlin developed over the last years a production system for pressed straw panels. Through heat, the natural starch in the straw is activated and functions as natural glue without any other chemical additions. So far, the panels are only used as non-bearing structural elements. The workshop will investigate possibilities to further develop the product and test construction methods for load bearing applications.

Zuerich/Addis Ababa/Singapore March 2012

The Arthur Waser Foundation, based in Lucerene Switzerland, recently agreed to sponsor a continuous research project called SRDU (Sustainable Rural Dwelling Unit) in Ethiopia to the tune of 460,000 Swiss Francs over the next three years. The project builds on an academic research cooperation between the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) in Ethiopia and the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel of Architecture and Construction at the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability and the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore.

Professor Dr. Elias Yitbarek initiated the project in 2010 as part of his work at the Chair of Housing at the EiABC and has secured funding from the Arthur Waser Foundation for a pilot project in 2011, with the support of the North-South Centre of ETH Zurich, Barbara Becker and the ETH Foundation, Nathalie Fontana. The pilot was regarded as a great success. It involved building two housing units located approximately 250km south of the capital Addis Ababa, and experimentation with local building materials combined with new building techniques and autonomous operating energy supply units. This success convinced the Arthur Waser Foundation to continue the engagement with the two universities and enlarge the scope of the work to include questions of capacity building, academic exchange with local schools and industry and the transfer of knowledge to a wide academic and non-academic audience in Africa.

Lara Davis, PhD researcher working under the supervision of Dirk E. Hebel at the ETH in Zurich, will fully concentrate her work on the development of technical solutions in earthen masonry systems, which address challenges posed by environment conditions, as well as constraints in available building materials and skilled labor. She will also look into robustly co-designed training methodologies, which target maximum cultural relevance, mechanisms for knowledge exchange, and methods for sustainable technology transfer with long-term viability. Next to the strong focus on applied research, where full scale housing units will be built, two PhD students at the EiABC under the guidance of Dr. Elias Yitbarek will work on soft impact factors such as health issues, socio-cultural frameworks, communication strategies and participation models in order to guarantee a long lasting anchoring of the project in rural regions of Ethiopia as well as building up curricula for the academic impact in schools and universities.

The ETH Zurich and the EiABC in Addis Ababa have a long history of academic collaboration. The SRDU research can be seen as the sister project of the Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit: SUDU. The project, initiated in 2010 by Dirk E. Hebel, who was at that time the Scientific Director of EiABC, investigated the stock and flow model of building materials in Ethiopia and introduced new building techniques and material applications such as earth masonry vaulting together with Prof. Philippe Block and Lara Davis of ETH Zurich, in order to minimize the dependency of building material import in Ethiopia. The project got well know also in Ethiopia and beyond and set the tone for further investigations also in rural areas. With the funding of Arthur Waser Foundation, ETH and EiABC have the chance to further strengthen their research collaboration by understanding the build environment as a complex and open system, ranging from the urban territory to the neighborhood scale and with it the question of material application, considering economic, ecological, social and aesthetic values for a future urbanization of developing territories world wide.

Waste is usually defined as unwanted or useless material, which is the product of a linear utilization process.

Endless stocks of material are already in the cities regarded as waste. Making this (re-) source available, the value-chains of construction products and materials have a great potential for increased ecological and economic efficiency, and with it minimizing global material flows. Waste products, but also local available materials which were not used in the construction sector yet, need to be recognized as basic elements of the urban creation process. Their use, re-use, and potential for re-placement of other materials are key factors for creating identity, resource efficiency, and new added values to a specific urban system. Analyzing potentials of waste products as a resource for new construction materials and products will be key factors of this research. The understanding of the term “waste” needs to be extended to such materials which were not seen as construction materials yet, or which were seen as backward-oriented, cheap or useless. Waste resources must be analyzed and quantified in similar terms and standards as natural resources. With this analysis, comparative strategies can be implemented. In addition, up-cycling strategies have to be followed, designing new products in such a way, that projected further life-cycles are already incorporated.

In the United_Bottle project, a regular waste product like the PET bottle becomes a new building material, (Source: United_Bottle Group Zürich, 2007-ongoing)

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) of primarily mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their texture, structure, consistence, color, chemical, biological and other physical characteristics.[1]

Sustainable construction requires an integrative thinking of various possible local available materials, skills and know-how. There is a need to enhance vernacular construction and material knowledge to cope with the dramatic need for new urban dwellings. This knowledge must be based on integrative modes of thinking, combining design, construction, building physics, sociology, energy, ecology and economy. If local construction materials and their application could be made available to the wide public in developing territories, local value chains could be build up using a very low-cost and easy to obtain material.[2]

Straw belongs to the family of grasses. Grasses are plants, which typically have one seed leaf and continue to grow with narrow leaves from their base. The family includes “true grasses”, sedges and rushes. The Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL is mostly interested in true grasses such as bamboo and cerials, since their characteristics show a high potential for taking tensile stress.

The Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL Singapore started a research project together with the Bauhaus University in Weimar and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Addis Ababa focusing on straw panel building technology. New settlements are emerging in developing territories almost every day, growing fast into urban conglomerates. One of the biggest problems in emerging cities is next to infrastructure measurements, available and affordable building materials and techniques for shelter production. The research project is focusing on the development of innovative and low-weight construction materials for emerging cities in developing territories, based on agricultural “waste” products like straw.

Straw panels and first ideas about load-bearing applications (Source: Prof. Dr. Dirk Donath)

The company STRAWTEC© in Berlin, Germany developed over the last years a production system for pressed straw panels. Through heat, the natural starch in the straw is activated and functions as natural glue without any other chemical additions. So far, the panels are only used as non-bearing structural elements. The project will investigate possibilities to develop the product and invent construction methods for load bearing applications. Presumed a positive research outcome, this innovative method could be applied in developing territories, which are economically agricultural based, including India, China and Indonesia.

Bamboo belongs to the family of grasses. Grasses are plants, which typically have one seed leaf and continue to grow with narrow leaves from their base. The family includes “true grasses”, sedges and rushes. The Chair of Architecture and Construction at FCL is mostly interested in true grasses such as bamboo and cerials, since their characteristics show a high potential for taking tensile stress.

Looking at available local resources, the “magic triangle” contains one of the most neglected building materials in the world so far: Bamboo. Most developing territories today with an ever-growing speed of population increase and with it an ever-increasing need for housing are to be found in a belt around the equator. And also here, bamboo is usually the fastest growing, affordable and local available natural resource, which has outstanding constructive qualities. Bamboo grows much faster than wood and is usually available in great quantities and it is easy to obtain. It is also known for its unrivalled capacity to capture carbon and could therefore play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions world wide. Developing territories around the equator belt could use this capacity even as an income source, selling CO2 certificates in a global market.

Global natural habitat of bamboo

Bamboo is extremely resistant to tensile stress and is therefore one of nature`s most extreme products. In principle, bamboo is with regard to its mechanical-technological properties superior to timber and even to reinforcement steel in terms of the ratio of liveload and deadweight [1]. The “hinterland” of Singapore offers a huge potential for developing new ideas to use bamboo not only in rod structures but also as composite material in an added value chain mentality, which will help developing territories to build up supply chains domestically and therefore reduce their dependencies on imported building materials. New technologies of bamboo composite productions allow for a new view on already elaborated methodologies of the 1950`ies and 60`ies by the US Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory [2] and the Clemson Agricultural College [3]. The research will focus to develop new products, based on bamboo as one of the most efficient and fastest growing resources in the equator belt.