OCT
2021 10

“Urban Mining” – Die Sendung mit der Maus

How do we want to live in the future? And how can we also be sure in the future that there will be enough raw materials to provide everything needed in daily life? Clari, Jana, Ralph and André from the “Sendung mit der Maus” are looking into securing raw materials and urban mining. For this purpose, they are opening a future flat-sharing community for four weeks in the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit in the NEST research building on the EMPA campus in Dübendorf, and from there they are exploring where and how the various components of the research unit100

JUL
2021 12

Nest

“Die Maus” film set in the UMAR unit

On the occasion of the 50th birthday of “Die Maus”, numerous special episodes are being filmed this year. In this context, “Die Sendung mit der Maus” also visited the Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) housing and research unit of the Swiss research institute Empa at “NEST” in Dübendorf near Zurich in Switzerland. In the middle of June, NEST Innovation Manager Enrico Marchesi invited Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and Sandra Böhm from the Professorship of Sustainable Construction to present the housing unit, the building materials used there, and the construction and material concept to the viewers of the “Sendung mit der Maus”100

APR
2021 06

MEDIA COVERAGE, Nest

Urban Mining & Recycling (UMAR) on Instagram @neweuropeanbauhaus

The Urban Mining and Recycling unit (UMAR) in NEST was listed as a showcase project of circular construction by the New European Bauhaus on 6th April 2021. The project shows how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can also go hand in hand with an appealing architectural form. Life-cycle thinking has led the design process: all the resources required to construct the unit are fully reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The Urban Mining and Recycling housing and research unit in NEST, the modular Research and Innovation Building of Empa in Dübendorf (Switzerland), is demonstrating what a paradigm shift100

MAR
2021 08

MEDIA COVERAGE, Mycelium, Nest

UMAR and Mycelium Research in “Die Sendung mit der Maus”

In the current 50th anniversary episode of “Die Sendung mit der Maus”, Armin Maiwald, one of the hosts, is looking for how people will live in the future. Therefore he visits the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit (UMAR) created by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel. The building design demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can go hand in hand with appealing architectural form. The project is underpinned by the proposition that all the resources required to construct a building must be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable. This places life-cycle thinking at100

JUN
2019 20

Events, MEDIA COVERAGE, Mycelium, Nest

KIT Professorship of Sustainable Construction wins two innovation awards at “beyond bauhaus – prototyping the future” organized by “Deutschland – Land der Ideen” – an initiative of the Federal Government and German industry

The international competition “beyond bauhaus – prototyping the future”, sought ground-breaking design ideas and concepts that address a socially relevant topic and provide creative answers to the pressing questions of our time. Almost 1500 projects coming from 50 countries applied for an award. The 20 award winners convinced the international jury with their ideas and concepts. The spectrum of entries reflects the challenges of our time: it ranges from food cultivation on the water to individually dosed medicine and new technologies for urban development to sustainable building materials. The Professorship of Sustainable Construction Dirk E. Hebel together with Philippe Block100

FEB
2019 14

Nest

The making of UMAR

One working day, two cranes and a well attuned team: on 21 November 2017, the woodworkers from the Austrian company Kaufmann Zimmerei und Tischlerei placed the seven prefabricated modules of the Urban Mining and Recycling unit with utmost precision between the projecting platforms of NEST, the research and innovation building of Empa and Eawag in Dübendorf. The interior finishing was implemented in the following few days; and the apartment thus ready to accommodate its first two tenants. Read more here.

FEB
2019 01

Nest, RESEARCH

UMAR – Urban Mining und Recycling Unit, Dübendorf, Schweiz

Experimental, educational and even radical is the housing unit UMAR by Werner Sobek, Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel, who not only want to test new materials as real as possible, but also want to permanently change our understanding of buildings and cities. UMAR invites you to discover a building as a material storage and cities as urban mines. Article at architektur.aktuell Austria by Claus Käpplinger. Read full article here.

APR
2018 25

Nest, WASTE

DETAIL: Living Unit as an architectural model for the circular economy / Wohnmodul aus Recycling-Material

»Die Stadt der Zukunft unterscheidet nicht zwischen Abfall und Vorrat«, umschreiben die Wissenschaftler den zugrundeliegenden Forschungsansatz der Experimentaleinheit mit einem Zitat von Mitchell Joachim, Vorreiter eines ökologischen Planungsansatzes. Die Urban Mining & Recycling (UMAR)-Unit ergänzt seit Februar 2018 als experimentelles Wohnmodul das modulare Forschungs- und Innovationsgebäude NEST auf dem Campus der Eidgenössischen Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Empa) in schweizerischen Dübendorf. Der Entwurf stammt von Werner Sobek mit Dirk E. Hebel und Felix Heisel. Sobek ist Leiter des Instituts für Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren der Universität Stuttgart, Hebel und Heisel sind Leiter und Forschungsverantwortlicher des Fachgebiets Nachhaltiges Bauen am KIT Karlsruhe und100

FEB
2018 07

Nest

UMAR unit now has its own website: www.nest-umar.net

The Urban Mining and Recycling unit now has its own website. At www.nest-umar.net you can find all information about Empa NEST, the unit UMAR, as well as the making of the unit. Additionally, the website offers a material library of the materials used including data sheets and company contacts.

NOV
2017 29

Nest

Construction starts at NEST Unit Urban Mining & Recycling

One working day, two cranes and a well attuned team: on 21 November 2017, the woodworkers from the Austrian company Kaufmann Zimmerei und Tischlerei placed the seven prefabricated modules of the new “Urban Mining & Recycling” unit with utmost precision between the projecting platforms of NEST, the research and innovation building of Empa and Eawag in Dübendorf. The interior finishing will be implemented in the next weeks. The apartment will be ready in the spring of 2018 and will accommodate two tenants. The NEST unit “Urban Mining & Recycling” is simultaneously an apartment, a material storage, and a material lab.100

MAY
2017 12

Nest

Urban Mining & Recycling (UMAR) Unit in Dübendorf

The Urban Mining & Recycling (UMAR) Experimental Unit is the newest unit of the NEST research building on the campus of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The building design created by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with our natural resources can go hand in hand with appealing architectural form. The project is underpinned by the proposition that all the resources required to construct a building must be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable. This places life-cycle thinking at the forefront of the100