Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2016

Architecture Master Information
Electives
Construction / Building Technology
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
051-0761-16LHistory, Theory and Methods in Historic Building Conservation and Building Research (NF Hassler) Information Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits2Gto be announced
AbstractTimber and metal structures
(historical development, manufacturing technology, documentation and evaluation, histroric building conservation)
ObjectiveTimber and metal structures
(historical development, manufacturing technology, documentation and evaluation, histroric building conservation)
ContentTimber and metal structures
(historical development, manufacturing technology, documentation and evaluation, histroric building conservation)
051-0763-16LNew Focal Points of Construction Information
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits2GD. Mettler, D. Studer
AbstractThe elective subject "New focal points of construction" investigates the complexe interaction of construction elements by means of exemplary architectonic tender points such as base, wall, chamber, roof etc.
The comparative analysis of built constructions serves as a basis for further development of hypothetical future constructions.
ObjectiveTarget of the course is the understanding of the impacts of material, technology and construction to the architectural education of constructive points. With comparative analysis of built constructions of high architectonic relevance, by means of exemplary building elements such as base, wall, chamber, roof etc., the genesis of constructive building parts, the interaction of the building elements and stand of technique for the most of common constructive tender points is imparted. The conjunction to current constructive methods and basic conditions enables a critical evaluation of the constructive Status Quo within the contemporary producing architecture as well as a perspective to new konstructive education.
ContentLecture:
1. Comparative analysis for derivation and understanding of the constructive points base, wall, chamber, roof etc.
2. Description of current level of technique, typical methods, and set of problems.
3. Final colloquiums with guests of producing and processing companies.

Excercise:
New formulation of a future konstructive point as a result of a diagnostic work.
051-0777-16LBuilding Process: Realization Information Restricted registration - show details
Limited number of participants.
Enrolment is only possible in agreement with the lecturer.
W2 credits2GM. Eglin
AbstractVisits to construction sites and interdisciplinary lectures on the topics of communication, complexity, landscape and investment are the main focus of the workshop. In addition, the term “process” is to be depicted by means of visits to manufacturers of construction components.
ObjectiveThe main focus of the diploma elective subject is in showing the building process by means of current examples of urban design with architectural relevance. The Chair views itself as the facilitator between those involved in construction and students. Active participation is a prerequisite.
ContentThe main focus of the diploma elective subject is in showing the building process by means of current examples of urban design with architectural relevance. Visits to construction sites and interdisciplinary lectures on the topics of communication, complexity, landscape and investment are the main focus of the workshop. In addition, the term “process” is to be depicted by means of visits to manufacturers of construction components. The Chair views itself as the facilitator between those involved in construction and students. Active participation is a prerequisite.
LiteratureSacha Menz (Hrsg.), Drei Bücher über den Bauprozess, vdf Hochschulverlag an der ETH Zürich, 2009
Literaturempfehlungen unter Link
Prerequisites / NoticeThe number of participants is limited and enrolment is only possible in agreement with the chair!
051-0781-16LCostruire correttamente/Constructing Correctly: Curve and Fold to Bear Loads and Forces Restricted registration - show details W2 credits2GG. Birindelli
AbstractIn line with the approach of P.L. Nervi's book, our study is based on factors that, outlined by him, are still today all the more relevant as a lesson for architecturally and structurally justified buildings. We will observe selected buildings both of our time and of the past for their space, architecture and construction, understand them and interpret them according to universal values of design.
Objective'Costruire correttamente' (Constructing Correctly), the 1955 book published by Pier Luigi Nervi, covers crucial factors for building that, outlined by him, are still today all the more relevant as a lesson for architecturally and structurally justified buildings. His thoughts represent valuable criteria and indispensable tools for observation and carrying out investigations of the built environment.
Lessons learned from this can enrich the design work of today's and tomorrow's architects.
All of these (see abstract) i.e. analyses, observances, hypotheses, groupings and cross-comparisons, will help the students in their careers to find their own strategies and approaches to design and to be aware of them. And so, according to the advice of Pier Luigi Nervi : "...At every stage of his training, the future architect should be constantly and methodically guided to search for essential elements in each problem, be it large or small. The study of the architectural works of the past should consist in the critical examination of their functional and structural solutions and of the relation between these and form, in order to show that form is a consequence and not a determinant of functional and structural needs." [P.L. Nervi: Costruire correttamente, Milano 1955; English version titled "Structures", 1956, p.28].
ContentThe main thread of this course, that runs over two semesters (*), are buildings of all ages that could be categorised under notions such as « most viewed », « most technically daring », « most unknown », « most discussed » or « most worthly of discussion », and carry instructive aspects of the teachings of Pier Luigi Nervi ("costruire correttamente"). In the lecture, these buildings will be investigated on-the-spot, described from the designers' point-of-view and will be commented on with reference to any redesign resulting from the interplay of architectural and structural concepts. Harmonies and discords should be discovered.
Occasionally there will be guest lectures. These people, who were directly involved with a certain building, will portray the emergence and development of the project.
In this sense, the course is also intended for civil / structural engineering students and presents a possible bridge between the two prospective project partners - architect and engineer.

(*) Begins in the autumn semester. Entry into the course in the spring is possible.
Lecture notesNone for the time being
051-0823-16LMaterial-Workshop Restricted registration - show details
Does not take place this semester.
Number of participants limited to 20
W3 credits3Gto be announced
AbstractThe elective is organised as a laboratory where one particular material will be explored on a theoretical and practical level. During this study the contemporary architectural potential of the material will be tested and applied.
ObjectiveExperience, know-how and interest are the basis to explore a material and develop new ways to construct and form architecture. The objective of this course aims at exploring the correlation between material, construction and architectural expression.
ContentThe elective is organised as a laboratory where one particular material will be explored on a theoretical and practical level. During this study the contemporary architectural potential of the material will be tested and applied.
Prerequisites / NoticeLink
051-0855-16LMasterclass Construction: Steelwork Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 24.
W2 credits2GC. Vogt
AbstractThe ,Meisterkurs Konstruktion' is seeking a critical discussion on relevant constructive (and energetic) questions of our time. Alternating each semester, one of the typical construction methods will be examined: masonry, concrete, steel, woodwork and curtain wall facades. In the autumn semester 2016 we'll focus on contemporary steel constructions.
ObjectiveThe prospective architect shall develop necessary skills to be able to think construction in its complex relationships and to face future discussions in practice competently.
ContentThe structure oft the course contains:
1. Impartation of basic knowledge of construction
2. Seminar / exercises on the state of technology / research
3. Integration of practical case studies and problems
Prerequisites / NoticeEnrolment on agreement with lecturer only.
051-1219-16LIntegrated Discipline Building Systems (A. Schlüter) Information Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2UA. Schlüter
AbstractThe integrated discipline Building Systems adresses specific questions about building systems and system concepts. Energetic analysis and system designs are carried out on the students individual design projects.
ObjectiveThe course aims for an ability to understand concepts of sustainable building technology coherently integrated into an architectural design. The focus lies on LowEx-systems.
ContentThe integrated discipline Building Systems adresses specific questions about building systems and system concepts. Energetic analysis and system designs are carried out on the students individual design projects.
Lecture notesSkripts are specific to the design task and distributed at the beginning of the course.
Prerequisites / NoticePlease contact the tutor as soon as possible at the beginning of the semester; we will set the task according to your chosen design studio.

Having passed the lecture series of Energy and Climate Systems I & II or Technical Installations I & II respectively is required for attending the Integrated Discipline.
051-0831-16LSummer School: Pavillon on Lantian Land (China)
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits4GD. Liu
Abstract
Objective
Prerequisites / NoticeThis course has been CANCELLED.
Planning / Environmental Design
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
051-0369-16LTheory of Urban Design:
Does not take place this semester.
W2 credits2Gto be announced
AbstractThe focus of the seminar is to understand the urban history of Zurich through selected case studies.
ObjectiveThe aim of the seminar is to discuss the selected Zurich case studies against the background of the history of urban design.
ContentThe City of Zurich rises there where Celtic tribes settled and the Romans founded a the city. In the past two millennia authorities, planners of different disciplines, merchants and craftsmen, institutions and investors have shaped the city upon the Limmat. The physical outcome of these interventions stand in close relationship with the knowledge of the time and reflect the prevailing positions and theories, which were thought, published and built elsewhere. For that matter, the history of urban design of Zurich can be well understood as a branch of the history of European urban design, as well as the individual steps of development are offsprings of international reflexions and tendencies.
Presentations in the seminar room and the visit of the selected ensembles in Zurich will help to tell the story of the urban development from the Middle Ages up to today. With this basic knowledge gained in the seminar and the walks the students will have to discuss the historical theories and developments as well as the urban qualities of the ensembles.
This will help the students not only to better understand the city but will also allow them to sample different urban situations and gather spatial experiences, which can also facilitate their design process.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe number of participants is limited to 24 persons.
051-0625-16LSerendipity: Audiovisual Fieldwork - Gotthard Soundwalking (Ch.Girot) Information Restricted registration - show details
Limited number of participants (limitation due to technical equipment).
W2 credits4GC. Girot
AbstractWe will map the landscape above the new Gotthard Base Tunnel with sound recorders and photo cameras, and landscape interventions. Back in our AudioVisual Lab, we will work with audio editing tools, spatial sound design and photographic processing in order to compose a collective multisensory map of the Gotthard.
ObjectiveThe goal of this elective course is to explore the perception, use and representation of landscape through the use audiovisual tools. In this process, spatial, dynamic and cultural aspects are highlighted.
ContentAbove the new high-speed Gotthard Base Tunnel lies a fascinating mountain landscape steeped in myths and stories. On an alpine walking tour, we will trace the tunnel's course and mark points a hundred meters higher: alpine pastures, rugged mountains, deep forests, clear lakes, weekend cottages.

We will discover the audiovisual qualities of the mountain landscape, map our overground "tunnel journey" with sound recorders and photo cameras, and intervene in the environment at vertical points of intersection. How is our perception on the surface shaped through the awareness of the tunnel below? How do we experience the vast and lonesome mountain area at a walking pace instead of rushing through it in a secure enclosure? Using techniques from sound art, land art and "strollology", we want to examine the Gotthard, understood as both archaic nature and cultivated alpine landscape, a hightech transit area and a pre-modern refuge, the "center of Europe" and the periphery of Switzerland.

Back in our AudioVisual Lab, we will work with audio editing tools, spatial sound design and photographic processing in order to explore new ways of perceiving and portraying landscape. Through audiovisual journeys and mixed media installations we will compose a collective multisensory map of the Gotthard.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe course will be limited to 16 students. Participation on all dates of the course is mandatory. The costs for the excursion (traveling, overnight stay, food and drinks, ca. 200 CHF) are asked to be paid by the participants. Basic trekking experience and equipment are required (latter can be rented for ca 30 CHF).

Introduction: 22.09.2016, 12:45h, AudioVisual Lab (HIL H 40.9 / 40.5).
Weekly course dates: on Thursdays, 12:45-14:30h.
Weekend Workshop/Exkursion: 8./9.10.2016 (further information and costs will follow).
Intermediate Crit: 20.10.2016
Final Crit: 1.12.2016 (End of the course)

No course: 27.10.2016 (Seminar Week)

For further details see website:
Link
051-0627-16LTopology: Scales of Power (Ch.Girot) Information Restricted registration - show details W2 credits2KC. Girot
Abstract"The Jordan River Project in Naharayim and the Architecture of Erich Mendelsohn"

ETH Students for the first time will investigate the Naharayim Site as a point cloud model. They will work through a series of precise section - elevations revealing the site and the hydroelectric power station on the border of Jordan and Israel from 1928.
ObjectiveUntil now this site has not been documented. The goal is to produce material for a publication and exhibition on the theme of the architecture of power in this region. Students will look at the site and its specific organization through various architectural and landscape elements (zero-canal, dam, hydroelectric power plant, bridges). The work will be developed in a condensed weekend workshop.
ContentAt the end of the elective, we offer the possibility to extend the work of the Elective Course with a Thesis Elective ("Wahlfacharbeit" 6 ECTS). The work will finalize the study done previously towards a publication and exhibition. The thesis elective will be conducted in the form of a 2-week workshop in January 2017. The elective course is compulsive to do the thesis elective.
Lecture notesA reader will provide the theoretical framework.
Prerequisites / Notice- Introduction: 22.09.2016, 15:00h HIL H40.9 (Foyer)
- Lectures are given 15-17h in HIL H40.8 (LVML)
- The course is limited to 22 participants
- The lectures will be in English, assistance in E/D/F
- Further information is available on Link
051-0629-16LPairi-Daeza: Water Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 12.

Enrolment in agreement with the lecturer only.
W2 credits2GG. Vogt
AbstractThe term 'pairi-daeza', Persian for 'a wall surrounding a garden', is the point of origin for an elective series addressing basic elements and typologies of landscape architecture. This semester, students will deal with the appropriation of landscape as a common resource in Ljubljana and design a metropolitan park for the capital of Slovenia.
ObjectiveThe elective course serves as an introduction to landscape architectural design on various scales including the topics of border, threshold, water, vegetation, topography, choreography, and metaphor. Architecture students develop a project based on the perception of place, knowledge of landscape-architectonic typologies, and conception of public space. They become familiar with GIS as an analytical tool, model building as a design methodology and the representation of landscape through plans. The design process is accompanied by workshops, lectures, excursions, critiques and a workbook.
ContentThe term 'paradise' and its religious implications originate from 'pairi-daeza', Old Persian for 'a wall surrounding a garden'. Pairi-daeza is the title of an elective course series addressing the appropriation of landscape as a common resource in European Metropolises while exploring new forms and types of public spaces. The elective course serves as an introduction to landscape architectural design on various scales including the topics of border, threshold, water, vegetation, topography, choreography, and metaphor. Architecture students develop a project based on the perception of place, knowledge of landscape-architectonic typologies, and conception of public space. They become familiar with GIS as an analytical tool, model building as a design methodology and the representation of landscape through plans. The design process is accompanied by workshops, lectures, excursions, critiques and a workbook.
Lecture notesThe course is accompanied by a workbook with texts and background information.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe participation in the course is subject to the following three conditions:
1) The course is limited to 12 students. The restriction follows the time of the inscription according to the first-come-first-served-principle.
2) A two-days trip to Ljubljana from the 7th to the 9th of October is mandatory for all students.
3) The contribution to expenses will be 200.- CHF per student.
051-0631-16LUrban Food: The Alps as Common Ground: Ljubljana (G. Vogt) Information Restricted registration - show details
Limited number of participants. The course is fully booked!
Enrolment in agreement with the lecturer only: Roland Shaw Link
W2 credits2GG. Vogt
AbstractThe term `Urban Food` implicitly questions how the production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food influence the relation between city and countryside.
ObjectiveSpecific knowledge about relation and various processes in cities and countrysides, with regard to production, handling, logistics, consumption habits and disposal of foodstuff.
ContentThe production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food have perpetually affected the relationship between city and countryside. In that sense, the industrialization and globalization of food systems contributed to the urbanization of the landscape. On the other hand, logistic systems and consumer behavior are strongly affected by processes of urbanization, which shows that the city and its food system have a mutual influence on each other.
Prerequisites / NoticeEnrolment after Agreement only!

THE COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED!

Introduction to the workshop week in February 2017:
5th December 2016, 6 pm, HIL H 40.9.

Workshop week: 6th to 14th February 2017:
Trip to Ljubljana: 6th to 9th February 2017;
Final critics: 14th February 2017.
051-0667-16LCase Studies in Urban Design - Urban Planning Theory: Texts, Positions, Discourse Information Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2GK. Christiaanse
AbstractPositions on Form in the Urban Design Discourse

In this seminar we will take a journey through different positions concerning form in the urban design discourse of the last decades with special regard to the role of utopian visions in the achievement of the "good city form".
ObjectiveThe aim of the reading seminar is to gain deeper understanding of themes, positions and discourses within the field of urban design.
Content"What is the ideal city (...) that best expresses the power and beauty of modern technology and the most enlightened ideas of social justice?" - asks Robert Fishman in his opus, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century (1977). For Fishman, Ebenezer Howard's Garden City (1898), Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse (1924) and Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City (1932) stand out among utopian projects for their radically original urban designs, their revolutionary program for social change, and their authors' sustained personal commitment to realize the plans. Besides these ideal cities, Fishman suggests that utopian projects fall into two further categories: they are either utopian romances, that is, technical exercises without explicit social agenda, such as the technological utopias of Archigram or Yona Friedman; or urban ideologies, that is, projects that might bear social content but could still be carried out without revolutionary social change, as they tend to preserve an already powerful class. Such are designs produced by totalitarian regimes or dictated by powerful market conditions.

Following Fishman's theoretical grid, we will read concepts from each of his rubrics, while considering utopian design thinking within a broader and more fundamental discussion about the means and ends of urban design. Kevin Lynch asserts that the purpose of urban design is the 'good city' (1981). What is then the role of utopias in achieving this goal? While exploring this question, we will also confront utopias with critical approaches that could be described as pragmatic. Jane Jacobs, for example, argues that utopias demand totalitarian control, whereas urban neighborhoods should be developed and rejuvenated employing bottom-up approaches.

We will ultimately link the studied concepts with various urban forms, such as the megastructure in relation to technological utopias or the Manhattan block in Rem Koolhaas' interpretation. In his book Finding Lost Space (1986) Roger Trancik identifies three major approaches to theories of urban form: the figure-ground, linkage, and place theories. We will classify each of the discussed forms into the above three categories. Thus, we will wrap up the class with a basic grid on form theories - after having started it with another one regarding utopian visions.

After an introductory lecture, we will discuss one edited text each week, and confront the different positions they represent with each other. Accordingly, participants will be expected to read one text and write a half-page response each week, to once prepare and hold a 15-minute presentation of a text (including a compact handout), and to actively participate in the discussions. Optionally, 10 to 15-page position papers can be written after the semester as elective theses, honored by additional credit points. A reader with selected texts and thematic introductions will be provided.
LiteratureA reader will be handed out at the intro event of the elective course.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe number of participants is limited to max. 30 students.
051-0701-16LSystematic Principles of Urban Design: Learn from the European City Information W2 credits2GV. Magnago Lampugnani, H. Stühlinger
AbstractUrban Ensembles of the Modern City. Strategies for Dealing with the Twentieth-Century City
ObjectiveThe seminar will focus on case studies in order to reveal strategies for dealing with the modern city. Built urban-development ensembles from the twentieth century will be embedded in their architectural and historical context, studied with an eye to their constitutive elements and discussed in connection with current urban-planning projects. In addition to various forms of methodological engagement with urban contexts, students will experience how the disciplines of urban-planning history and urban development can be considered in a more integrated way. Moreover, they will receive feedback on how to present the result of their analyses in concise, well-structured talks and in drawings.
ContentThe approach to urban-planning ensembles of the twentieth-century city is characterized by their enormous quantity - which also makes dealing with them more difficult. The building stock dating from this era is immense. There is little discussion currently of how larger spatial contexts - housing estates, neighbourhoods, entire cities - can be not just designed and planed but also continuously developed as overall ensembles. Moreover, strategies, instruments and procedures for dealing with the vestiges of twentieth-century urban planning have yet to be established. In the seminar we will discuss how specific approaches to analysing, assessing and further developing of specific case studies have been formulated and explored recently as well as the extent to which they are experimental and deviate from traditional means for preserving and developing the city. Any discussion of an example of urban planning from the previous century must begin with precise analysis: taking up its original urban-planning principles in their historical dimension and all of the features that affect urban planning. The seminar will emphasise this sort of contextual discussion of modern urban space.
Lecture notesThere will be no script handed out.
LiteratureLiterature will be distributed as bibliographical list at the first session.
051-0723-16LInformation Architecture and Future Cities: Smart Cities Information W2 credits1VG. Schmitt
AbstractWhat are SMART CITIES and how do they emerge? What is the role of architects and urban designers in this process? How do data turn into information as a building material for the future city? The course covers concepts, methods and techniques in design, simulation and communication of cities. The goal is to learn principles and preconditions for the design of sustainable and smart cities.
ObjectiveStudents gain insight into the next generation of design processes for architects and urban designers, and into concepts of the Information Architecture of SMART CITIES, including the influence of Big Data. They learn about the expanded roles of information and of architecture: information and simulation in architecture as means to make the invisible visible, and architecture as a metaphor and ordering system to structure the immense amounts of data of the Information Society. The seminar is highly interactive and discusses visionary case studies in Europe and Asia and new techniques in Big Data informed smart urban design. Apart from learning about and experiencing Information Architecture and SMART CITIES, the course also introduces research and management skills that will distinguish the future ETH architect. An iBook and the edX Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Future Cities support the course.
ContentSMART CITIES - What will happen when cities change from static configurations into responsive and dynamic structures? What does it mean for buildings that undergo the same changes? What is the impact on architectural and urban design education? How can citizens influence this development? The SMART CITIES course will answer these questions and supply you with the necessary skills and knowledge to understand and design such dynamic structures. The intelligent use of data and information are at the core of this course. Data and information are new building materials of future cities. Citizens produce increasing amounts of data in their daily life, with stationary sensors and mobile smartphones. Using those data, citizens begin to influence the design of future cities and the re-design of existing ones. The course will be a first step towards the emerging citizen design science and cognitive design computing. Those will be the next generation of participatory design and design computing.
Lecture notesiBook INFORMATION CITIES
LiteratureThe necessary texts will be found on the Chair's website at: Link. We specifically recommend the consultation of the Future Cities Website at: Link during the entire course. The iBook INFORMATION CITIES is available in the iBooks Store for free.
Prerequisites / NoticeInteractive seminar including 3 exercises
051-0725-16LDigital Urban Visualization: People as Flows Information W2 credits2UG. Schmitt
AbstractWe examine patterns of crowd-flows in an extraordinary urbanisation phenomena: festivals.
ObjectiveThe course participants will learn how to program simulations using Processing/Java. Previous programming knowledge is not necessary. Furthermore they will gain insights into other analysis methods and learn about their significance, strengths and weaknesses.
ContentWe will look at those patterns from two sides. One being the view of a planer asking to find bottle necks or the ideal place for amenities such as booths, toilets etc. Another being the view of visitors. We will program different behaviours that should compete against each other in order to compare their different strategies. As a case study we will use the Caliente Festival in Zurich.

For deepening the learnt in a semester thesis we offer to optimise the created simulations to make them available in interactive planning workshops. Additionally they could be converted into interactive web apps.
LiteratureLink
Prerequisites / NoticeNo programming skills are required.
051-0815-16LACTION! On the Real City: Wunderkammer Information Restricted registration - show details W2 credits2UA. Brillembourg, H. Klumpner
AbstractA full urban block in the center of Opfikon's Glattpark area is the site of intervention for this semester's elective. Students will learn how to develop and realize ideas for rapid change in context of both existing initiatives and future plans. They will negotiate, edit, intervene, and explore the relationship between visionary goals, planning regulations and operational possibilities.
ObjectiveLearning from previously successful projects in Zürich and case studies from around the world, the course will share insight into how temporary action can ignite cumulative urban regeneration and influence future development.

How can we increase urban value through an open and inclusive process? And how can we improve upon current planning paradigms via active experimentation?

The course is run in collaboration with the "Wunderkammer" project, lead by Zurich's very own Jane Jacobs, Vesna Tomse, who is well-known for her ability to rejuvenate public open space through activating bottom-up initiatives. Supported by Stadt Opfikon, the project's mandate is to transform the undeveloped site into an area of opportunity through incremental change and community buy-in.
ContentThe course will begin with a voluntary trip to the renaissance castle of Ambras to experience a Wunderkammer firsthand. This will be followed by a guided site visit during which students will be introduced to Glattpark, its recent developments and the Wunderkammer project's ambitions. The first exercise will be to document the potential and hidden qualities of the area. Then, after defining a collective design charter, students will work towards developing on-site physical interventions as decision-making tools. The goal of the studio is to define a more grounded process for community driven design and trigger incremental change. To continue investment in the site, students' work will be showcased at a concluding exhibition and event.

Collaborators:
Vesna Tomse and the Verein Wunderkammer
Link
Prerequisites / NoticeIt is available for students from all disciplines.

Lecturers: Marie Grob, Diego Ceresuela-Wiesmann, Rebecca Looringh-van Beeck

For more information contact Marie Grob, Link
and visit our website: Link

Language: English / German
051-0819-16LPlanning Strategies for Complex Buildings Using the Example of Health Facilities Restricted registration - show details W2 credits2VT. Guthknecht
AbstractIndependently written scientific paper concerning a subject of planning of complex buildings - such as health facility planning and design - with special focus upon the dynamic changes in this context and the related planning and building reactions to them.
ObjectiveThe objective is that the students engage in a debate of a differentiated functional planning as a basis for complex buildings which are to be successful functionally, operationally and in design.
On the basis of a given scope of themes the students carry out research aiming for possible improvements for example in health facility planning. The scope of subjects is announced at the beginning of each semester.
ContentComplex buildings such as health care buildings are subject to constant change. In a new hospital building 60% of the diagnostic and treatment areas are subject to building changes within the first 10 years of operation. Architecture has to develop concepts which accommodate this level of dynamics into the building structure in a better way.
In the coming years this need for adaptability is going to be challenges even further by the even more reducing health care resources. The paper should discuss in this context a specific question in detail by analysing problems and developing and discussing potential planning solutions.
Lecture notesPresentations of the lecturer and guests will be made available
051-0827-16LSand: an (in)finite Resource? - Engineering for Development (E4D) Summer School Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited.
W4 credits9SD. Hebel
AbstractThe programme revolves around the depleting resource sand and the question of how to develop alternative building materials for future cities. The course is for 30 master and doctoral students from ETH Zurich and other academic institutions (from different disciplines related to the topic), joined by faculty members and external experts from fields of expertise related to the winter school topic.
ObjectiveThe E4D summer school 2016 aims to develop an integrated vision to a global challenge of today's construction industry. The programme revolves around the depleting resource sand and the question of how to develop alternative building materials for future cities. Led by different experts from around the world, students will not only learn the theoretic background of this resource but experiment with current and future technologies to transform sand and building waste. In the workshops the acquired knowledge will be tested and applied. The summer school presents three areas that could mobilise sand alternatives for construction and other applications: (i) I. Microbiologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP), (ii) Chemical Crystallization Processes and (iii) 3D printing.
ContentSand is the most commonly used raw material for the production of goods on our planet. It is found in concrete, glass, computers, detergents and toothpaste. Sand is the megastar of the industrial and digital era - our culture is literally built upon this resource. But sand is not equal to sand: the construction industry requires grain sizes and rough shapes that are only found in river beds, lakes and the oceans. Mining of aquatic sand comes at high environmental and social costs; Its growing demand cannot be met sustainably. Sand is mostly composed of quartz, a mineral form of silicon dioxide. Silicon is one of the most abundant materials on earth and also one of the strongest. These properties make it valuable to various industries. Since a few years demand for sand has risen exponentially. Alternatives for sand for construction have yet to be developed.

Sustainability is often referred to as an interaction of social, cultural, economic, and ecological aspects. In the construction industry sustainability has been perceived as the optimisation of existing material and energy uses, yet the fundamental energetic and material character of these base resources has not been questioned. The speed of consumption of these resources increases constantly due to demographic pressure and resulting construction, as seen around the world and in particular in developing and emerging countries. A fundamental understanding of metabolic processes is required to frame the question of material and energetic sustainability. At the same time the definition of resources expands to include previously undervalued materials and waste. Finally, advances in digital technology and science have opened new avenues for alternative materials and processes.
The summer school presents three areas that could mobilise sand alternatives for construction and other applications:
I. Microbiologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP): Also known as bio-cementation it is a process utilised in self-healing concrete and soil stabilisation. The application to sand will produce naturally grown structural sand bricks. This workshop will compare MICP for various sand types, building wastes and bacterial cultures.
II. Chemical Crystallization Processes: Based on material computation experiments pioneered by architect and engineer Frei Otto, this workshop combines form finding properties of sand with structural and thinking and chemical crystallization processes.
III. 3D Printing: 3D Printing with sand and building waste, finally, explores the potential of sand as a substrate within a binding agent. In combination with a robotic arm, 3D printing of sand is an in situ digitally controlled construction process. It overcomes the need for traditional form-work and transportation of material, thereby reducing the grey energy.
Prerequisites / NoticeTaking place from 4 to 22 July 2016 at the TU Delft in The Netherlands.

Costs: CHF 500, including board and accommodation. All participants are responsible for organising and financing their own domestic or international travel to Delft, The Netherlands.

The Engineering for Development (E4D) Winter School 2016 will invite 30 master and doctoral students from different disciplines related to the topic of the summer school. Applicants will be selected based on their academic record and previous work experiences. Applicants must send a one-page CV and one-page letter of motivation in PDF format stating their interest, to Ms. María Ubierna Aparicio (Link)
Deadline: 31 March 2016
Notification: 15 April 2016
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