Public Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel at the ‘Smart Cities’ Symposium AEDES East Gallery Berlin, June 8, 2013. The N.P.O. AEDES East, under the direction of the curator Ulla Giesler, presents an exhibition and symposium as part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin 2013, with the title ‘Smart City’. For the first time, the regional focus will be on South-East Asia with particular emphasis on the formative up-and-coming generation. The exhibition concentrates on the search for intelligent solutions within an urban context. Next to the exhibition, a symposium will discuss innovative “smart city” projects from South-East Asia: buildings, planning, urban interventions, initiatives and visions for the future from internationally known experts as well as young architects from Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, who are making the cities more intelligent, effective and above all improving the quality of life for their citizens. Beyond that, the results of the student workshops, which Aedes initiated in Phnom Penh, Jakarta and Manila to generate the future city visions of the upcoming generation, will be shown. Particularly on a technological level, the fact that some emerging nations and developing countries are skipping certain development stages undergone by the classic industrialized nations, is reflected in form and utilization. However, the idea of an adaptable, integrated and networked ‘smart city’ holds opportunities and challenges for Europe too: old infrastructures, pre-existing networks and behavioral patterns, local services and governmental systems also need to be synchronized in order to retain future viability for them. The exhibition and symposium presents ideas that have relevance far beyond only South-East Asia and represent changed smart behavior in a globalized age.

Public Lecture by Felix Heisel on May, 11 2013 at the Digital Arts Week ‘A Culture of SustainAbility’ Symposium on Density and Destiny in the Marina Bay ArtScience Museum. Cities have always been dense places. With density comes diversity, stimulation, new ideas, innovation, wealth. In short, many of the good things of life. But density also brings the potential for crowding, stress, noise, ill-health, marginalization and a whole set of other urban woes. This panel offered some provocative thinking on these issues.

Lecture by Dirk E. Hebel on April 22, 2013 in the seminar ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ at the chair of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich. The elective course ‘Information Architecture of Cities’ opens a holistic view on existing and new cities, with focus on Asia. The goal is to better understand the city by going beyond the physical appearance and by focusing on different representations, properties and impact factors of the urban system.

Public lecture by researcher Marta Wisniewska at the CREATE Talks in Singapore on 19th April 2013.CREATE Talks is a discussion platform, bringing together interdisciplinary researchers of CREATE Tower institutions, such as ETH, MIT, TUM and BERKLEY. This time the event will be hosted by TU Munich and moderated by SMART, while FCL and BEARS representatives will give their talks. The ‘Waste and Want’ presentation by Marta Wisniewska will introduce the idea of smart product design and what kind of impact they can have on the immediate surrounding as their second life cycle is activated. The talk will examined exemplary refuse products as possibly one of the biggest material resource in the building industry. Some of the newest waste projects of CoreSing will be also presented.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Princeton School of Architecture on April 3, 2013. During the academic year 2012/13 Princeton SoA will stage a series of public conversations around alternative practices in architecture through the work of 85 distinguished alumni from the last 25 years. At a moment when the profession is going through some important questions on a global scale, the series will explore the broad range of practices of recent alumni that spin from or gravitate around architecture, seeking alternatives to the established forms of architectural practice. The series will highlight Princeton’s commitment to experimental work at the edge of the discipline, and on our alumni’s engagement with a wide range of contemporary practices to outline propositions for alternative forms of practice. The lecture series intends to feature these practices as a sample of the issues that the contemporary practice of architecture has to address, to foreground relevant areas of interest and opportunity. Eight sessions will be held during the Fall ’12 term, and eight more during the Spring ’13 term, featuring different practice formats, geographies, ideologies and technologies. Dirk E. Hebel will lecture in the session: New Brave Worlds – Africa and Latin America. April 3, SoA Princeton University, Betts Auditorium, 6pm.

Public lecture by researcher Marta Wisniewska at a meeting of the Future Cities Laboratory with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in CREATE Tower, on March 22, 2013. The talk will be attended by Prof. Tong Yen Wah, the Singapore-based Co-Director of SJTU-CREATE (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), in order to elaborate on possible collaboration platform between the two institutes. SJTU–CREATE is researching two areas: Waste management and energy recovery (including studies of human behaviour) and Emerging contaminants and the effect on human health and ecology (including pollutants in reservoirs). The talk will focus on CoReSing’s approach to intelligent design of future refuse products and their second life cycle. The abundance of waste as future building material in cities will be an essential part of the presentation.

Public lecture by PhD candidate Alireza Javadian at the 1^st Annual International Conference on Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE 2013) in Singapore, on March 18th, 2013. The ACE 2013 has been organized by the Global Science and Technology Forum (GTSF) and is the first international conference dedicated to both Architecture and Civil Engineering research. The conference is the premiere forum for the presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of Architecture and Civil Engineering. The conference intends to bring together leading researchers, architects, engineers and scientists in this domain of interest from around the world.  A paper on ‘Engineering Bamboo; New composite reinforcements’ by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel of FCL Singapore was accepted by the ACE 2013 committee for presentation.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the ‘Advances in Cement and Concrete Technology in Africa’ (ACCTA) conference in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 28, 2013. The ACCTA 2013 is the first international conference initiated from the SPIN project (Spearhead network for innovative, clean and safe cement and concrete technologies), that is a cooperation between European and African leading research institutions from the fields of materials research. The conference aims to cross-link experts in the field of cement and concrete technology with key players from research institutions, industries, associations and policy-making bodies. The aim is to establish a sustainable and economically efficient cement and concrete technology in Africa with impact on the world-wide. A paper on ‘Bamboo Composite Reinforcements in Structural Concrete Applications’ by the Chair of Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel of FCL Singapore was accepted by theACCTA peer review group for presentation.

Public Lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the international FCL Conference – Concrete Sleeping Beauty at CREATE Singapore on 26th November 2012. Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

Public Lunch-Talk by Alireza Javadian at the FCL Future Cities Laboratory Singapore on 1st November 2012. Bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries around the globe. The benefits of using bamboo are enormous: its fast growth, high tensile strength, and the capacity to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are just some of the most remarkable properties it has to offer. For decades, researchers around the world have searched for methods to activate those benefits for use within the building sector and transform bamboo from a locally applied organic material into an industrialized product. However, water absorption, swelling and shrinking behavior, durability, fungi attacks as well as chemical decomposition of bamboo have limited most of the applications so far. This research demonstrates that new bamboo composite materials, developed with Woven Strand Bamboo (WSB) technology, have the possibility to overcome most of these limitations and open new application fields within the building sector, especially in the concrete industry. The research conducted under the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore entails investigating the potential to replace steel reinforcements in structural concrete applications.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel, Felix Heisel, Bisrat Kifle, Addis alem Fekele, Tewedaj Eshetu, Yosef Teferri, and Eyob Wedesu at the Green Forum ADDIS 2050 Conference in Addis Ababa on October 09, 2012. Addis Ababa belongs to the fastest growing urban centers in the world. Migration from the rural areas as well as a massive redevelopment strategies of the City Government put the African capital under enormous pressure. Infrastructural deficiencies, water and energy shortages, environmental hazards and mobility challenges question the current modus operandi in place. Alternative pathways will be presented in this lecture which is a result of a workshop collaboration between the Green Forum Ethiopia, FCL Singapore and EiABC Addis Ababa.

Team FCL Singapore: Dirk Hebel, Felix Heisel, Marta Wisniewska, Alireza Javadian, Gerhard Schmitt, Stephen Cairns, Remo Burkhard, Eva-Maria Friedrich, Matthias Berger, Stefan Mueller Arisona, Ludger Hovestadt, Jorge Orozco, Alex Erath, Max Hirsh, Sonja Berthold, Ying Zhou, Edda Ostertag, Naomi Hanakata, Lindsey Ann Sawyer, Cheryl Song, Noor Faizah Binte Othman, Kevin Lim, Amanda Tan

Team EiABC: Joachim Dieter, Bisrat Kifle, Addis alem Fekele, Tewedaj Eshetu, Yosef Teferri, Eyob Wedesu

Team Green Forum/Heinrich Boell Foundation: Patrick Berg, Ayele Kebede, Jonas

Public lecture by Felix Heisel at the Green Forum ADDIS 2050 Conference in Addis Ababa on October 09, 2012. Out of Singapore’s breathtaking development over the past 50 years, the lecture focuses on two mayor characteristics of urban planning: the incredible success story of the Housing & Developing Board (HDB) as well as the concept of a “City in the Garden”. Today, more than 85% of Singapore’s 5.3 million inhabitants are home owners, due to an inventive strategy implemented already in the 1960ies. Identification of the home owners with the nation-state is almost guaranteed, since almost everybody is owning a share of Singapore, whereby national economic growth enhances the value of private property. Also during the last 50 years, even so the built mass in Singapore grew constantly, the green area did as well and is covering today more than 50% of the island, making Singapore one of the greenest cities world-wide. The lecture will introduce the necessary decisions that were taken over the last five decades in order to achieve such high standards.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 Academia Engelberg Congress in Switzerland on September 14, 2012.  The 11th Dialogue on Science will focus on the issue of rapid urbanization and its consequences for everyday life in cities around the world. With this congress the Academia Engelberg Foundation asks how might the disciplines of architecture, urbanism and the built environment sciences respond to the challenges of rapid urbanization?

The Chair of Architecture and Construction at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore concentrates its research on ‘alternative modern’ construction materials. The ‘alternative’ aspect of this focus emerges from an exploration of the possibility of knowledge transfer, which could change the way we think about vernacular or traditional building materials. One material, maybe the most neglected building material in the world so far, has the chance to change our perspective: Bamboo, “the next super-material” as it was called out in a recent BBC documentary. It is growing exactly in those regions around the equator belt, where most developing territories are to be found today. Bamboo is a very fast growing and affordable natural resource, which has outstanding constructive qualities, superior to wood and, looking at tensile capacities, even to steel.

Re-inventing and overcoming its role as a old fashioned vernacular building material of the South, it could start to establish a knowledge transfer from South-to-South or South-to-North and reverse the traditional model. The talk will argue, that through knowledge transfer, there is a chance to combine and therefore revaluate globally applied building materials with local available substances and knowledge from the South. It is proposing the possibility for a ‘reverse’ or ‘alternative modernism’, whereby developed countries might start to learn and gain from a knowledge developed in the ‘South’.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the 2012 FCL/ETH conference in Zurich, Switzerland on September 10, 2012.  Multiple centers, hubs and nodes increasingly supplement traditional city centers, regional territories and urban clusters. These are embedded in a network of infrastructures to form complex polycentric urban regions that extend far into once rural hinterlands. Research from the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore will be confronted with research from ETH Zurich and elsewhere in order to promote an exchange of knowledge and to bring the Future Cities Laboratory’s work to the attention of a larger audience in Switzerland. Following the question on how a well-tempered environment can be achieved in different situations of affluence, material resources and technological development, Dirk Hebel will introduce first outcomes of his research in Singapore.

Public forum discussion with Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the UN-Habitat Confrenece: The Urban Future in Naples, Italy, September 04, 2012. The overarching theme of the sixth session of the World Urban Form “The Urban Future” clearly signifies the need to anticipate, imagine and plan for the future in order to shape it in sustainable ways. The rapid pace of change from global to local levels and related complexities, uncertainties and connectivity necessitate cities to think ahead into the future and adapt their plans, policies and interventions accordingly. Promoting socially equitable, economically viable and environmentally balanced cities requires decision-makers to systematically examine and anticipate future trends, conditions and drivers of change. To become prosperous, innovative and competitive, cities need to critically examine possible and probable scenarios so as to work towards their preferred future.
The future offers enormous potential for achieving sustainable development targets in cities as it can be shaped through actions and decisions taken today.

While the term “future” bears several uncertainties, systematically analyzing the future presents an opportunity to identify alternatives that can guide today’s policies and development at the city, regional and national scales. Futuring is the methodical exploration, creation, and testing of a range of alternative futures to inform decision making, and allow better decisions to inform a better tomorrow. Thus, the objective of future analysis and visioning is not to project the “right” future or make the “right” decisions” but to make more informed decisions in relation to many possible projected scenarios.
Globally, cities have engaged in futuring processes at different scales and in various urban sectors so as to design policies and interventions that take future opportunities and risks into consideration. The results of these processes have not been without challenges, especially when it comes to being translated into action. In many other instances, cities seldom engage in foresight exercises and may be more occupied with addressing current and immediate needs and challenges, especially in developing countries. There is thus a clear need to rethink the role of futuring in urban management and governance to enable cities to better prepare for a complex, uncertain and rapidly changing global context.

UN‐Habitat has recently launched an urban futures initiative called “Futurban” to integrate futuring into urban policy and decision making processes. Futurban undertakes research to anticipate and analyze future trends, conditions and events in order to advance knowledge on the future of cities and contribute to enhanced policy and decision making. In addition, based on a rigorous analysis of alternative scenarios, Futurban assists cities to envision their preferred urban future and set realistic milestones for achieving it through innovative and visionary strategies. By building foresight in policy and decision making processes, it strengthens the ability of cities to capitalize on strategic levers to proactively shape their future.

Public lecture by Felix Heisel on Alternative Building Materials at the Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament on Friday 28th, 2012.

The international conference Global Cross-Disciplinary Tournament (GXT) 2012 brings together 20 delegates from four universities – NUS USP, the Australian National University, Peking University, and Oxford University – to discuss problems and propose catalysts for change related to this year’s theme, The Future of Cities. The delegates from these universities are meeting in teams over 10 days in July to propose a cross-disciplinary catalyst with the potential to change a specific issue related to the future of cities in 30 years. They will each bring their unique domain knowledge and cross-cultural experiences in generating their ideas and in giving their presentations at the final symposium during their stay in Singapore.

Public lunch-talk by Felix Heisel at FCL Singapore on July 12, 2012. Addis Ababa, unlike many other African cities, has a history and city fabric to learn from. Even if the physical conditions of the informal settlements are very poor, the social networks, as well as spatial and cultural values developed and embedded in these areas are worth the preservation and study. Due to the current redevelopments, these parts of the city will change for good within the next years. Hence, now is the right time to document a century old way of living in Addis Ababa. We believe that its informal sector can teach important lessons about the use of architecture and its social role.

This movie is an cinematic documentary on the use of space in the informal parts of Ethiopia’s capital. Looking at one typical house for the duration of 24 hours, one can notice how a single room can serve for most daily functions. Interviews with the inhabitants and experts give further insight into the topic. “Disappearing Spaces” is the first of a series of documentaries on spatial developments in Addis Ababa.

The Embassy of Switzerland in Ethiopia with the Swiss Agency for Developmemnt and Cooperation under the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs invited Prof. Dirk E. Hebel as an representative of ETH Zuerich for a symposium on the future Swiss Ethiopian Research & Scientific Cooperation for Development held on July 28, 2012 in Addis Ababa. The forum will focus on Ethiopian experience and implementation of partnerships in Research & Science and on future fields, scope and modalities of Research & Science cooperation for development.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Design Research Society Biennial International Conference in Bangkok on July 04, 2012. The conference hosts 500 world’s leading design academics and professionals for five days of discussion and debate with a special emphasis on the role of design in sustainable development. The conference will provide a platform for educationalists and practitioners in all design fields to share their experiences and develop plans for the future.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at the Asia Green Youth Challenge in Singapore on July 2nd, 2012, a conference held as part of the WasteMET Asia Conference 2012 at Marina bay Sands. The Asian Green Youth Challenge (AGYC) is an environmental initiative by youth for youth to imagine and realise sustainable and innovative projects. Having recognised the mounting environmental challenges that Asia faces, AGYC seeks to promote ground-up innovation that is financially and environmentally sustainable.

Public lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel at TU Delft on May 31, 2012. The modernist ‘proto-type’ followed the idea of one ‘ideal’ model configuration, applied in a serial way, while the ‘proto-typology’ defines a flexible and heterogenous form of organization, which can be changed and readjusted instantly and serve different cultural as well as contextual conditions. It is a process rather than a product. The lecture will show different case studies of prototypologies errected in the last years at the Urban Laboratory ETHiopia.

Puplic lecture by Prof. Dirk E. Hebel on March 29, 2012 at the Goethe Institute Bangalore, India, organized by MoD Institute Berlin/Bangalore in the series ‘Talk of the Town’. The lectures series, under the banner of the year of Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities, is organized around the themes of ‘SEE’, ‘ACT’ and ‘BUILD’ respectively, to critically address various issues related to urban transformation in India in applied and innovative ways. The first lecture began with Richard Saul Wurman’s famous call for ‘making the city observable’ to interrogate different practices of seeing the city through cartography and other visual means and how those shape our everyday urban experiences and decisions. The second lecture ‘ACT’ will gather urban practitioners and actors to discuss and compare various strategies and tactics undertaken by them to intervene in city processes. The discussion will focus on how specific ways of ‘acting’ or ‘intervening’ in the city can create or dismantle urban hierarchies, and also what examples of ‘acting’ in the city can be found in the urban discourse in India.