Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

Felix Heisel, Dirk E. Hebel, Matthias Kohler, Stephen Crains, Francois Roche, Hendrik Jonkers,                         Marta Wisniewska, Thorsten Klooster, and Alireza Javadian at FCL Singapore on 26 November 2012

The conference ‘Concrete – Sleeping Beauty’ organized by the Professorship of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore together with TEC21 and espazium Switzerland as media partners addressed the possibilities to change the way we thing about the most used building material on the globe today. After an introduction by Dirk E. Hebel, giving an overview of concrete technology and its development over the last 2000 years, Francois Roche explained his use of the machine to build up multiple, heterogeneous and contradictory scenarios, something that rejects even the idea of a possible prediction about predetermined forms of growth or future typologies. Being extruded in space by robotic apparatuses Francois Roche showed concrete as a material in constant flux, tangled, intertwined, and forming a city, or rather a fragment of a city.

Matthias Kohler as well introduced the material use as an evolving array of interoperable tools and processes that allow the fabrication of design propositions to be increasingly complex and adaptive. In his talk, he addressed new potentials for non-standard concrete construction, which in conjunction with robotic fabrication allows for interweaving dynamic properties of the material with design and digital fabrication at full scale.

Hendrik Jonkers explained his extensive research on the suitability of very specific but otherwise harmless bacteria for their ability to repair cracks in concrete structures and thus significantly improve their durability. He stated that this new type of ‘bio-concrete’ would make costly manual repair unnecessary and would minimize the use of raw materials, as structures will last much longer.

Thorsten Klooster talked about the development of a new concrete called DiysCrete that is able to generate electricity out of solar energy. DiysCrete is based on the technical principles of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC or DYSC), using the generating means of electrochemical reactions of organic dyes absorbing sunlight. It can be produced without toxic emissions from freely available components. DiysCrete can be seen as a possible way of approaching new materials for the design process.

Dirk E. Hebel focused on the benefits of using bamboo as a construction material in conjunction with concrete technology. Its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer and open the chance to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

The discussion after the input lectures was moderated by Stephen Cairns, Scientific Coordinator of FCL Singapore.

Francois Roche

Matthias Kohler

Hendrik Jonkers

Thorsten Klooster

Dirk E. Hebel

Photo credits: Marta Wisniewska.

The participating students Desirée Amport, Pascal Genhart, Naomi Hanakata, Alireza Javadian, Ervine Lin, Nikolaos Theodoratos, Tobias Wullschleger and the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at FCL Singapore will show the results of the FCL-SEC Seminar CONSTRUCTING WASTE with a vernissage on Friday, November 30 at 5pm at the 6th floor of the CREATE Tower. You are warmly invited to attend the event.

CONSTRUCTING WASTE  interrogated the concept of up-cycling strategies in order to minimize the overall refuse amount in Singapore. The focus on design questions created 7 uniques product designs which have the potential to live a second life cycle in an alternated way. The exhibition showcases the pedagogical concept, the layout of lectures and text seminars as well as the final design products of the students.

Public Lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the international FCL Conference – Concrete Sleeping Beauty at CREATE Singapore on 26th November 2012. Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

You are warmly invited to attend the international FCL conference CONCRETE – SLEEPING BEAUTY on 26 November 2012 organized by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at ETH Zuerich/FCL Singapore together with TEC21 and espazium Switzerland as media partners. Five projects will introduce and initiate a discussion on the state of the art of a century-long unchanged material use. Can we think of new application and production methodologies? Can concrete heal itself? Can it produce power? Can concrete be computated? Are there organic reinforcement possibilities?

Five international researchers from different backgrounds will showcase their work. They aim to change the way we think about the most used building material on the globe today. The speakers will be Francois Roche of R&Sie (France and Thailand), Matthias Kohler of Gramazio/Kohler (Switzerland), Hendrik Jonkers of TU Delft (The Netherlands), Thorsten Klooster of Task Architects (Germany) and Dirk Hebel, ETHZ/FCL (Switzerland and Singapore). The event will be moderated by Stephen Cairns, Scientific Coordinator of FCL Singapore.

BIO: Francois Roche

New-Territories unfold their protocols through the re-staging of contemporary relationships: aesthetical, machinist, computational, organics, biological and even artificial. The group works simultaneously through the architectural practice R&Sie(n), the “new-territories” research Lab and the [eIf/bt/c] scenario studio.  François Roche leads independently architectural research labs such as the Advanced Studio at Colombia University-Gsapp in New York.

Abstract: Concrete Insurrection

I’ve heard about something that builds up only through multiple, heterogeneous and contradictory scenarios, something that rejects even the idea of a possible prediction about its form of growth or future typology.

Something shapeless grafted onto existing tissue, something that needs no vanishing point to justify itself but instead welcomes a quivering existence immersed in a real-time vibratory state, here and now.

Tangled, intertwined, it seems to be a city, or rather a fragment of a city.

Its inhabitants are immunized because they are both vectors and protectors of this complexity.

The multiplicity of its interwoven experiences and forms is matched by the apparent simplicity of its mechanisms.

The urban form no longer depends on the arbitrary decisions or control over its emergence exercised by a few, but rather the ensemble of its individual contingencies. It simultaneously subsumes premises, consequences and the ensemble of induced perturbations, in a ceaseless interaction. Its laws are consubstantial with the place itself, with no work of memory.

BIO: Prof. Matthias Kohler

Matthias Kohler is an architect with interests ranging from computational design and robotic fabrication to material innovation. In 2000, he founded the architecture practice Gramazio & Kohler with his partner Fabio Gramazio. Founding also the world’s first architectural robotic laboratory at the ETH Zurich, his academic research concentrates on a multi-disciplinary practice between computational design, robotic fabrication and material innovation.

Abstract: Computated Concrete

At the disposal of architecture in the age of computation is an evolving array of interoperable tools and processes that allow the fabrication of design propositions to be increasingly complex and adaptive. With this approach, non-standard constructive practices become an essential part where concrete is one of the most favored and used materials since almost any shape can be achieved. However, few solutions exist providing the efficient and waste-free production of concrete structures with complex geometries. This lecture presents recent research and attempts to address new potentials for non-standard concrete construction, which in conjunction with robotic fabrication allows for interweaving dynamic properties of the material with design and digital fabrication at full scale.

BIO: Hendrik Jonkers

Hendrik Marius Jonkers is currently a teaching scientist at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the Department of Materials & Environment, The Netherlands. Prior to that, he worked as a research scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany, as well as the University of Groningen, Department of Paleontology and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (MT-TNO).

Abstract: Healing Concrete

In this research project the suitability of very specific but otherwise harmless bacteria are tested for their ability to repair cracks and thus significantly improve the durability of concrete structures. Such a bacterial repair mechanism would be beneficial for the economy and the environment at the same time, as concrete is worldwide the most applied building material. This new type of ‘bio-concrete’ would make costly manual repair unnecessary and would minimize the use of raw materials, as structures will last much longer.

In nature a huge number of different varieties of bacteria occur and some of these are likely well adapted to artificial man-made environments such as concrete. From a human perspective concrete may seem an extreme environment as the material is dry and rock-solid. However, this does not apply to a specialized group of bacteria, the ‘extremophiles’, named after their habit to love extreme conditions. Some of these bacterial species are not only known to love extremely dry conditions, but also to be able to produce copious amounts of limestone. This calcium carbonate-based material, as well as other types of bio-minerals produced by bacteria, could serve to seal or heal cracks in concrete. The major goal of this research project therefore is to find the right bacteria which can, when integrated in concrete, actively repair a structure during its 50-100 years service life. This newly developed self-healing bio-concrete is expected to result in significantly reduced production-, repair-, and maintenance costs. Furthermore, this bacteria-based concrete will be much more environmental friendly as traditional concrete, as less material is needed due to the extended service life of its structures. Nowadays the production of cement, the most important ingredient of concrete, contributes for 5-10% to the world’s atmospheric CO₂ emission, and as less material is needed, a wide application of bio-concrete based structures is expected to significantly lower atmospheric CO₂ emissions.

BIO: Thorsten Klooster

Thorsten Klooster is a Berlin based architect and the editor of the book SMART SURFACES AND THEIR APPLICATION IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN. He is a former member of the Technical Science Research Group at the Fraunhofer Institute (IPK) in Berlin and a teacher for architectural design and construction at the Brandenburg University of Technology. In 2007 he founded the architectural studio TASK in Berlin.

Abstract: Electrifying Concrete

“Electrifying concrete” talks about the development of a new concrete called DiysCrete that is able to generate electricity out of solar energy. DiysCrete is based on the technical principles of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC or DYSC), using the generating means of electrochemical reactions of organic dyes absorbing sunlight. It can be produced without toxic emissions from freely available components. DiysCrete can be seen as a possible way of approaching new materialities for the design process. Starting from the BlingCrete project on a light reflecting concrete, that began as a series of experiments with light-reflecting materials and the phenomenon of retroreflection, further novel materials derived, like the solar active DiysCrete and the conductive and responsive Magnetically Patterned Concrete. At large these are attempts for high tech low budget materials, trying to create novel ambiguous polymorphic substances that could be regarded as new manifestations of concrete.

BIO: Asst. Prof. Dirk Hebel

Dirk Hebel is holding the position of Assistant Professor of Architecture and Construction at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore / ETH Zurich. Prior to that, he was the founding Scientific Director of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His research concentrates on alternative building materials and construction techniques and their application in developing territories.

Abstract: Bamboofying Concrete

Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

INTERNATIONAL FCL CONFERENCE CONCRETE SLEEPING BEAUTY
AUDITORIUM 2nd FLOOR – CREATE TOWER

Future Cities Laboratory FCL
Singapore ETH Centre SEC
01 CREATE Way / University Town
#06-01 CREATE TOWER
Singapore 138602

You are warmly invited to attend the international FCL conference CONCRETE – SLEEPING BEAUTY on 26 November 2012 organized by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel at ETH Zuerich/FCL Singapore together with TEC21 and espazium Switzerland as media partners. Five projects will introduce and initiate a discussion on the state of the art of a century-long unchanged material use. Can we think of new application and production methodologies? Can concrete heal itself? Can it produce power? Can concrete be computated? Are there organic reinforcement possibilities?

Five international researchers from different backgrounds will showcase their work. They aim to change the way we think about the most used building material on the globe today. The speakers will be Francois Roche of New Territories (France and Thailand), Matthias Kohler of Gramazio & Kohler (Switzerland), Hendrik Jonkers of TU Delft (The Netherlands), Thorsten Klooster of Task Architects (Germany) and Dirk Hebel, ETHZ/FCL (Switzerland and Singapore). The event will be moderated by Stephen Cairns, Scientific Coordinator of FCL Singapore.

Detailed Program Information here: Concrete Sleeping Beauty

The last talk of the Constructing Waste Seminar was led by Dr Chen Chia-Lung on 15 November 2012. Dr. Chen Chia- Lung is a Research Fellow and Centre Manager at Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C) Nanyang Technological University, NTU Singapore.

There are around 1 billion different types of bacteria in the world. Out of those, less than 1% is known or described scientifically. Within this huge spectrum, different bacterias are known to have specific qualities and properties. While many cause damage and deceases, others help to produce electricity, heal building materials, reduce waste or even ‘eat’ hazardous chemicals . This weeks’ talk focussed on the positive effects and possibilities of bacterias in various sectors.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

At the 5th International Congress Bauhaus.SOLAR 2012 in Erfurt on November 13, the Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD was awarded to the project “Solar Forest Tempelhof” by Felix Heisel and Jonas Klock from Berlin. Felix Heisel is a current working at FCL Singapore as a Researcher  at the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel.

This prize for young scientists is being offered by SolarInput e.V. and Solarvalley Mitteldeutschland e.V. all over Europe and is aimed at students and young graduates. It honours outstanding architecture and design projects showing innovative dealings with renewable energies, using solar energy.

According to Michael Frielinghaus, Head of the Jury and President of the BDA Association of German Architects, the winning project offers an important contribution to the debate on how to deal with historically important sites like the former airport Tempelhof in Berlin. “The project translates the history of its location in an exemplary and emblematic way.”

A public park, surrounded by a dense urban ring emerges on the area of the former airport Berlin Tempelhof. Forming a “Solar Forrest”, this open space is planted with trees, partly natural, mostly however artificial “solar trees”. Together, they comprise an innovative power plant, which also spends shade to Berlin’s inhabitants for their recreational activities on the field. The main element of the tree design is its “crown”, a solar balloon using the sun’s energy for buoyancy. Solar cells on its transparent shell and black PVC-Foils on the inside produce electricity and heat. The layout guarantees productivity, regardless of the behavior of the balloon. These solar trees not only produce energy and offer shade to the users of the park, but also work as charging stations for electronic devices and act as individual light sources in the evening hours.

The central interest of the Bauhaus Solar Award 2012 was to put the design and functional demands made of architecture, urban construction, landscape planning and product design into line with the ecological and energetic necessities. Interdisciplinary cooperation and experimental dealings with materials and technical possibilities are to lead to the development of new visionary ideas and the creation of innovations combining new technologies gentle on resources with modern design.

More information can be found on www.bauhaus-solar-award.de

‘Recycling Spaces’ is a short documentary on waste and recycling in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, presented by one of the authors, Felix Heisel. The movie led into a discussion on the financial aspect of waste, which is the topic of this week’s Constructing Waste session.

Together with Bisrat Kifle, Felix Heisel initiated the EiABC Movie Series on space appropriation, starting in 2011.The series so far consists out of 4 movies: Disappearing Spaces, Emerging Spaces, Supporting Spaces and Recycling Spaces.

Felix Heisel is working as a Researcher in the Chair of Architecture and Construction at the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore, a collaboration of ETH Zurich and NRF Singapore.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

Public Lunch Talk by Alireza Javadian at the FCL Future Cities Laboratory Singapore on 1st November 2012. Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

Public Lunch-Talk by Alireza Javadian at the FCL Future Cities Laboratory Singapore on 1st November 2012. Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

The 7th week’s session of Constructing Waste was opened with a presentation ‘Waste and Want’ by Marta Wisniewska.

The talk raises the everlasting question of aesthetic perception on the example of waste. Questions of necessity and luxury were raised, as waste in architecture evokes very extreme and contradictory reactions in both developing territories and developed countries. Cultural and aesthetic goals as well as differences were discussed on the example of MULU, a container housing project developed by Marta Wisniewska and Felix Heisel in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

Marta Wisniewska is a researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory at the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel. Prior to that, she was working as a lecturer and architectural program coordinator at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Addis Ababa.

More information: CONSTRUCTING WASTE

Building Ethiopia, published in October 2012 by Helawi Sewnet and Zegeye Cherenet, represents a documentation of research activities at the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) between 2009 and 2011. More than 40 articles and authors set as their objective a sustainable urban as well as rural development of Ethiopia. Bridging between teaching, practice and research, all contributions represent an open system of alternative approaches to tackle Ethiopia’s most pressing challenge: how to supply the building infrastructure for one of the fastest growing and developing territories in the world.

The research was undertaken at EiABC in the context of a large higher education reform process and under the leadership of EiABC’s founding Scientific Director Dirk E. Hebel. Being an Assistant Professor for Architecture and Construction at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore by now, several contributions of him and his research partners Felix Heisel, Marta Wisniewska, and Lara Davis can be found in the publication:

Dirk E. Hebel:
BUILDING THE FUTURE – APPLICATIONS OF LOCAL CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIALS IN ETHIOPIA

Dirk E. Hebel:
ADDIS ABABA – EXTRACTING CHARACTERS FROM VOIDS

Dirk E. Hebel:
DIALOGUE BUILDING

Marta Wisniewska with Bisrat Kifle and Addisalem Feleke
REFUGEE SHELTERS FOR ETHIOPIA

Felix Heisel and Marta Wisniewska:
MULU PROMISE PLAZA & VILLAGE, SUSTAINABLE, MODULAR AND COST EFFECTIVE CONTAINER UNITS

Lara Davis with Philippe Block:
EARTHEN MASONRY VAULTING: TECHNOLOGIES AND TRANSFER

Felix Heisel:
HOUSING TYPOLOGIES, A CASE STUDY IN ADDIS ABABA

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

Felix Heisel and Bisrat Kilfe recently filmed two new episodes of their documentary Movie Series on Space Appropriation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The material is currently being edited into the final movies titled “Materializing Spaces” and “Initiating Spaces”, which will hopefully be premiered in December 2012. For the generous support, the authors would like to thank  the German Embassy in Addis Ababa and CoReSing FCL Singapore.

Materializing Spaces – a night in Addis Ababa’s periphery

Informal housing construction in Addis Ababa features a very specific, illegal but common typology, the “chereka bet”. Whole suburbs are being constructed in such a way illegally around Ethiopia’s capital. Piece by piece, local farmers sell their land to migrants in search of a place to live. Gradually, these homes grow into settlements, with churches, schools and wells; all half-legal and self-organized.

The Amharic name “chereka bet” translates into moon-shine house and describes the fact that these houses are build over night, in the light of the moon. Unseen or tolerated from police and kebele, neighbors and specialists organize themselves to construct housing and shops within limited hours in the night and on weekends.

As part of the documentary series ‘…Spaces’ we do not want to legitimate this process, however we feel the necessity to document it as a part of the housing provision in Addis Ababa. Interestingly, many chereka bets afterwards receive a title deed, in the hope to tackle Ethiopia’s housing shortage. This rises the question if self-building could not be a legitimate housing provision for certain social groups?

A legitimate process within rules and regulations might be a solution to deal with some of the major problems caused by the chereka bets; one of them for example deforestation. The environmental effect of building and fire wood harvestation in these formerly green farmlands is certainly immense and almost irreversible.

This documentary shows the construction of such a chereka bet in a time lapse. Additional interviews with the future inhabitant, a carpenter, as well as his friends and neighbors shed light on the reasons for the chereka bet construction as well as the building process. Experts on architectural history, social aspects and the kebele structure enhance the arguments from their external viewpoints.

Initiating Spaces – a day in Addis Ababa’s hinterland

Traditional and cultural habits, religious and social patterns and income generating mechanisms should be the basis for new developments in Ethiopia’s capital. Considering that Addis Ababa’s history reaches back only one century and most inhabitants of the informal areas are rural migrants, the spatial arrangements of the traditional tukul actually form part of Addis Ababa’s understanding of space.

In comparison with the kebele house, this documentary shows the daily life in a traditional tukul on the example of a farmer’s family living in Wenchi. This movie considers questions such as (1) why does rural to urban migration contribute so heavily to Addis Ababa’s growth and (2) which habits or traditions have been imported to the city, respectively, which behaviors developed in an urban context.

Employing the same technique as Disappearing Spaces, the film documents one day in the life of a representative family, including food preparation, work in the fields, the way to school or the necessary social networks in the neighborhood. Interviews talk about the relationship of countryside and city and motivations for migration. Expert opinions give additional information on the context.

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

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel, Bisrat Kifle, Addis alem Fekele, Tewedaj Eshetu, Yosef Teferri, and Eyob Wedesu at the Green Forum ADDIS 2050 Conference in Addis Ababa on October 09, 2012. Addis Ababa belongs to the fastest growing urban centers in the world. Migration from the rural areas as well as a 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. Alternative pathways will be presented in this lecture which is a result of a workshop collaboration between the Green Forum Ethiopia, FCL Singapore and EiABC Addis Ababa.

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

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

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.

Public lecture by Felix Heisel at the Green Forum ADDIS 2050 Conference in Addis Ababa on October 09, 2012. Out of Singapore’s breathtaking development over the past 50 years, the lecture focuses on two mayor characteristics of urban planning: the incredible success story of the Housing & Developing Board (HDB) as well as the concept of a “City in the Garden”. Today, more than 85% of Singapore’s 5.3 million inhabitants are home owners, due to an inventive strategy implemented already in the 1960ies. Identification of the home owners with the nation-state is almost guaranteed, since almost everybody is owning a share of Singapore, whereby national economic growth enhances the value of private property. Also during the last 50 years, even so the built mass in Singapore grew constantly, the green area did as well and is covering today more than 50% of the island, making Singapore one of the greenest cities world-wide. The lecture will introduce the necessary decisions that were taken over the last five decades in order to achieve such high standards.

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

Recording of the public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 Academia Engelberg Congress in Switzerland on September 14, 2012. – Courtesy of Academia Engelberg.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 Academia Engelberg Congress in Switzerland on September 14, 2012.  The 11th Dialogue on Science will focus on the issue of rapid urbanization and its consequences for everyday life in cities around the world. With this congress the Academia Engelberg Foundation asks how might the disciplines of architecture, urbanism and the built environment sciences respond to the challenges of rapid urbanization?

The Chair of Architecture and Construction at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore concentrates its research on ‘alternative modern’ construction materials. The ‘alternative’ aspect of this focus emerges from an exploration of the possibility of knowledge transfer, which could change the way we think about vernacular or traditional building materials. One material, maybe the most neglected building material in the world so far, has the chance to change our perspective: Bamboo, “the next super-material” as it was called out in a recent BBC documentary. It is growing exactly in those regions around the equator belt, where most developing territories are to be found today. Bamboo is a very fast growing and affordable natural resource, which has outstanding constructive qualities, superior to wood and, looking at tensile capacities, even to steel.

Re-inventing and overcoming its role as a old fashioned vernacular building material of the South, it could start to establish a knowledge transfer from South-to-South or South-to-North and reverse the traditional model. The talk will argue, that through knowledge transfer, there is a chance to combine and therefore revaluate globally applied building materials with local available substances and knowledge from the South. It is proposing the possibility for a ‘reverse’ or ‘alternative modernism’, whereby developed countries might start to learn and gain from a knowledge developed in the ‘South’.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 FCL/ETH conference in Zurich, Switzerland on September 10, 2012.  Multiple centers, hubs and nodes increasingly supplement traditional city centers, regional territories and urban clusters. These are embedded in a network of infrastructures to form complex polycentric urban regions that extend far into once rural hinterlands. Research from the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore will be confronted with research from ETH Zurich and elsewhere in order to promote an exchange of knowledge and to bring the Future Cities Laboratory’s work to the attention of a larger audience in Switzerland. Following the question on how a well-tempered environment can be achieved in different situations of affluence, material resources and technological development, Dirk Hebel will introduce first outcomes of his research in Singapore.

Public forum discussion with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the UN-Habitat Confrenece: The Urban Future in Naples, Italy, September 04, 2012. The overarching theme of the sixth session of the World Urban Form “The Urban Future” clearly signifies the need to anticipate, imagine and plan for the future in order to shape it in sustainable ways. The rapid pace of change from global to local levels and related complexities, uncertainties and connectivity necessitate cities to think ahead into the future and adapt their plans, policies and interventions accordingly. Promoting socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally balanced cities requires decision-makers to systematically examine and anticipate future trends, conditions and drivers of change. To become prosperous, innovative and competitive, cities need to critically examine possible and probable scenarios so as to work towards their preferred future.
The future offers enormous potential for achieving sustainable development targets in cities as it can be shaped through actions and decisions taken today.

While the term “future” bears several uncertainties, systematically analyzing the future presents an opportunity to identify alternatives that can guide today’s policies and development at the city, regional and national scales. Futuring is the methodical exploration, creation, and testing of a range of alternative futures to inform decision making, and allow better decisions to inform a better tomorrow. Thus, the objective of future analysis and visioning is not to project the “right” future or make the “right” decisions” but to make more informed decisions in relation to many possible projected scenarios.
Globally, cities have engaged in futuring processes at different scales and in various urban sectors so as to design policies and interventions that take future opportunities and risks into consideration. The results of these processes have not been without challenges, especially when it comes to being translated into action. In many other instances, cities seldom engage in foresight exercises and may be more occupied with addressing current and immediate needs and challenges, especially in developing countries. There is thus a clear need to rethink the role of futuring in urban management and governance to enable cities to better prepare for a complex, uncertain and rapidly changing global context.

UN‐Habitat has recently launched an urban futures initiative called “Futurban” to integrate futuring into urban policy and decision making processes. Futurban undertakes research to anticipate and analyze future trends, conditions and events in order to advance knowledge on the future of cities and contribute to enhanced policy and decision making. In addition, based on a rigorous analysis of alternative scenarios, Futurban assists cities to envision their preferred urban future and set realistic milestones for achieving it through innovative and visionary strategies. By building foresight in policy and decision making processes, it strengthens the ability of cities to capitalize on strategic levers to proactively shape their future.

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.