The quantities are gigantic: mankind currently consumes 40 to 50 billion tons of sand per year. This is the result of a study carried out by the UN Environmental Programme UNEP in 2019, making sand one of the most important trading raw materials of all and the second largest traded and mined resource of our time after water. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel in: Sakowitz, Sven (2020). Uns geht der Sand aus, HÖRZU Wissen.

Ulrich Coenen, BNN: Interview with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel (2020) The two-part-interview is about Sustainable Thinking, Acting and Building, technical and biological circulations, unmixed and pure construction methods and the application and practice of urban mining. Furthermore they discuss practices of energetic redevelopment of existing buildings and the establishment of new building materials and future energy efficient technologies. in: Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 11th & 18th February 2020: no. 34 & 40

Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) The Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) housing and research unit in NEST, the modular Research and Innovation Building of Empa and Eawag in Dübendorf (Switzerland), is demonstrating what a paradigm shift in the construction industry reacting to the limitation of the world’s natural resources might look like. Turning away from linear material-consumption and towards an economy of material recycling, multiple use, alternative construction methods and the use of entirely separable materials – UMAR works as a material laboratory but also as a material depot. It is a proof that the responsible use of natural resources,100

The Swiss Platform Circular Hub just published a report on the Journal of Cleaner Production paper «Calculation and evaluation of circularity indicators for the built environment using the case studies of UMAR and Madaster» by Felix Heisel and Sabine Rau-Oberhuber. Read the German summary here.

BUILDING WITH RECYCLATES IS FEASIBLE The Department of Sustainable Construction at the Institute of Design and Building Technology at Karlsruhe’s KIT develops concepts that can tame the immense consumption of building resources – and regularly provides project evidence that it is already possible to plan and build in a cycle-oriented manner today. It is clear that supplies will run out at some point, one look into the fridge at home makes this principle quickly comprehensible for everyone. However, the transfer of this simple knowledge to the global scale poses great problems for mankind. The consumption of resources is higher than100

Urbanmining.at reports on our work in a detailed report describing the Mehr.WERT.Pavilion at the BUGA 2019: The ‘Mehr.Wert.Pavillon’ is situated in middle of the Federal Garden Show at Heilbronn, Germany. What makes it so special is that it is made purely from waste materials. The pavilion proves, that already today circular design can facilitate the transformation from waste to resource in the building industry. Consequently, at the end of the exhibition, the pavilion will be taken apart and its parts and materials will be either reused or recycled. The full article (in German) can be found here. For more information100

“The illustration shows an excerpt from the Mehr.WERT.Pavillon, which was recently opened on the Heilbronn BUGA site, where all the materials used have already undergone at least one life cycle – either in the same or modified form. “Anders Bauen” does not always have to mean that no new materials are used, but intelligent, restrained and gentle handling of materials and ressources should always be the goal. And so, for this issue, which continues our series of congresses and booklets on Sufficiency in building culture, we also tracked down projects (new buildings and conversions) that live up to this claim.100

Glück auf am Theodorschacht! The winners of the second Urban Mining Student Award have been announced: The first prize in this student competition goes to Torben Ewaldt and Sofie Fettig from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). They were able to convince the jury with their resource-saving draft of a conference and learning center for circular economy. The planning task of this Germany-wide, open student competition was to design a conference and learning center for circular economy and resource conservation at the Theodorschacht in Ibbenbüren. The mine was closed at the end of last year as one of the last100

Wie sich vorhandene Rohstoffe nachhaltig in das Bauwesen einbinden lassen, zeigt ein Pavillon, der als Gemeinschaftsprojekt von Studierenden des KIT und den Fachgebieten Nachhaltiges Bauen (Professor Dirk E. Hebel), Tragkonstruktion (Professor Matthias Pfeifer) und Bautechnologie (Professorin Rosemarie Wagner) entstanden ist. Der Pavillon ist Teil des Mehr.WERT.Gartens, eines gemeinsamen Projektes des baden-württembergischen Umweltministeriums und der Entsorgungsbetriebe der Stadt Heilbronn, und steht – selbst vollständig aus wiederverwendeten und -verwerteten Materialien entworfen und realisiert – symbolisch für die Notwendigkeit, recycelte Ressourcen nicht länger als Müll zu betrachten, sondern deren Potenzial zu nutzen. Den Initiatoren geht es darum, einen Paradigmenwechsel, wie wir mit unseren100

Walls made of old beverage packaging, roofs made of metal waste: houses can be built from recycled materials. Now scientists are trying to make the energy and resource-saving building materials competitive. Article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. December 18, 2018, by Andrea Hoferichter, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutschland S.14.

Dirk. E. Hebel, our Urban Miner of the month October, is professor for Sustainable Construction. Currently he teaches at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie. One of his latest projects using exclusively recycled building materials was UMAR. In his answers he puts the focus on his work and points out, that the Netherlands are the leading nation in the field of reuse and recycling in the building sector. Read full texte here

Echte Innovationen für ein nachhaltigeres Bauen finden nur sehr langsam den Weg auf die Bau­stelle – auch weil niemand das Risiko eingehen möchte, sie als Erster unter realen Bedingungen zu testen. Ein ganz besonderes Haus nahe Zürich schafft Abhilfe. Read the full article here.

German television SWR and ARD reported on this semester´s design studio “Tabakschuppen Hayna” of the Professorship of Sustainable Construction in a clip screened on 27.04.2018. “Im südpfälzischen Hayna stehen viele historische Tabakschuppen leer und verfallen. Was könnte Kreatives daraus entstehen? Dem Projekt haben sich jetzt Architekturstudenten angenommen.” Watch the full report in German here.

On February 8th at Empa in Dübendorf, Switzerland, the “Urban Mining & Recycling” residential unit (UMAR) was inaugurated inside NEST. Designed by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, the unit aims “to advance the construction industry’s transition to a recycling economy.” Read the full article here.

On January 5th, 2018, Swiss Newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung reports on the successful installation of the NEST Unit Urban Mining and Recycling in Dübendorf. Read the full article here.

In 2017, a number of designers explored the structural properties of new, environmentally friendly materials – but mushroom mycelium was one of the most unusual. It was used to create a tree-shaped self-supporting structure in South Korea.

On 01. November, Detail RESEARCH featured MycoTree on their website. The article in German describes the aim of the Chair of Sustainable Construction, as well as the Block Research Group to find ways to extend the palette of building materials beyond the conventional choices towards more sustainable and renewable options. The next print edition of Detail will further discuss the exhibition ‘Beyond Mining – Urban Growth’ at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. You can read the full article here.

On 6th October, daily newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung published a report on MycoTree in Seoul, as well as the research work of Sustainable Construction of KIT Karlsruhe and the Block Research Group of ETH Zürich. The complete article (in German) can be found here.

Read the full article here.

On September 19th, also Karlsruhe’s newspaper ‘Badische Neueste Nachrichten’ reports on the MycoTree in Korea.

On 18 July 2017, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on the resource sand for the building industry, with an interview by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel. “Dirk Hebel von der Universität Karlsruhe zweifelt trotzdem an der Nachhaltigkeit von Wüstensand und seinem Nutzen als alternativem Baustoff. ‘Die Idee klingt erst einmal gut’, sagt er, ‘aber auch Wüstensand ist erschöpflich. Die Wüste hat genauso ein Ökosystem wie Meere oder Flüsse, das dann zerstört wird. So würden wir ein Problem mit einem nächsten ersetzen.’” The full text (in German) can be found here.