Presentation

Philipp Block, Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich looked into the architecture of the past. How do rolling arches hold together? His projects have been created in accordance with ancient examples. Extensive tests make sure that the buildings are solid. Just like the old masters, Block and his team built arches without any steel and nails. And finally they tried the same using local and sustainable building material in Africa. Locals produced bricks using pressed mud and clay. Then they used them to build a copula that stood to the correct distribution of pressure. The advantage of this method is that construction material is not only available at a short distance but also cheap.

Presentation of Ass. Professor Philippe Block

The two students Alpha Yacob and Hiwote Negash Reta from the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) presented trend to live in the city of Addis Abeba. After a short glance back, they explained today’s situation and ventured a glimpse into the future: Addis Abeba in the year 2050 – from poverty to power. With target-group oriented communication and a goal achieving government, Addis Abeba shall become an emission free city that produces its own energy within 40 years.

Presentation: Students from Ethiopia

Chen Zhong from the Future Cities Laboratory Singapore presented the collection and evaluation of different data in Singapore. With new methods, growing data volumes can be better understood. Such knowledge is made accessible for decision makers, city planners and stakeholders. In her presentation, she demonstrated how data is generated, modeled and visualized. Using a concrete example of the city district Rocher, she showed how urban areas can be improved with the help of analyzed transport data.

Presentation: Student from Singapore

Roman Gaus, founder and CEO of Urban Farmers, asked the following question right at the begin-ning: “What can we do with all the free roofs in the cities? We become farmers.” Given that the worldwide population will double, the following question also arises: Where can we grow the food for all these people? The pilot project started in June 2012. On a production area of 250 m2, five tons of vegetable and 800 kg of fish will be produced. This is about the amount of food needed for 80 to 100 people.

Presentation: Urban Farmers

Discussion among Young Scientists
Especially the presentation by Urban Farmers triggered discussions. The questions referred to its benefit, but also to the fact of planting vegetable in a city when taking into account air pollution. With the methods of data evaluation such as in Singapore, a value-added chain could be established. Land pollution versus air pollution while taking into account ecologic consideration. The students from Addis Abeba were convinced that it is important to learn where food comes from and where it is cultivated. The basic knowledge of every region shall be preserved in order to guarantee its own identity. But it should also be enriched with ideas from other countries. According to them, it is also important that the dialogue with the population is always kept in mind.