Resource City

Natural resources for the production of buildings are becoming increasingly scarce - this is true even for supposedly abundant materials such as sand and gravel for concrete production. At the same time, many potential resources have piled up for centuries in our cities in the form of buildings. While traditional sources of raw materials are gradually depleting, our cities can turn into the mines on the future. Cities are simultaneously consumers and suppliers of resources and use themselves for their own reproduction.

Ressource Stadt — Image: Matthias Marke / installation: Leandro Erlich

Building for Disassembly

Dirk E. Hebel - design studio spring semester 2016

Today, buildings are rarely seen as temporary material storage in the city. The dismantling and subsequent recycling of materials used are only in the rarest of all cases an integral part of planning. And even where the demolition is planned specifically, a resource-oriented realization too often fails due to non-recyclable products and unsuitable jointing techniques.

Assistant professor Hebel and his students are planning 140 new apartments together with the Gemeinnützigen Bau- und Mietergenossenschaft Zürich (GBMZ) in District 4 in Zurich. The goal is to design buildings according to the principle of „building for disassembly“ in order to allow not only their construction but also the complete dismantling and hence the genuine reusability of all materials.

In close collaboration with professor Werner Sobek and the «Institut für Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren (ILEK)» at the Technical University of Stuttgart, the team develops an architectural and constructional approach ranging from urban issues to the formulation of innovative jointing techniques in full scale. The architectural design should be a relevant contribution to a future-oriented building culture in Europe, which adresses the social and resource-related situation of this generation.

The semester task represents a real construction project, which will be implemented by the GBMZ in the coming years.

Hebels project for the Venice Biennale

Dirk Hebel is taking part in the Time-Space-Existence exhibition, a collateral Biennale event held at Palazzo Mora. His installation shows how alternative building materials such as bamboo or fungal structures can be used in specific environments, depending on the local availability of material, human capital, and skills.

The 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, themed “Reporting from the Front”, will take place from 28 May to 27 November 2016 and is directed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. Media representatives are invited to preview the Biennale on 26 and 27 May.