Professur Nachhaltiges Bauen / Sustainable Construction

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.

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.

Public lecture by Felix Heisel on Alternative Building Materials at the Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament on Friday 28th, 2012.

The international conference Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament (GXT) 2012 brings together 20 delegates from four universities – NUS USP, the Australian National University, Peking University, and Oxford University – to discuss problems and propose catalysts for change related to this year’s theme, The Future of Cities. The delegates from these universities are meeting in teams over 10 days in July to propose a cross-disciplinary catalyst with the potential to change a specific issue related to the future of cities in 30 years. They will each bring their unique domain knowledge and cross-cultural experiences in generating their ideas and in giving their presentations at the final symposium during their stay in Singapore.

Public lecture by Felix Heisel on Alternative Building Materials at the Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament on Friday July 28th, 2012.

The international conference Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament (GXT) 2012 brings together 20 delegates from four universities – NUS USP, the Australian National University, Peking University, and Oxford University – to discuss problems and propose catalysts for change related to this year’s theme, The Future of Cities. The delegates from these universities are meeting in teams over 10 days in July to propose a cross-disciplinary catalyst with the potential to change a specific issue related to the future of cities in 30 years. They will each bring their unique domain knowledge and cross-cultural experiences in generating their ideas and in giving their presentations at the final symposium during their stay in Singapore.

The Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel is guest-editing the fall edition of Ethiopia’s leading construction magazine: ‘Construction Ahead’. The 80 page issue “Constructing Alternatives” proposes a variety of alternative modern, and sometimes transformed building materials and construction methods. Although tested in and derived from an African context, their application can also answer the rising needs of other developing territories and turn them from import-oriented systems into self-sustaining, knowledge exporting nations. As we are located in Singapore momentarily, an additional outlook “Learning from Singapore…” wants to initiate a debate on the development of a local, African architectural language, considering geographical, climatic, social and cultural characteristics without falling into a copy-paste mentality of the Dubai Fever. “Constructing Alternatives” will be issued in Oct/Nov. 2012.

‘Construction Ahead’ is a specialized bimonthly magazine for engineers, industry academics, architects, construction material manufacturers and suppliers and related service providers. ‘Construction Ahead’ delivers keen insight and analysis of key construction markets, projects, products and trends.

Preparing Food. Today.

In 2052 there will be nine billion people living on earth, with the majority in cities. The recipe book Preparing Food. Today., and the ‘happening’ connected with its book-launch was a proposal for the Venice Biennale 2012. It introduces a change in attitude towards available recourses, as a possible solution to fill the prognosticated gap between production and demand. Diversification, here discussing the issues of ingredients and food preparation, will be an essential step towards sustainable, livable future cities.

First: To secure three healthy, nutritious, filling meals per day for all seven billion inhabitants will be the greatest challenge of our Future Cities, and especially their Hinterlands. Already in 2012, we are working feverishly to engineer crops such as rice, maize and wheat to increase yields so as to meet the growing demand. Preparing Food. Today. offers a selection of alternative ingredients to complement our existing menu to ensure food security in 2052.

Second: Our future world will certainly face determining challenges such as energy and water shortages. Since need is the mother of inventions, these issues will shape new technologies, our habits and our mindsets. Although the general way of food preparation has remained more or less the same throughout the past hundreds of years our tools, ingredients and recipes depict their times and crises. Preparing Food. Today. includes a chapter on how to cook in modern times, with less water and no fossil based fuels.

Third: Local cuisines are born out of their specific contexts. Social and cultural habits, as well as accessibility define what is on the menu. On the other hand, following latest trends, exactly these local dishes start to travel around the world. Sushi is as widely available now, as schnitzel or chicken rice. Continuing along this path, not only ingredients, but also menus and tastes will further diversify within the next 40 years. Preparing Food. Today. thus, gives an overview of recipes in the world of 2052, regardless of the region it will be used in.

Credits: Naomi Hanakata, Felix Heisel, Michaela Frances Prescott, Kashif Shaad, Martha Kolokotroni, Marta Wisniewska

Public lunch-talk by Felix Heisel at FCL Singapore on July 12, 2012. Addis Ababa, unlike many other African cities, has a history and city fabric to learn from. Even if the physical conditions of the informal settlements are very poor, the social networks, as well as spatial and cultural values developed and embedded in these areas are worth the preservation and study. Due to the current redevelopments, these parts of the city will change for good within the next years. Hence, now is the right time to document a century old way of living in Addis Ababa. We believe that its informal sector can teach important lessons about the use of architecture and its social role.

This movie is an cinematic documentary on the use of space in the informal parts of Ethiopia’s capital. Looking at one typical house for the duration of 24 hours, one can notice how a single room can serve for most daily functions. Interviews with the inhabitants and experts give further insight into the topic. “Disappearing Spaces” is the first of a series of documentaries on spatial developments in Addis Ababa.

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.

Felix Heisel will be holding a lecture titled Disappearing Spaces at the FCL Lunch Talk Series on July 12th – 12:00 (noon) at the Future Cities Laboratory.

Addis Ababa, unlike many other African cities, has a history and city fabric to learn from. Even if the physical conditions of the informal settlements are very poor, the social networks, as well as spatial and cultural values developed and embedded in these areas are worth the preservation and study.

Due to the current redevelopments, these parts of the city will change for good within the next years. Hence, now is the right time to document a century old way of living in Addis Ababa. We believe that its informal sector can teach important lessons about the use of architecture and its social role.

This movie is an educational documentary on the use of space in the informal parts of Ethiopia’s capital. Looking at one typical house for the duration of 24 hours, one can notice how a single room can serve for most daily functions. Interviews with the inhabitants and experts give further insight into the topic.

“Disappearing Spaces” is the first of a series of documentaries on spatial developments in Addis Ababa.

CoreSing invited Karsten Schlesier for a FCL Lunch Talk on July 5th at the Future Cities Laboratory in CREATE Tower.

Proto-Typologies: bottles and bubbles

Starting the design by the chosen material urges to think about structural principles and details matching the properties and being customized to the scale of design. Projects from the structural design education show solutions to a material oriented design approach of alternative construction materials. These prototype structures define typologies with a potential for further development.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Design Research Society Biennial International Conference in Bangkok on July 04, 2012.

As urban populations grow so does the demand for materials and resources to support them. Where such resource demands were once satisfied by local and regional hinterlands, they are increasingly global in scale and reach. This phenomenon has generated materials flows that are trans-continental and planetary in scope, and has profound consequences for the sustainability, functioning, sense of ownership and identity of future cities. Seen from this perspective, the project for urban sustainability must be global in ambition, but cannot be a matter of applying a universal set of rules. Rather, sustainability requires a decentralised approach that both acknowledges the global dimension and is sensitive to the social, cultural, aesthetic, economic, and ecological capacities of particular places to thrive and endure.

Urban sustainability is therefore the capacity of densely populated conglomerates for a social, economic and ecological endurance. In this sense, the urban has to be understood as an open dynamic system with changing parameters characterizing long-lasting measures to achieve a sustainable behavior. In past decades, a phenomena of global “best construction practice” traveled through universities and building industries worldwide. Handbooks of sustainable construction, no matter in which location or context they were produced, were applied in a global scale, leading to a misunderstanding that sustainability could be measured as a universal standard. Sustainable construction methods must acknowledge their specific context und cultural setting, including the skills of local workers. Availability and origin of materials as well as their connection and economic as well as ecological value need to be taken into consideration, before deciding on certain construction methods. The context of a certain construction application includes the cultural space (history, religion, language, etc), the ecological space (which materials and products are produced locally with how much energy and other input sources), the ethical space (who produced the materials and products where and at which costs), as well as the economical space (which materials and products generated a local value chain and which are imported).

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Asia Green Youth Challenge in Singapore on July 2nd, 2012, a conference held as part of the WasteMET Asia Conference 2012 at Marina Bay Sands.

The Asian Green Youth Challenge (AGYC) is an environmental initiative by youth for youth to imagine and realise sustainable and innovative projects. Having recognised the mounting environmental challenges that Asia faces, AGYC seeks to promote ground-up innovation that is financially and environmentally sustainable.

The Embassy of Switzerland in Ethiopia with the Swiss Agency for Developmemnt and Cooperation under the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs invited Prof. Dirk E. Hebel as an representative of ETH Zuerich for a symposium on the future Swiss Ethiopian Research & Scientific Cooperation for Development held on July 28, 2012 in Addis Ababa. The forum will focus on Ethiopian experience and implementation of partnerships in Research & Science and on future fields, scope and modalities of Research & Science cooperation for development.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Design Research Society Biennial International Conference in Bangkok on July 04, 2012. The conference hosts 500 world’s leading design academics and professionals for five days of discussion and debate with a special emphasis on the role of design in sustainable development. The conference will provide a platform for educationalists and practitioners in all design fields to share their experiences and develop plans for the future.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Asia Green Youth Challenge in Singapore on July 2nd, 2012, a conference held as part of the WasteMET Asia Conference 2012 at Marina bay Sands. The Asian Green Youth Challenge (AGYC) is an environmental initiative by youth for youth to imagine and realise sustainable and innovative projects. Having recognised the mounting environmental challenges that Asia faces, AGYC seeks to promote ground-up innovation that is financially and environmentally sustainable.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at TU Delft on May 31, 2012. The modernist ‘proto-type’ followed the idea of one ‘ideal’ model configuration, applied in a serial way, while the ‘proto-typology’ defines a flexible and heterogenous form of organization, which can be changed and readjusted instantly and serve different cultural as well as contextual conditions. It is a process rather than a product. The lecture will show different case studies of prototypologies errected in the last years at the Urban Laboratory ETHiopia.

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.

 

Puplic lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel on March 29, 2012 at the Goethe Institute Bangalore, India, organized by MoD Institute Berlin/Bangalore in the series ‘Talk of the Town’. The lectures series, under the banner of the year of Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities, is organized around the themes of ‘SEE’, ‘ACT’ and ‘BUILD’ respectively, to critically address various issues related to urban transformation in India in applied and innovative ways. The first lecture began with Richard Saul Wurman’s famous call for ‘making the city observable’ to interrogate different practices of seeing the city through cartography and other visual means and how those shape our everyday urban experiences and decisions. The second lecture ‘ACT’ will gather urban practitioners and actors to discuss and compare various strategies and tactics undertaken by them to intervene in city processes. The discussion will focus on how specific ways of ‘acting’ or ‘intervening’ in the city can create or dismantle urban hierarchies, and also what examples of ‘acting’ in the city can be found in the urban discourse in India.

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.

Fall Semester 2016
Reporting from the Front: Venedig _ Geschichte und Zukunft

Dates:
Monday 24th October to Friday 28th October 2016
Cost Category: C

We travel to Venice to get a selected view on the Venice Biennale and to visit one of the most impressive and unique urban structures in the world.

 

 

 

Spring Semester 2016
Zukunft des Bauens – eine Rundreise

Dates:
Monday 14th March to Friday 18th March 2016
Cost Category: B

We travel to Switzerland and southern Germany, in search of groundbreaking approaches in the production of buildings. It is the goal to understand technical frameworks and to experience the built reality and today’s opportunities in terms of prefabrication and energy issues.

 

 

 

Fall Semester 2015
Exploring Cambodia: from Angkor to Pnomh Penh

Dates:
Saturday 17th October to Sunday 25th October 2015
Cost Category: E

We are visiting Cambodia from the vernacular architecture of the Khmer to the booming capital Phnom Penh. The main goal is to experience the triad of social structures, climatic conditions and local building materials, as well as their influence on the built environment.

 

 

 

Spring Semester 2015
Tour de Suisse

Dates:
Monday 16th March to Friday 20th March 2015
Cost Category: B

We travel through Switzerland and visit buildings, which have an architectural concept developed based on the local. The goal is increase the knowledge and experience of Switzerland’s materials and the locations, skills and people connected to these materials.

 

 

 

Fall Semester 2014
Addis Ababa / LaLibela

Dates:
Saturday 18th October to Sunday 26th October 2014
Cost Category: E

This week in Ethiopia will concentrate on the development of new, resilient and alternative housing strategies for one of the fastest growing cities in the Global South. Next to visits in different housing typologies and neighborhoods, the group will also investigate and experience how locally available materials need to change our design strategies. In the second half of the week, trips either to the rural area south of Addis Ababa or LaLibela will be organized.

Winter Semester 2023/24
Seminar Master: Understanding the existing building stock

The building stock is becoming increasingly important. Through the preservation of buildings immense resources and emissions can be saved, which significantly reduces the ecological footprint and at the same time preserves and strengthens our building culture.

In our seminar we want to lay the basics for understanding the existing building stock. From learning professional measuring techniques and adapted photo documentation to sketching and understanding the most important architectural elements, we will look at an existing building in Würzburg. In the process, a basic knowledge is taught that will later become essential in professional practice.

Winter Semester 2023
Summer School Rearranging Spazio Punch

The German contribution to this year’s 18th Architecture Biennale 2023 is dedicated to the themes of care, maintenance and repair entitled “Open for Maintanance_Wegen Umbau geschlossen”. This year, the German Pavilion is transforming into a productive infrastructure that promotes the principles of circular construction as well as the social responsibility of architecture. It serves to collect, catalogue, provide and process used materials from the previous Art Biennale. A workshop set up in the German Pavilion forms the working environment for various Venetian and international initiatives and universities that work with interventions to preserve and maintain socio-spatial structures on site.

Together with the KOEN Institute, the Graz University of Technology and the Baukreisel Association (Collective for Transformation and Design), we are organising a workshop week as part of the 1:1 Maintenance Programme to plan and implement an intervention. Together with the Venetian cooperative Spazio Punch, whose alternative exhibition space and creative meeting place is located on the island of Giudecca, we will design and maintain the place with small repairs and additions. We will have a fully equipped workshop and materials store at our service in the German Pavilion at the Biennale site.

The material collected from contributions to the past Art Biennale as well as the material stocks of Spazio Punch serve as a basis. The intention is to work on the existing material with small interventions and to create new details.

One of the many networks initiated by the curatorial team of the German Pavilion is the cooperation with Laboratori occupato Morion. They are making their building, not far from the Giardini, available to all participants as group accommodation.

 

Winter Semester 2022
Circular component analysis

The deconstruction friendliness of a construction and the reusability of materials are decisive parameters for circular planning and building. For high-quality recycling and reuse of materials, material layers as well as components must be planned and installed in a detachable way.

The aim of the seminar is to determine the qualitative material value of a separated component and to present it graphically, as well as to find new joining techniques. From the analysis, conclusions are to be drawn for the planning of new circular component constructions as well as to show ways for the design of alternative joining techniques. The analysis of the components is planned in a group work of two persons each.

Summer Semester 2021
Seminar week: Digital tools within the design process

How to digitize the building site and surroundings without plans? How to quickly 3D construct and present my creative ideas? How to successfully visualize my designs and concepts at a high level? – Questions to which we would like to share specific knowledge during the seminar week.

The compact course includes strategies for all essential milestones in the design process. From the site analysis to the final draft ready for presentation.

The methods within the seminar week deal with the analog/digital transition. And, in reverse, “design to production”. The interplay between hand, gut and head is equally challenged. We will explore digital design tools and strategies in order to handle a more complex design process faster and to simplify it significantly. Visualization methods will be complemented with important Photoshop skills. There will be consecutive theoretical input per day. A hands-on exercise with partial modules and afterwards a reflection in the group.

The goal is to get to know tools and strategies and to network in the group community. You will get to know each other and us, even in digital times, and make important contacts for your future as architectural designer.

Winter Semester 2020
Building the future!
A demonstrator for sustainable construction in cooperation with Wacker Chemie AG

Demonstrators in the building sector serve to place new vectors into the future and to generate potential fields. It is vital that innovations are encouraged that will help to reduce the environmental impact of building components as well as increase their durability, recyclability and sustainability.  In the vision of a future-orientated construction industry we have to find new solutions in developing and applying novel and sustainable construction materials and techniques. 

By developing a demonstrator for the future building industry, the students get the chance to develop scenarios for construction applications for a circular construction economy. Scenarios that adapt to new conditions and do not consume raw materials, but only use it and return it to its original state after the life cycle of the construction. After a research on existing demonstrators the students will collect materials and construction methods which fulfil specific criteria for a sustainable and circular economy. In a further phase of the seminar, the students will design the demonstrator and bring their research into practice.

Wacker Chemie, as the collaborator of this seminar will give the students the opportunity to realize their best design concepts.

Winter Semester 2020
Circular Contruction Methods

In a joint seminar, construction methods are to be investigated and documented that can guarantee the future deconstruction of buildings by type and thus form the basis of cycle-based construction. At the beginning the basics and principles of joining and designing a future recycling economy will be taught. Based on this topic, historical and current construction methods will be examined, which can be deconstructed, reused or recycled after their use in the building.

The Seminar is a cooperation between Professership for Building Construction and Design, Prof. Luwig Wappner and the Professorship for Sustainable Construction, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel.

Summer Semester 2020
Rammed earth – from technology to application

Joint seminar of the Professorships of Building Technology, Prof. Rosemarie Wagner and Sustainable Construction, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel

In a joint seminar, the basics and principles of building with rammed earth are taught. In a first approach on a theoretically level and built examples. Based on this, practical exercises and the teaching of applied techniques in loam are taught in practical steps. Finally, the course offers the opportunity to create a real object near Freiburg in the form of an intense workshop on site.

More Information (Reader) here.

Winter Semester 2019
Local Material, Local Design, Local Built

In the seminar “Local Material, Local Design, Local Built” the students did an intensive research in local resources such as the Buntsandstein of the Pfälzer Wald, wood from the Black Forest or gravel along the Upper Rhine. The type, quantity and composition of the resources, as well as their extraction and use, were investigated with regard to their sustainability. In the winter semester, these research results will be used for further consideration and innovative presentation of the materials, products and craft processes. What role do locally available resources play within architecture and what potential do they offer for the future? The insights gained in the seminars are integrated into the collection and reorganization of the material library.

Summer Semester 2019
Local Material, Local Design, Local Built

A Research through Local Resources. What is local? What is a resource? Where are resources available? In which forms and quantities? How are they mined, produced and processed? Which suppliers are there? Are the materials really sustainable? What are the criteria? Are they useful? What is the potential of reusable and recyclable materials?

In two consecutive semesters, the seminar “Local Material, Local Design, Local Built – A Research and Design Journey through Local Resources” deals with methodical answers to these questions and an innovative representation of the materials, products and craft processes from the material sample to the prototype.

Winter Semester 2018
Build up!
Innovative building materials through ceramic 3D printing

After having been used for a long time for pragmatic construction solutions, ceramics are now gaining a new significance within architecture, thanks to a series of innovative technologies. Digital fabrication, computer-controlled burning kilns or the use of robotics in the construction of buildings have led to different fields of application and appearances. These latest developments enable architects to link material and functional systems which go far beyond the standard building material in terms of construction, function and aesthetics.

Generative technologies also offer high potential in terms of resource-efficient production. This is because the additive manufacturing process only makes material necessary where it is required due to aesthetic criteria and mechanical stress.

The seminar deals with traditional and new manufacturing methods for ceramic materials, shows current approaches in the construction industry and introduces material research in a playful and empirical way. After an initial research, the material ceramics will be researched in an experimental way. The aim is to develop a ceramic building material that can be printed using a ceramic 3D printer in Karlsruhe’s Majolika.

Summer Semester 2018
Abbau / Anbau / Aufbau 

Mit steigenden Bevölkerungszahlen wächst auch der Bedarf an Materialien und Ressourcen immer weiter an. Aktuell wird in vielen Branchen nach innovativen Ansätzen zur nachhaltigen Rohstoffnutzung und einer konsequenten Schließung der stofflichen Kreisläufe geforscht – zum einen angetrieben durch die ökologische Notwendigkeit, zum anderen auch ganz pragmatisch durch wirtschaftliche Aspekte.

Das 21. Jahrhundert wird einen radikalen Paradigmenwechsel in der Herstellung von Baumaterialien verlangen. Die vorherrschende Mentalität unsere Baustoffe aus Minen zu gewinnen ist an einen un-nachhaltigen Punkt gekommen: wir wissen, dass Materialien wie Sand, Blei, Zink oder Kupfer nur noch wenige Jahrzehnte in den Minen der Erdkruste zur Verfügung stehen und nicht regenerativ sind. Während die Industrialisierung zu einer Umwandlung von regenerativen zu den beschriebenen nicht regenerativen Materialquellen geführt hat, wird unsere Zeit den umgekehrten Weg einschlagen müssen: eine Verschiebung hin zur Kultivierung, Aufzucht, Vermehrung und Wachstum von künftigen Ressourcen. Diese Klasse von Ressourcen für den Bausektor können entweder im konventionellen bodengestützten landwirtschaftlichen Rahmen oder in spezifischen Zuchtbetrieben/Laboren unter Verwendung von Mikroorganismen kultiviert werden. Daneben wird die Bedeutung von Recyclingmaterialien weiter steigen. Die Stadt muss hier als die neue Mine zur Gewinnung von Rohstoffen betrachtet werden.

Die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit den gängigen Baumaterialien sowie die Forschung bezüglich alternativen und innovativen Materialien für die Architektur sind konkreter Bestandteil der Lehre am Fachgebiet Nachhaltiges Bauen. Das Seminar befasst sich mit der Problematik schwindender Ressourcen, zeigt aktuelle Lösungen der Bauindustrie auf und führt in die Praxis der Materialforschung ein. Nach einer anfänglichen Recherche, wird ein ausgewähltes Material in experimenteller Arbeitsweise erforscht, dabei entwickeln die Studierenden eigene Versuchsreihen. Ziel des Seminars ist es das Material in eine Anwendung zu bringen.

Wintersemester 2017/18 
From Mining to Cultivation

Durch die Industrialisierung hat sich unsere Bauindustrie verstärkt auf mineralische, endliche Materialquellen konzentriert. Das 21. Jahrhundert ermöglicht und fordert nun einen Paradigmenwechsel: eine Umorientierung vom Abbau zum Anbau unserer Materialressourcen. Das Ziel der gemeinsamen Seminararbeit mit Vorlesungen, Diskussionen, Referaten, Experimenten und einer abschließenden schriftlichen Arbeit ist es die Potenziale und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten kultivierter Baumaterialien innerhalb einer nachhaltigen, industrielle Bauwirtschaft zu beleuchten. Ein besonderes Interesse liegt hierbei auf neuartigen, ungewöhnlichen und gewachsenen Materialalternativen.

Fall Semester 2012 FCL Singapore
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.

Winter Semester 2023/24 – Bachelor & Master

Design Studio Hebel: Thought to the point – Contemporary living in the historic Henkels lace factory in Wuppertal

As part of the Urban Mining Student Award 2023/24, visions for the sustainable use of existing buildings are being sought, both in the sense of redensification and in the sense of preserving important building culture in German cities. The KIT Faculty of Architecture has already won this competition three times in recent years and this year we want to take on the task again.

The focus of the task is the respectful conversion and cycle-compatible redevelopment of a historic factory site on the grounds of the former lace factory A.&E. Henkels in Wuppertal-Langerfeld. The task here is to develop an exemplary, viable and sustainable future concept for historic buildings. This is a task that will increasingly face us in the coming years.

Against the background of the significant increase in land consumption per capita and the increasing soil sealing of recent years, parallel to the urgent need for housing in the cities and the development of new living and working environment requirements, the task aims to develop innovative housing concepts with versatile qualities for a diverse population through spatial and organisational synergies.

The aim is to complement the residential use with a functional and constructively flexible range of spaces that can be used by third parties or adapted spatially, and to answer the design questions: What is “contemporary living and working”? How can a real social mix be generated within the former factory block? How can, for example, social housing and luxury apartments (necessary due to the financing model) co-exist or even create added value for all residents or for the entire district through their co-existence? The goal is to create a lively and flexibly usable residential area of appropriate density with high-quality, greened outdoor spaces and open spaces using as few resources as possible.

The design will take place in collaboration with the integrated disciplines of structural engineering (Prof. Riccardo La Magna)and building economics (Hon. Prof. Kai Fischer).

Winter Semester 2022 – Master

BauTechKIT – A laboratory for future building

The Faculty of Architecture and the Department IV Natural and Built Environment of KIT have set themselves the goal to become a pioneer of circular and sustainable building in Germany and Europe. This requires a new research, teaching and experimental laboratory for future building, in which research, teaching and practical applications can be interlinked and practiced. 

Topics of sustainable building should not only be researched, but the building should already show and demonstrate them. The laboratory is to become a showcase for research into future building for the entire society and an attractor for the city of Karlsruhe.

The semester task is to develop a construction laboratory located in area 10 on the south campus. An urban planning study is part of the task. A large ground-level hall is required, in which new possibilities for future construction will be researched with the help of digital manufacturing processes and robotics, and experimental buildings will be erected. Above the hall, teaching and learning spaces for students and researchers are to be created with common zones for exchange and networking.  On the roof area, individual research and innovation modules are to be installed according to the “plug-in” principle and can be dismantled again simply and easily. People will live and work in these changing units, so that they serve as busy experimental laboratories and at the same time shape and constantly change the appearance of the building.

Winter Semester 2022/23 – Bachelor

Circular City: Heidelberg – Resource-efficient housing concepts for a growing city

Cities play a crucial role in the struggle for a sustainable and climate-friendly future. This is where housing, production, trade, transport and energy consumption all come together. In addition, our cities are gigantic stores of raw materials. In some areas, the resources tied up in the current building stock have long since exceeded the raw material deposits that can be reached with reasonable effort in the earth’s crust. This urban mine needs to be tapped.

The city of Heidelberg has set itself ambitious sustainability goals and wants to lead the way as a pioneer of the circular economy in urban development and urban planning. To this end, among other things, the project “Circular City – Building Material Cadastre for the City of Heidelberg” was launched, with which the city is relying on the urban mining principle. The building stock is being successively recorded and analyzed so that the data obtained can be made available to planners.

This semester, we will investigate how the application of circular building production and the use of materials from urban mining can succeed architecturally, using different design locations in Heidelberg. 

The design will take place in collaboration with the integrated disciplines of structural engineering (Prof. Riccardo La Magna), FBTA (Prof. Andreas Wagner), and building economics (Hon. Prof. Kai Fischer).

Summer Semester 2021 – Master

Architecture Lab – Solar Decathlon 2021

Team RoofKIT is taking part in what is currently the largest architectural, technical-interdisciplinary university competition in the world: the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021. 18 teams from all over the world are competing in 10 disciplines for the best concept for sustainable building and living in the city. The motto of the competition: “design-build-operate” means that we will build a part of the design as a demonstration object 1:1 and present it in Wuppertal.

The project of the RoofKIT team has already been running for a year. Students have developed an overall building design in an urban context as an addition to an existing building and have come up with an initial idea for the demonstration unit.

In the summer semester of 2021, we will take the next step: you will have the unique opportunity to join us and the executing companies, specialists and engineers in the execution planning up to a scale of 1:1. We will develop single-variety constructions and details that are appropriate for recycling, research materials from the urban mine, and enter into exchange with manufacturers and technical experts. We write reports, develop communication strategies, give interviews, shoot films and develop an innovative energy and mobility concept whose origin is the sun, the only open system on our planet.

The design semester is a cooperation between the professorships of Sustainable Construction and Building Physics and Technical Extension.

Winter Semester 2020/21 – Master

Island of Lemures – A new Monkey House for the Zoo Karlsruhe

The endangered Kattas (lemures) of the Karlsruhe zoo live in a small enclosure in the monkey house at the moment, that no longer corresponds to the recommended guidelines. At the request of the zoo, the Ludwigsee island in the middle of the Stadtgarten is to be developed as a walk-in island and serve as a new home for the lemures. This will give them 20 times more space than is currently available to them.

In order to keep this natural habitat as large as possible and not to take away any space on the island, the warm house will be built on the territory of the lake and serve as a refuge for the monkeys in cooler temperatures or bad weather.

The design is designed as an idea competition and offers possibilities for realization.

Winter Semester 2020/21 – Bachelor

(H)AUSTAUSCH! Innovative Living Concepts for Best Agers

In Germany the area of about 100 football pitches is converted into building land and thus sealed each day. The living space per capita has risen to 46.7 m². A significant role is played by elderly people of the “best ager generation”, who, after completing their working lives, remain active and fit, but are nevertheless often overburdened with the maintenance of their households, most of which have become too large. In contrast, young families often have difficulties finding suitable housing close to the city centre. New housing estates, which often seem to be the only answer to this problem, promote the continued excessive consumption of land in Germany.

In cooperation with Nestbau AG Tübingen, we will develop innovative housing concepts in Pfrondorf which will be appealing for “best agers” to give up their homes for the benefit of young families without having to give up a self-determined and active life in their familiar neighbourhood. At the same time this provides a potential to enhance the living situation of the individual with community spaces and meeting places that promote a social exchange between the residents and their neighbourhood, thus creating an additional value for the “best agers”.

Sommer Semester 2020 – Master

Renewable Up to 3 – Solar Decathlon Europe 2021

The building sector is one of the largest energy consumers in Europe and is responsible for around 36% of CO₂ emissions. In addition to the indispensable decarbonization of the building stock, ways must be found to meet the increasing need for affordable living space.

Densification has a great potential. Innovative interventions on existing buildings in particular can offer future-oriented perspectives. In the coming semester we will develop a top-up in the urban context of the Mirker Quarter in Wuppertal. For over 30 years, the Café ADA has been a center for sophisticated culture and a meeting point for artists, creative artists and guests of different nationalities. In this creative and colorful scenario, a roof top-up is to create space for innovative living spaces. Our largest available resource – solar energy – should form the heart of innovative energy concepts.

We also want to understand the city as a resource. In the sense of an urban mining strategy, design concepts are to be developed which, in line with a circular economy strategy, enable forward-looking architecture and CO₂-neutral construction. The social concerns of urban life are to be enriched with communal living spaces and sustainable concepts for urban mobility.

As Team RoofKIT, under the leadership of the KIT Faculty of Architecture, we were selected to participate in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021. The topic of the semester is to translate this complex task with all its facets into a lively and sophisticated architectural design project.

The Solar Decathlon Europe is one of the most renowned architectural and construction competitions for student teams. In 2021 it will take place for the first time in Germany (Wuppertal). In a later step, a micro unit will be developed from your designs, which will ultimately be planned by the student team and built in Wuppertal. There, as part of a test phase in ten different disciplines, the winning design should be selected from 18 participating teams.

Winter Semester 2019/20 – Master

Urban Mining: Travelling School Project Cologne – A Competition

Our time is characterized by an unprecedented explosion of the global population and a simultaneously increasing shortage of resources. The question is how and by which means we want to build the cities of the future without further exploiting or polluting our natural environment. The urban mine should therefore become a way to protect and to an alternative to natural resources. Required materials will no longer be extracted from a finite resource and disposed of after use. Instead they will be taken out of an existing cycle for a certain time until they will be returned to it later on.

This winter semester, the students will face the task to plan a travelling school project for Cologne in order to cope with the immense investment backlog at German schools. The city of Cologne is home to approximately 300 schools, 199 of which are currently listed as building projects and require construction measures. In order to ensure the continuation of the school operations during these measures, the City of Cologne needs an alternative that provides temporary, flexibly relocatable and pedagogically valuable alternative rooms.

In this context, the Urban Mining Student Award 2019/20 is intended to produce modular and urban-mined interim school concepts. In order to ensure the flexibility, the alternative school will be located on three different sites in the Cologne area. It furthermore will need to meet the requirements of an economical use of resources and high standards for thermal, fire and noise protection as well as durability, as it should be possible for such schools to eventually find a location after several relocations.

Winter Semester 2019/20 – Bachelor

In between, on top and aside – Innovative and regenerative living concepts for a resilient urban future

The city of the future faces many challenges: lack of housing and rising rents, climate change and scarcity of resources, increasing traffic and air pollution, large volumes of building stock in need of renovation, and dwindling unsealed open spaces.

What do innovative and responsible living concepts for the city of the future look like considering this special context. This semester, we want to focus on the question of how to realize such architectures that enter into a symbiotic relationship with the existing structure and urban texture. These ideas will be developed during this semester as part of the “Solar Decathlon Europe 2021”. The typologies to be designed should create a balance of private and community use. It is also important to understand the neighborhood as a networked energy system and to come up with proposals for regenerative energy concepts and calculate them roughly. It is the existing qualities of the place, such as the structure of the inventory substance to investigate, understand and integrate in the design and develop further.

The design is carried out in very close cooperation and with integrated deepening of structural design (Prof. Pfeifer), building physics and building technology (Prof. Wagner) and building economics (Doz. Kai Fischer).

Sommer Semester 2020 – Master

Kindergarten Cambodia

Approximately one third of the Cambodian population is affected by extreme poverty; 90 percent of them live in rural areas. That is where we will be working. 60 kilometers north of Phnom Penh lies the village of Mea Nork, 10 kilometers west of Odongk Airport in Cambodia. 

The NGO “Smiling Gecko” has been operating there for several years. Its aim is to support people – most of them migrating from the slums of Phnom Penh – who want to come back to a self-determined life and a free and independent future. To this end, a community based on an agricultural economical system was started in 2014. The people help each other and use the collective as a reservoir for communication and exchange.

Since 2014, our professorship has supported “Smiling Gecko” in the construction of a school for 1,200 students for this community. The aim is to give the children growing up there the chance of an adequate and well-founded school education. Now “Smiling Gecko” has once again asked our professorship for help. The aim is to design, plan and build a kindergarten in the area.

In order to get to know the socio-cultural, ecological, economic and especially climatic conditions better, we undertake an excursion to Cambodia and to the building site near Phnom Penh at the beginning of the semester. The semester is conducted in cooperation with the professorships of structural design and building physics.

Spring Semester 2015 ETH Zürich
Master Thesis Topic B

Museum Bellerive
Yannick Bühler

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Semester 2015 ETH Zürich
Master Thesis Topic B

Museum Bellerive
Jan Vogler

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Semester 2015 ETH Zürich
Master Thesis Topic B

Museum Bellerive
Thomas Feider

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Semester 2014 ETHZ
Master Thesis Topic B

Bus Station at Shilquai
Tobias Wullschleger

 

4 – 22 July 2016
Sand: an (in)finite resource?

The E4D summer school 2016 aims to develop an integrated vision to a global challenge of today’s construction industry. The programme revolves around the depleting resource sand and the question of how to develop alternative building materials for future cities. Invited experts from around the world will share their knowledge and give insights in their field of research. In the workshops the acquired knowledge will be tested and applied. The results will be evaluated under the concept of stocks and flows of energy and material to assess their contribution towards sustainable development.

The E4D summer school will be composed of 30 graduate students, coming from ETH Zurich, from academic institutions of the IDEA League and from other academic institutions around the world, particularly in developing countries. They will be joined by faculty members and external experts from fields of expertise related to the summer school topic. The master and doctoral students will come from different disciplines related to the E4D topic. The summer school will take place at TU Delft, The Netherlands. The aim of the E4D summer school is to foster interdisciplinary exchange on sand as a resource being rapidly depleted. During the first week, students will be introduced to the topic through a series of input speeches, lectures and symposia. The second and third week will focus on workshops along three lines of investigation.

The workshops will provide students with hands-on opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary and intercultural team and to assess alternatives to the chosen topic. Full attendance and submission of a presentation for the final idea competition is required.

The E4D Winter School 2016 is organised in collaboration with ETH Global and the TU Delft.

Further information and detailed program can be found here. Applicants please follow this link.