Public Lectures

Panel Discussion:
CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION:
Changing perspective on the existing building stock

Friday 17.05.2024
15:30h-​​17h (UTC+2)
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CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION FRIDAYS ARE A SERIES OF EVENTS TO ACCELERATE THE NECESSARY TURNAROUND IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR. URGENCY IS DEMANDING ACTION TODAY.
Currently facing dramatic resource consumption and a high prognosis on future global demand for construction need new strategies: Transforming and refurbishing existing buildings or using the existing building stock as a material-source. This requires new processes and might lead to a new appreciation and new sort of real-estate products within this decade.
Two representatives of large portfolio holders will give insights into their current activities in the field of re-use and renovation constructions to enhance the process from concept to realization as a new standard:
• Drazenka Dragila Salis (Head of Development and Construction at Swiss Prime Site)
• Philipp Morger (Head of Sustainability at City of Zurich Immobilien)
One practitioner facilitates the implementation of new processes and concepts:
• Renaud Haerlingen (Independent Architecture & Planning Professional, previously at Rotor, Brussels)
Moderators: Dr. Arnaud Evrard (ETH Zürich), Fabian Hörmann (The Real Deal, YR22).

Dr. Olga Beatrice Carcassi
MYCELIUM BASED COMPOSITES

Wednesday 10.04.2024
16h-17h (UTC+2)
external page Recording of the lecture
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Dr. Olga Beatrice Carcassi is a Research Scientist at the Natural Materials of Columbia GSAPP University.
Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the ABC Department of Politecnico di Milano, where she also obtained her Ph.D.
Passionate about regenerative and low-​carbon technologies, her work concentrates on the definition 3D printed light fiber-​clay materials.
She will present her work on the advanced fabrication and LCA methodologies of mycelium-​based composites to reach the climate-​neutrality for the building and construction sector.

Panel discussion:
CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION
Scaling-up Bio-Based Construction

Friday12.04.24
14h-17h (UTC+2)
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CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION FRIDAYS ARE A SERIES OF EVENTS TO ACCELERATE THE NECESSARY TURNAROUND IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR. URGENCY IS DEMANDING ACTION TODAY.
For this 3rd edition four guest will introduce their point of view and discuss.
Special guest: Dirk Scharmer, Co-Founder of FASBA, Association for Strawbale Construction in Germany, will give insights to the history and news on laying out basis for straw constructions.
Three complementary guests, will enrich the discussion and help examine different attitudes and approaches:
• Andrea Akchoti, Communication & Legal at Structura C, a consulting and distribution company for hemp lime products.
• Bjorn Kierulf, CEO of Ecococon ready to scale-up straw prefab constructions in an industrialised way.
• Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert, Head of the Chair of Sustainable Construction at ETHZ.
Moderators: Dr. Arnaud Evrard (ETH Zürich), Fabian Hörmann (The Real Deal, YR22).

Prof. Dr. Christof Ziegert
NEW DEVELOPMENTS ON EARTHEN PRODUCT REGULATIONS

Monday 04.03.2024
16h-17h (UTC+1)
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christof Ziegert is a bricklayer and civil engineer, co-​founder of ZRS – Architekten Ingenieure in Berlin.
He completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin after several years of professional experience in the field of damage and renovation of historic solid earth constructions.
The focus of his professional activities today is the planning and assessment of earthen buildings in Germany and abroad.
He is currently chairman of ICOMOS-​ISCAE and Honorary professor at the FH Potsdam.
He also a publicly appointed and sworn expert for "Damage in earthen buildings" by the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce, board member of the German earth building organization and chairman of the earth building standards committee at the German Standard Institute.
He will present the recent developments on earthen product regulations in Germany.

Panel discussion:
CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION
Scaling-up Earth Construction

Friday 08.03.2024
13h30-16h30 (UTC+1)
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CLIMATE POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION FRIDAYS ARE A SERIES OF EVENTS TO ACCELERATE THE NECESSARY TURNAROUND IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR. URGENCY IS DEMANDING ACTION TODAY.
For this second edition, we wish to focus on “Scaling up Earth Construction”.
We have the pleasure to host a special guest:
• Bettina Baggenstos: specialized in timber construction. She works at Blumer Lehmann and manages the on-site earth construction of the Hortus office building.
Two complementary guests, who contributed to this Module, will be participating to enrich the discussion and help examine different attitudes towards earth as construction:
• Jonathan Ensslin, Lead of Construction & Application at Oxara
• Ulrich Röhlen, Technical Director at Claytec
Moderators: Dr. Arnaud Evrard (ETH Zürich), Fabian Hörmann (The Real Deal, YR22).

Fabian Hörmann
THE REAL DEAL – Post-Fossil Construction for Game Changers

Friday 02.02.2024
11h-12h (UTC+1)
external page Recording of the lecture
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Fabian Hörmann is an architect and musician. He studied architecture in Stuttgart and Las Palmas. After working in film, media and architecture in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, he became, from 2009-​2022, associate, member of the management and head of the design and competition department at the architecture firm EM2N. In 2022, he founded YR22 regenerative architecture + urbanism in Zurich. He is also teaches at FHNW in Basel and at HFT in Stuttgart.
Fabian Hörmann participated in the CAS ETH Regenerative Materials – Essentials in 2021 and decided to extend his commitment by launching the multi-​media project “The Real Deal – Post-​Fossil Construction for Game Changers” to convince decision makers from real estate, finance and politics on different channels.
He will explain the process and content of the book which was recently published with RUBY PRESS and the upcoming activities.

Sébastien Pittet
INNOVATIVE BUILDING TECHNIQUES

Monday 02.10.2023
16h30-​17h30 (UTC +2)
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The “home” of today and tomorrow must be designed to be in harmony with the planet and its inhabitants, built by people working conscientiously and with concern for defining the best solutions for each scenario. It is essential to have a holistic vision of construction, of life! The subject is so complex, the solutions interconnected and variable from one situation to another that one can only make a multi-​criteria choice. But what are these criteria?
To take action, it is essential to detach yourself from the catalog of industrial products and know the possibilities and the techniques that can be used. There are only three parameters left to be used intelligently, one influencing the others but cannot be ruled out: materials, shapes and colours.
Sébastien Pittet will explain the philosophy behind the work of Pittet Artisans and present their work with regenerative materials.

Prof. Lars Junghans
22-​26 CONCEPT AND ADAPTATIONS

Monday 11.9.2023
16h30-​17h30 (UTC +2)
external page Recording of the lecture
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Lars Junghans is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His research is focused on the development of highperformance buildings with a comprehensive view of all aspects of the building’s thermal behavior, including passive design, active strategies and renewable energy systems. His research aims to find holistic optimal solutions for the challenges of buildings in different climate zones.
He received a PhD in building science from ETH Zurich and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. In an intensive collaboration with the Austrian architect Dietmar Eberle, he also developed the energy concept of the award winning 2226 Office Building.
He will be presenting his research and how the 22-​26 concept can be adapted in other climates.

Prof. Corentin Fivet
REUSE AND STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

Tuesday 9.5.2023
13h30 - 14h30 UTC+2
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Corentin Fivet is Professor of Architecture and Structural Design at EPFL, since 2016. Previously, he worked for two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA. Corentin Fivet holds a Master in Architectural Engineering and a PhD in Engineering Sciences from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. At EPFL, Corentin Fivet is heading the Structural Xploration Lab to develop environmentally responsible building systems. Bridging the gap between architecture and structural engineering, the lab explores more sustainable implementations of load-bearing materials, new design methods for resource - efficient structural typologies, and exemplary historical practices of structural design.

In this lecture he will talk about reusing building parts, focusing on design processes involving the reuse of load-bearing elements, with case studies from the Structural Xploration Lab.

Prof. Eike Roswag
TRANSFORMING NATURAL BUILDING TRADITION

Wednesday 29.03.2023
16:30 - 17:30 UTC +2
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One of the initiators and directors of ZRS Architekten Ingenieure Berlin and chair of the Natural Building Lab at TU Berlin, for more than 20 years, Eike Roswag has been researching climate and resource adaptive, human architecture in different climatic
zones, which forms the basis for his teaching, design and construction projects. His projects demonstrate a great variety and range from schools out of earth and bamboo in the global south, over heritage rehabilitation project in the Middle East and Europe up to housing, production
buildings and schools out of timber, earth and natural fibre insulation in Europe. His research is focused on climate and cultural
adaptive architecture with a specific emphasis on low-tech building systems. The projects he has worked on were awarded with the Aga Khan Award 2007, KAIROS Europäischer Kulturpreis 2015, Holcim Award 2011, Gold in Asia Pacific and others.

Prof. Roger Boltshauser
BUILDING REGENERATIVE IN EAST-​SWITZERLAND

Tuesday 28.02.2023
14:00 - 15:00 UTC+1
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Roger Boltshauser (*1964) graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) in 1995 and founded Boltshauser Architekten AG in Zurich the following year. Currently, a team of around 75 employees works on projects in all phases and a second office was opened in Munich in 2021. For their work, Boltshauser Architekten have received several awards, as in 2022 the ‘DETAIL-​Award’ for the Kiln Tower for the Brickworks Museum.
In addition to his practice, he was a teaching at EPF Lausanne, the University of Applied Sciences Chur (HTW), Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (DIA), Chur Institute of Architecture (CIA) as well as at the TU Munich. Since 2018, he is a guest professor at ETH Zurich.
Roger Boltshauser presented the challenges he encounters in his architectural practice in East-​Switzerland when using Regenerative Materials.

Monday 16.05.2022
16:30 - 17:30 UTC+1

Catherine De Wolf

DIGITAL INNOVATION TOWARDS A CIRCULAR BUILT ENVIRONMENT

external page Recording of the lecture

As Assistant Professor of Circu-lar Engineering for Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zu-rich), Prof. Catherine De Wolf is conducting research on digital innovation towards a circular built environment. She is the director of the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA). The CEA lab is an interdis-ciplinary team of civil engineers, architects, urbanists, and com-puter scientists who collaborate towards automating the reuse of building materials. Catherine De Wolf is also the founder of De Wolf Environmental Archi-tecture Thinking. A key element in Catherine’s work is ensuring a continuous link between aca-demia and industry. Therefore, she works with real-world examples such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Wednesday 06.04.2022
16:30 - 17:30 UTC+1

Pete Walker
RESEARCH ON BIO-BASED MATERIALS AT U-BATH
external page Recording of the lecture

Pete Walker joined the University of Bath in 1998. He was promoted to Professor in 2006, and he is currently Director of the research Centre for Innovative Construction Materials. His current research interests include bio-based construction materials, materials for improved indoor air quality, and innovative timber engineering. He focuses on the development of low carbon technologies suitable for new and retrofitting applications. He will present an overview of his work on bio-based construction materials and technologies, including straw bale, hemp-lime, structural use of cork, and the development of circular solutions. Examples of practical applications will also be taken from a range of construction projects.

Monday 04.04.2022
13:30 - 14:30 UTC+1

Anna Heringer
SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY
external page Recording of the lecture


For Anna Heringer architecture is a tool to improve lives. As an architect and honorary professor of the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, Building Cultures, and Sustainable Development she is focusing on the use of natural building materials. She has been actively involved in development cooperation in Bangladesh since 1997. Her diploma work, the METI School in Rudrapur got realized in 2005 and won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007. Over the years, Studio Anna Heringer has realized further projects in Asia, Africa, and Europe. These projects were widely published and exhibited, and have received many prices. Anna is lecturing worldwide at conferences, including TED and has been visiting professor at various universities such as Harvard and ETH Zurich. She will present some of her projects using bio-based materials and explain why for her sustainability is a synonym for beauty.

Friday 04.03.2022
09:00 - 10:00 UTC+1

Mu Jun
MATCHA COMMUNITY CENTER
external page Recording of the lecture

Prof. Mu Jun is an Architect and the head of Department of Architecture in the School of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. Graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, he has practiced as an architect in several rural sustainable construction projects. His specialty is in Raw Soil Buildings and Sustainable Design Architecture. He will focus on few projects, as the recent Macha village center, and give an overview of what he did in terms of research, practice and education.

Thursday 27.1.2022
16h30-17h30 UTC+1

Pierre Frey
LEARNING FROM VERNACULAR
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Pierre Frey is Honorary professor of EPFL-ENAC. He wrote a great book in 2010 with this title "Learning from vernacular: Towards a new vernacular architecture". He will present a unique collection of models of vernacular architecture he realized with his students at EPFL, highlight the special attributes of these buildings and underline there value. We will then travel with him through selected contemporary realizations by architects from Africa, Asia, America and Europe that seem to him to constitute a "new vernacular architecture".
The emphasis here is on materials available on the fringes of the market, on the safeguarding and development of traditional know-how, on the social role of the architect and on the teaching of architecture.