Camouflage Architecture: underground buildings

If you're familiar with the Wombles, then you probably encountered underground architecture at any early age.

The Wombles' home was located in the London suburb of Wimbledon, close to the underground station, and embodied every child's dream: subterranean and cave-like, it was made from stuff that society had thrown away. It was an early example of sustainability and the use of recycled building materials.

It's unlikely that the following projects were inspired by the Wombles, but that doesn't mean they're any less successful in terms of their functionality and singularity.

Black rocks at the coast, photo © Denton Corker Marshall

In the Swiss town of Vals, known for its thermal baths, it's not a meteor strike that's created a inverted-dome-shaped hole in the ground: it's a holiday home.

Astonished by the relaxed planning regulations in the vicinity of the baths – an architectural masterpiece by Peter Zumthor – the owner of the house decided on a minimal approach, so as not to obstruct views of the spa complex.

The building embeds itself fully into the landscape, yet offers sufficient natural light and views out onto the picturesque countryside.

Villa Vals, architecture: SeARCH / Bjarne Mastenbroek i.c.w. CMA, photographer: Iwan Baan

Architects Christian Müller and Bjarne Mastenbroeck achieved this by arranging the windows at angles around a circular courtyard. The entrance is perfectly concealed: you arrive across a 'Maiensäss', a typical wooden alpine cabin, and then go through an underground tunnel.

This idea is reminiscent of the 'Fake Chalets' exhibition at the Design Museum in Zurich, which featured photographs of observation bunkers disguised as barns.

To the article "Indestructible Remembrance - The conversion of European bunkers"

Villa Vals, architecture: SeARCH / Bjarne Mastenbroek i.c.w. CMA, photographer: Iwan Baan

Interior of Villa Vals, architecture: SeARCH / Bjarne Mastenbroek i.c.w. CMA, photographer: Iwan Baan

The Marshall House by Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall is buried in the dunes of the Melbourne coastline. Looking back from the small bay's beach, it's only visible as a black line; the local rock is of the same hue.

Marshall House, east of Melbourne, architecture: Denton Corker Marshall, © Denton Corker Marshall

The house itself is defined by a wall, which, in turn, marks out a generous, square courtyard, a bit like a sports ground. This north-facing outdoor space offers protection from stormy sea winds and traps the Australian winter sun.

The outer façade of the structure faces towards the sea. Each room's window openings are sized and arranged in such a way that allow picture-like views of the sea.

Marshall House, east of Melbourne, architecture: Denton Corker Marshall, © Denton Corker Marshall

Interior of Marshall House, east of Melbourne, architecture: Denton Corker Marshall, © Denton Corker Marshall

The Aloni House is located in a similarly rugged coastal landscape, yet in a different hemisphere. The terrain of the Greek Cyclades has been transformed over hundreds of years into a terraced, agricultural landscape. Stone walls prevent erosion and make the cultivation of the steep land easier.

Aloni House, Antiparos island, aerial view, architecture: decaArchitecture, © decaArchitecture

Aloni House, Antiparos island, elevation, architecture: decaArchitecture, © decaArchitecture

The design of the Aloni House took a cue from these existing natural-stone walls. The architectural intervention is located in a hollow between two mountain slopes and creates a bridge, so to speak, between two contours. The house's sides disappear into the ground, blending the structure into the landscape. To the front, the land falls away, allowing one of the house's long elevations a view of the sea. There are five internal courtyards, which flood the rooms with light and shield windows and doors from stormy rainwater.

Aloni House, Antiparos island, architecture: decaArchitecture, © decaArchitecture

Interior of Aloni House, Antiparos island, architecture: decaArchitecture, © decaArchitecture

A whole development of underground homes is due to be built in the conservation area near Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania. Patkau Architects won a competition run by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, an institute that looks after the preservation and maintenance of Fallingwater.

Cottages at Fallingwater (USA), architecture: Patkau Architects, rendering © Patkau Architects

The six new units will serve as accommodation for participants in the institute's further-education programme.


The jury praised the subtle, yet progressive, character of the design, with its minimal impact on the landscape, which also met the criteria of sustainability and energy efficiency that had been set down.

Cottages at Fallingwater (USA), architecture: Patkau Architects, rendering © Patkau Architects

Model of Cottages at Fallingwater (USA), architecture: Patkau Architects, photo © Patkau Architects

Interior of Cottages at Fallingwater (USA), architecture: Patkau Architects, rendering © Patkau Architects

The California Academy of Sciences is the last and also the biggest of the projects discussed here; it is less subterranean than the others, but just as integrated into its physical context.

Most notable about Renzo Piano's California Academy of Sciences is its 'roofscape'. The academy brings together research, natural-science collections, teaching and public exhibitions under one roof, and houses an aquarium, a planetarium and a rainforest biosphere. These three building elements represent outer space, Earth and the oceans, and function as the three 'columns' that support the roof and form the roofscape's three hills.

Aerial view of the Goldengate Park, San Francisco, photographer: Tom Fox, SWA Group

Made of rock, the aquarium alone, which is open to visitors, can house 38,000 species from all over the planet.


The institute's scientific collection, which belongs to the research department, contains 18 million specimens in jars and other special containers. With its mission 'To Explore, Explain and Protect the Natural World', the academy's design programme was always destined to be a sustainable one. Apart from the building's energy-saving features, valuable consideration was given to the choice of materials and to the re-using of building elements from the old academy.

Californian Academy of Sciences, photographer: Ishida Shunji © Rpbw, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

The structure's insulation consists in part of recycled denim jeans, and the roof not only gives a bit of nature back, but also functions to stop heat escaping. In the middle of the roofscape, over the interior piazza, is a large, glazed skylight; lots of smaller, hole-like skylights are dotted across the roof, offering natural daylight and opening automatically to give the interiors natural ventilation.

Californian Academy of Sciences, view of roof, photographer: Mc Neal Jon © Rpbw, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Skylights in the roof allow sunlight to reach the living rainforest and coral reef. They also open automatically to allow heat to escape, photographer: Justine Lee © Rpbw, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Conceptual sketch of the Piazza, photographer: Goldberg Stefano - Publifoto © Rpbw, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

The green roof stretches all the way to the outer walls, where it meets a glass canopy containing over 55,000 solar-energy cells. The roof's substructure consists of a combination of concrete and steel framework. A water-retentive layer is built into the roof structure. The rest of the building is realised in light-grey exposed concrete (including the African Hall, whose original rendering in limestone was reused); the moulding holes were left open to allow for the fixing of exhibits.

View of the exhibit hall of the Californian Academy of Sciences, view to the West, Photographer: Nic Lehoux © Rpbw, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Source: archdaily

The Green School / PT Bambu

By Nico Saieh Bali, Bamboo, Indonesia, PT Bambu, Wood

 

© PT Bambu

Architects: PT Bambu
Location: Badung, Bali, Indonesia
Client: Yayasan Kul Kul
Project Area: 7,542 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: PT Bambu, Ahkamul Hakim

site plan

© PT Bambu

Environmentalists and designers John and Cynthia Hardy wanted to motivate communities to live sustainably. Part of that effort was to show people how to build with sustainable materials, namely bamboo. They established the Green School, and its affiliates: the Meranggi Foundation, which develops plantations of bamboo plants through presenting bamboo seedlings to local rice farmers; and PT Bambu, a for-profit design and construction company that promotes the use of bamboo as a primary building material, in an effort to avoid the further depletion of rainforests.

© PT Bambu

© Ahkamul Hakim

The Green School, a giant laboratory built by PT Bambu, is located on a sustainable campus straddling both sides of the Ayung River in Sibang Kaja, Bali, within a lush jungle with native plants and trees growing alongside sustainable organic gardens. The campus is powered by a number of alternative energy sources, including a bamboo sawdust hot water and cooking system, a hydro-powered vortex generator and solar panels. Campus buildings include classrooms, gym, assembly spaces, faculty housing, offices, cafes and bathrooms. A range of architecturally significant spaces from large multi-storey communal gathering places to much smaller classrooms are a feature of the campus. Local bamboo, grown using sustainable methods, is used in innovative and experimental ways that demonstrate its architectural possibilities. The result is a holistic green community with a strong educational mandate that seeks to inspire students to be more curious, more engaged and more passionate about the environment and the planet.

Source: archdaily

Art615, a pavilion by Aalborg University students

By Sebastian J — Filed under: Pavilion , Structures , Aalborg University, Denmark

 

A group of students of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Aalborg University, Denmark, finished a Digital Design Miniproject. Originally Art615 is meant as an art pavilion for a crime-related park in Aalborg, Denmark. The concept mainly focused on drawing attention from the unsafe park, and ensuring the feeling of a safer environment for the visitors.

More images, a video, and the students’ description after the break.

Intense work of 43 students at the Department of Architecture & Design, Aalborg University (Denmark), creates the framework for the workshop ‘Social Technologies’.

The workshop explores the basic exercise in the development of dynamic architectural concepts and computer-generated geometry. The vision was to challenge the complex programs of the urban field and to explore the inherent potentials of new digital tools. Working with two main focus areas, the workshop simultaneously aimed at developing advanced spatial systems for organizing and articulating new social complexities, and at utilizing and adapting different advanced digital design methods for exploring various principles of form generation and advanced production.

In collaboration with architects, CNC-manufacturing companies, media artists, sociologist and the Danish National Crime preventing council – the students participating in the workshop sought to explore the ways in which advanced digital design methods can generate new alternatives for the existing anti-crime initiatives, where technology is often being used to identify guilty persons. The workshop encourages research in the crossing between performative formations and interactive light systems, thus enabling discussions on local culture production and social potentials in form.

During the workshop the students were among other things introduces to: the development of dynamic architectural concepts, digital tools as Grasshopper for Rhino and RhinoScripting, the utilization of sensor technology and dynamic light control in the software vvvv, and to work with digital technologies and interactive urban environments on a conceptual level.

After three weeks of intense work, seven individual projects were selected among 43. The 43 attendants were then merged into seven groups – one for each selected project – and now had one week to finalize the projects, by making them ready for CNC-production, finalizing sensor technology and dynamic light control. To train the students’ ability to work with different factors of challenges at the same time – including the possible difficulties by working with specific materials – the winning project, Art615, was to be realized in full scale, solely in MDF-wood.

Originally Art615 is meant as an art pavilion for a crime-related park in Aalborg, Denmark. The concept mainly focused on drawing attention from the unsafe park, and ensuring the feeling of a safer environment for the visitors.

Inside the pavilion, three monitors display art from local artists. The lighting – programmed in VVVV – analyzes the colors and proportions of the art and a nearby projector displays these colors on the pavilions scales. This creates a picturesque environment inside the pavilion – presenting the visitors a new interpretation of the art, by giving them a chance to “step into the art” itself.

After one week of assembly, the pavilion mainly stands as a structure at Platform4 in Aalborg (Denmark).

The main form of the pavilion is originally described as a simple surface in Rhino. The form is derived and chosen out of multiple iterations – where the main focus was to create a semi-closed space and emphasize the increasing build-up of the shape from the smaller end to the larger. Parametric modeling in Grasshopper allowed us to tweak all parameters controlling the form, until we were satisfied with the structural abilities and overall aesthetic.

The surface is then dissected into 32 vertical and 4 horizontal struts by using Grasshopper to define a structural waffle-system. The system allowed us to connect the different struts, by merely sliding them into each other – the size of the gaps in the struts and the character of the MDF, meant that they interlocked and were kept fixed.

With the CNC-milling machines’ material dimension limitations of 2,4×1,2 meters, and with some of the struts reaching lengths of 6,5 meters – the individual struts had to be dissected into shorter fragments. A puzzle-joint made in Grasshopper was inserted between these fragments. To ensure static stability, metal-plates were bolted and screwed around the joint itself.

The scales define the overall form of the pavilion and are the result of a paneling definition done in Grasshopper. The main idea with the outer shell is working with transparency.

“We wanted to work with the inside and outside of Art615 and also make a spatial connection between these two spaces. By perforating the shell, the scales are able take advantage of the displayed light on the inside and at the same time create a visual and audible connection between the two spaces.”

Art615 is the result of seven 4th semester students’ experiments and researches in linking CNC fabrication techniques, digital parametric sketching and dynamic light control.

Student Design/Management/Installation Team/Layout/Design and Component Production:
Bachelor Stud. Senad Gvozden
Bachelor Stud. Bjarke Mejnertsen
Bachelor Stud. Kenneth Rytter
Bachelor Stud. Bjarke Apollo
Bachelor Stud. Jacob Hilmer
Bachelor Stud. Dennis Jensen

For more information, click here.

The surprising truth about what motivates us.

Big Bambu by Doug &Mike Starn

Big Bambú, an installation of 5,000 interlocking 30- and 40-foot-long fresh-cut bamboo poles, designed for the Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The exhibit was created by twin brothers Mike and Doug Starn.  Telgraph.co.uk describes the monumental structure best as, “bamboo scaffolding mangled by a hurricane .”  The construction of the structure continues through the fall when the exhibit closes until the end of October.  You can purchase tickets to take guided tours to walk through the structure.  Without venturing up on to the paths, the bamboo poles creates a feeling of a forest through which roof garden visitors wind through.  The experience is fantastic and there are stunning views of the city.

For more information about the installation, click here.

IMAGE CREDITS: Image 1 from Telgraph.co.uk, Remaining Images by Design For Men

Organic and Affordable Solar Power.

Back in 1991, Professor Michael Graetzel from the Lausanne Polytechnic invented what's now called the Graetzel Cell, a non-photovoltaic solar cell made of a layer of titanium dioxide, glass and a dye from fruit that absorbs sunlight like the chlorophyll in green leaves. The Swiss professor has since continued developing this "artificial photosynthesis" without the need for an expensive manufacturing process, and last week he won the million dollar Millennium Technology Award. He explains how his vision for a life without plugs works:

Don't we want cheap solar power? That's why some installers lease equipment. Graetzel, who is director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, explains his cells are affordable, easy, flexible, and transparent. They can be made as windows to let in ambient light or as furniture, and as standalone street lamps requiring no power supply.

The dye-sensitive solar cell (DSC) is an "organic" and low-cost solar power alternative to standard expensive silicon-based photovoltaics in solving out high needs for energy. With earth receiving solar energy at an average of 81,000 terawatts - more than the global energy demand by a factor of 5,000 - the question has been how to harness it effectively.

Titanium oxide is an abundant, renewable and non-toxic mineral that absorbs UV light and produces electrons, and the technology can be applied to batteries. Though conversion of the DSC is less than a silicon version does, the price/performance is efficient, compared to fossil fuels. Fruit dyed solar cells are being developed by others and researchers at Universite du Quebec a Montreal claim to overcome issues that have held up production. Sony is one of several companies developing these dye-sensitized solar cells for commercial use.

The Millennium Technology Prize from the Technology Academy of Finland, also funded by the government, is presented for paying "tribute to developers of life-enhancing technological innovations." The prize was established to steer the course of technological development to a more humane direction. They awarded Graetzel "as a significant contributor to the diverse portfolio of future energy technologies. Grätzel cells are likely to have an important role in low-cost, large-scale solutions for renewable energy."

With SolarDay 2010 coming up June 19, it's a good time to switch to a solar powered gadget - until you can convert your windows to DSC?

Source: Treehugger

Bioengineered Brick Wins 2010 Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize

An American architecture professor, Ginger Krieg Dosier, 32, Assistant Professor of Architecture at American University of Sharjah (AUS) in Abu Dhabi, has won this year’s prestigious Metropolis Next Generation Design Prize for “Biomanufactured Brick.” The 2010 Next Generation Prize Challenge was “ONE DESIGN FIX FOR THE FUTURE” - a small fix to change the world. The Next Generation judges decided that Professor Dosier’s well-documented and -tested plan to replace clay-fired brick with a brick made with bacteria and sand, met the challenge perfectly.

“The ordinary brick - you would think that there is nothing more basic than baking a block of clay in an oven,” said Horace Havemeyer, Publisher of Metropolis. “Ginger Dosier’s idea is the perfect example of how making a change in an almost unexamined part of our daily lives can have an enormous impact on the environment.”

1-2-3 brick-making with Dosier’s competition-winning concept: pour the bacteria solution together with the cementing solution over the sand inside the formwork, let it saturate and harden (currently about one week) - voilà: we have an ecobrick!

There are over 1.3 trillion bricks manufactured each year worldwide, and over 10% are made by hand in coal-fired ovens. On average, the baking process emits 1.4 pounds of carbon per brick - more than the world’s entire aviation fleet. In countries like India and China, outdated coal-fired brick kilns consume more energy, emit more carbon, and produce great quantities of particulate air pollution. Dosier’s process replaces baking with simple mixing, and because it is low-tech (apart from the production of the bacterial activate), can be done onsite in localities without modern infrastructure. The process uses no heat at all:mixing sand and non-pathogenic bacteria (sporosar) and putting the mixture into molds. The bacteria induce calcite precipitation in the sand and yield bricks with sandstone-like properties. If biomanufactured bricks replaced each new brick on the planet, it would save nearly 800 million tons of CO2 annually.

One of Dosier’s many ecobrick experiments in the lab

Professor Dosier, was trained as an architect (at Auburn University, Rural Studio, and Cranbrook Academy) and teaches architecture.  But she studied microbiology, geology, and materials science in her spare time, most recently when she was teaching architecture at North Carolina State University. The results - which have been tested with Lego-sized bricks in research at AUS - impress architects and geologists alike. Grant Ferris, professor of geology at the University of Toronto, says that in all the scientific studies of microbial mineral precipitation, there has been little or no work on the “fabrication of construction or design materials,” which is what makes the Next Generation winner’s work “so compelling.”

Source: Bustler

Shipping Container Art Studio in New York

Wow! We knew that shipping containers could be used to build beautiful buildings, but this art studio by MB Architecture in Amagansett, New York is truly gorgeous. The artist had a limited budget of $60,000 to work with and wanted something close to home that was both functional as a working space, but would also be inviting and reflective. The exterior is kept very simply as the shipping container, but painted gray for a sophisticated look and a way to blend the container into the wooded environment. Inside, bright white walls act as a blank canvas for new artwork and ample daylighting streams in through the large windows on either end.

The foundation for the studio is built into the earth with 9′ walls and acts as the lower level and work space for the studio. Two 40′ (9′6″) high cube shipping containers were then set on top of the foundation to create a two-story double wide structure. About 75% of the floors of the containers were cut away to create the tall ceilings with lots of natural light flooding in from the high windows.

Next to the painting area on the lower floor is a large storage area and directly above on the top floor is another work area. The container wide staircase acts as a transitional and gallery space for artwork. Each of the two containers cost about $2,500 delivered. An amazing example of how beautiful shipping container architecture can be.

+ Maziar Behrooz Architecture

Via Le Journal du Design and Arch Daily

photo credits: Dalton Portella, Francine Fleischer and Maziar Behrooz

LIFEWALL: Modular Vertical Garden Panels Clean the Air

Creating vertical gardens just got a whole lot easier thanks to these modular garden tiles by Spanish firm Ceracasa. Their Lifewall product, which we just saw over at Jetson Green, is a modular tile that can support a number of different plants and is drip irrigated for water efficiency. Since it’s modular, the designer has the ability to place these in whatever pattern they want, which could create some really fascinating designs. Lifewall tiles also interface with another Ceracasa product called Bionictile, which is able to suck pollution out of the air.

Lifewall was developed by the architect Emilio Llobat of Maqla Architects, Azahar Energy and Ceracasa, and it is now being marketed globally. Each tile is one square meter in size and can accommodate a number of different plant varieties. The Lifewall tile works in conjunction with the Bionictile, which is a porcelain tile that uses the sun’s UV rays to break down nitrous oxide in the air, improving the local air quality.

When used together the two products create a symbiotic relationship, where the Lifewall has plant matter that soaks up CO2, and the Bionictile converts NOx to fertilizer which is used by the plants. Tests show that Bionictile ceramics are able to decompose 25.09 micrograms of NOx per m2 per hour, and if 200 buildings were coated by ceramic BIONICTILE, an equivalent volume of 2,638 million cubic meters of air per year would be decontaminated. In other words, more than 400,000 people could breathe air free of harmful NOx from vehicles and industries in one year.

+ Ceracasa

Via Jetson Green

Amoeba-Inspired Network Design: Physarum polycephalum

Science/AAAS

For anyone interested in going into engineering, I can offer a warning: prepare to get your butt handed to you repeatedly
by nature. Many of the processes at the forefront of engineering
technology are just trying to play catch-up with what nature has done an
innumerable number of times. Photosynthesis, genetic replication, the creation of joints, even the simple act of
flight—nature has done it before, with greater ease, and often cheaper or more efficiently.
A paper in the current issue of Science discusses
the ability of a single-celled creature to create a robust network while
foraging for food—one that mimicked the Tokyo rail system in
complexity. Creating a good network is a balancing act; you need to span a large number of
nodes with a minimal number of edges (keeping cost low), while being
able to function when an edge is lost (fault
tolerant). Problems of this type are a shining example of the
adage "fast, cheap, or good: pick any two."
Many organisms grow in the form
of a connected network, and they have
the benefit of innumerable generations of natural selection behind
them. Selective pressures have
forced the organism to find a happy balance among connectedness, fault
tolerance, and cost/efficiency. The authors of the Science article use
the slime mold Physarum
polycephalum as their biological network generator, and it served as a muse for the creation of an adaptive network model.

Physarum
is a single-celled amoeboid organism that spends its time searching for
physically distributed sources of food. When starting on a fresh
substrate, it spreads in all directions to maximize the area it is
capable of searching. Behind the outer perimeter of its search area, it
forms a tubular network that connects cells to any food sources that it has
discovered. Over the course of a few hours, the network it forms connects the food sources in a manner that optimizes the
network's properties.
As part of their experimentation with the slime, the
researchers placed 36 food sources on a substrate in a manner that
mimicked the geographical layout of cities around Tokyo. (Physarum is apparently fond of oat flakes.) They then
introduced the slime mold
to the foraging grounds and compared the network that it formed with
the actual Tokyo rail network in place around the city. 
Initially, the Physarum began to
spread out over the entire available area but, over time, it
concentrated its network on the tubes that connected the food sources. The
resulting network topology "bore similarity to the real rail network."
To see if the organism could be coaxed into an even closer match, the
researchers used light—which is known to inhibit the growth
of physarum—to
simulate mountains, lakes, or similar impasses that the actual rail
network must contend with.
While looking like the real network is nice, it's not exactly an objective measure. To attempt to quantify the similarity, the
researchers examined a handful of metrics used for describing topological networks. The cost of the network (total length),
efficiency (average minimum distance between nodes), and robustness
(degree of fault tolerance) were examined relative to the minimum spanning tree
(MST) for each network. The MST represents the smallest possible
network that connects all the food source (or city rail station) positions.
When compared to the length of the MST, the Tokyo rail system was 1.8 times larger, while the Physarum network
was 1.75±0.30 times larger. The average minimum distance between
cities (food sources) was 0.85 and 0.85±0.04, respectively. These two measurements illustrate the fact that Physarum-based networks have a lower "cost" but provide a relatively equal distance
between nodes.
One place where engineers did a bit better: the amoeba's networks were not as robust as the actual rail network. For the rails, four percent of the possible faults could lead to the
isolation of a node, whereas a fault in the Physarum network
has a 14±4 percent chance of leading to an isolated food source. That just won't do for Tokyo, given the frequency of monster attacks there.

Using these observations of network formation, the
researchers attempted to develop a model that was
capable of describing the network's formation. Using a simple fluid
flow model for the arms, along with sink/source terms to represent the food
sources, they were able to reproduce the Physarum network with the help of a pair of free
parameters. The authors conclude that planners might consider using the model during the preliminary
planning stages of other self-organized networks, such as remote
sensors arrays or mobile, ad-hoc networks.

Source: 
Science 22 January 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5964, pp. 419 - 420 DOI: 10.1126/science.1185570

Earth architecture handmade school bangladesh

METI school in rudrapur dinajpur, bangladesh

hand-built in four months by architects, local craftsmen, pupils, parents and teachers,
this primary school in rudrapur, a village in north west bangladesh, uses traditional
methods and materials of construction but adapts them in new ways. the architects,
anna aeringer from austria and eike roswag from germany, made every effort to engage
the skills of local craftsmen, helping them refine processes and learn new techniques
that they could then use to improve the general standard of rural housing.



sunlight and ventilation can be regulated through the use of shutters.



in rudrapur, the traditional local materials are bamboo for constructions and earth for
walls and foundations, straw for the roofs and jute rope for lashing constructions.



earthbound materials such as loam and straw are combined with lighter elements like
bamboo sticks and nylon lashing to create a environmentally sustainable foundation.



thick walls assure a comfortable climate on the ground floor of the building.


1st floor: open space


a view into the classroom

the philosophy of METI (modern education and training institute) is learning with joy.
the teachers help the children to develop their own potential and use it in a creative
and responsible way. the building reflects these ideas through its materials, techniques
and architectural design.


a view into the classroom


a view into the classroom


moulded ‘cavespaces’ – an area to retreat into for contemplation/concentrated work



the design solution used in this rural town may not be replicable in other parts of the islamic
world as local conditions vary. however, new design solutions can emerge from an in-depth
knowledge of the local context and new ways of building. this provides a fresh and hopeful
model for sustainable building globally. the final result of this heroic volunteer effort is a building
that creates beautiful, meaningful and humane collective spaces for learning which enrich
the lives of the children it serves.



the construction method used is a historical earth building technique similar to cob-walling
which is ideal for ‘self building’. the wet earth is mixed with straw and applied to the wall
in layers. each layer is approximately 50-70 cm high, and after a couple of days drying,
it is trimmed on the sides with a sharp spade to obtain a regular flat wall surface.
after a second drying period, a further layer can be added. the earth in this region is well-suited
for such construction and the stability of the mixture was improved by adding rice, straw and jute.

earth construction: the most important technical improvement in comparison to traditional
buildings is the introduction of a damp proof course and a brick foundation. the traditional
building technique (which uses very wet earth) has been replaced by the 'weller' technique
that is quite similar to the traditional one.


'if you give someone a fish you can feed him for a day.
if you show him how to fish he can feed himself for his whole life.' - lao zhu



the school building was built by experts and volunteers from germany and austria along
with craftsmen, teachers, parents and students from bangladesh over the period of
september to december 2005.



the aim of the project is to improve existing building techniques, to contribute to
sustainability by utilising local materials and labour and to strengthen regional identity.



the joints are secured with a steel pin fixed with a nylon lashing



the ceiling consists of three layers of bamboo poles arranged perpendicularly to one
another with bamboo boarding and an earth filling as the surface of the floor.
the same construction in a modified form can be used for general residential buildings.


section


the second step was planning and construction of private housing

society in bangladesh is changing. although it is still strongly rooted in agriculture, people
are getting more educated - privacy and individuality are gaining more importance.
a house is no long just a shelter to store things or to sleep in at night. it has evolved to
becoming more defined as a home.

METI school in rudrapur dinajpur, bangladesh
built area: 325 m2
cost: $ 22,835

commission: january 2004
design: march 2004 - august 2005
construction: september 2005 - cecember 2005
occupancy: december 2005

client: dipshikha/ METI non-formal education, training and research society for village development

design and concept: anna heringer
technical, detailed planning and realisation: anna heringer and eike roswag

anna heringer (b. 1977) studied architecture at linz university of the arts, austria.
since 2004 she has held a lecture there, and is project manager at BASE - habitat/architektur
konzepte, linz university of the arts. in 2006 she began her doctoral studies at munich
technical university, on strategies for sustainable building in northern bangladesh.
she is vice chairwoman of shanti, a german-bangladeshi partnership founded in 1983,
with the aim of arranging exchange programs such as the transfer of professional volunteers.

eike roswag (b. 1969) completed his architectural studies at berlin technical university in
2000, after which he took on freelance architectural work and consultancies. in 2003, he joined
ZRS architects and engineers to plan and build a variety of projects using earth as a building
material. in 2006, he joined the staff of berlin technical university and founded
roswag & jankowski architects partnership.

founded in 1978, dipshikha - informal education, training and research society for village
development is a bangladeshi development organization set up to encourage the independence
of communities in rural bangladesh through sustainable development.

the METI school won the aga khan award for architecture 2007