The Building Sense Now Global Award was presented at a digital award ceremony on November 11, 2021 with the participation of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and in the course of the world climate conference COP26. The Award is looking for new, innovative design strategies from around the world that want to achieve ambitious goals and deal with climate change and sustainability issues. The award is given to work that has made a difference and has shown special qualities on all levels and scales. This award focuses on architects and their design process as well as the philosophical and ethical questions – not100

In the current episode of NANO, a scientifical documentation series by 3sat, the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit of the EMPA in Zurich has been published as one of the lighthouse projects of sustainable construction. The presenters also visit the KIT mycelium laboratory at the Westhochschule where the fungal mycelium is researched by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel and his team. The short contribution shows the inevitable relevance of an increased use of recycled materials and renewable raw materials as the basis for the building materials of the future. Watch the full episode of NANO on 3sat here.

Recruitment from 1 September 2021If interested, please email sandra.boehm@kit.edu by 1 July. Dear students, the Materials Library is looking for support to continue building its database. A dedicated team is working here cooperatively and meets regularly to exchange ideas – currently still online, hopefully soon live and in colour again.  Tasks:– Active cooperation in building up the database, analysing and improving the structure.– Researching building materials– Evaluation of the research results and their transfer into comprehensive material data sheets. The job requires you to work independently and on your own responsibility. You will be actively involved in the team. If100

Construction with fungal roots and storing electricity with wood waste are two innovations that we will (hopefully) hear much more about in the future. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Professor Dirk E. Hebel is conducting research into radically different solutions. He wants to replace conventional building materials like concrete with renewable raw materials. More information here.

After the demolition work has been completed, the material library shines as a light-flooded room. The next steps of the renovation are already in progress and will be shown here soon. The renovation of the premises is supported by Wacker Chemie AG. Images: Bernd Seeland, Faculty of Architecture, KIT Karlsruhe [slideshow_deploy id=’7206′]

Construction of the ‘Mehr.WERT.Pavillon’ has started in Heilbronn. The project is a collaboration of several students and experts of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT and started out as a student design studio called Building from Waste. Stay tuned for exciting updates and save-the-date: Opening of the Federal Garden Show 2019 is on April 17th. More information here.

You can not create living space or a new business models in and with old tobacco sheds? But on the contrary. Students of the University of Karlsruhe present innovative usage concepts for some of the historic buildings. The only question is whether visions can ever become reality. Read full article here (German)

What do you do with a building that towers high into the sky, that radiates with its charm and not only makes some inhabitants of the village Hayna nostalgic? 16 students from the Faculty of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) spent more than four months investigating this question. At the beginning of August, the students introduced themselves and their concepts for using the vacant tobacco sheds in Hayna. read the full article here (German)

On October 30th, Prof. Dirk E. Hebel gave the Hans and Roger Strauch Visiting Critic Lecture at Cornell University. Each semester the Department of Architecture of Cornell University hosts a rich and varied lecture series that serves to extend the pedagogy of classes and design studios. Invited speakers represent a range of professional, teaching, and research interests that engage issues vital to the study and practice of architecture.

The Chair of Sustainable Construction hosted this week a filmcrew of ARTE/ZDF to shoot a XENIUS episode on the research of bamboo materials of the team. It will be shown shortly on public German TV. Our thanks go to Prof. Hans-Joachim Blass, Matthias Frese and Alexander Klein and the rest of the team for using the VAKA hall for the event. Also thanks to Karsten Schlesier of our team organizing the day.

Design Studio with integrated discipline (Building Structure) Architectural Design V-IX The studio focuses on the development of different typologies for 5000 housing units in Addis Ababa. The city administration of Ethiopia’s capital commissioned the chair with this task. Already in 2015, these units for no- and low-income families, which are being displaced due to on-going redevelopment strategies, shall be constructed within the inner-city context based on the students’ design proposals. The typologies have to take the existing social and cultural conditions into consideration and, where possible, utilize local materials. Additionally, they need to remain within a given budget set by100

Design Studio with integrated discipline (Building Structure) Architectural Design V-IX