Re-materializing Housing Workshop

The first edition of the Norman Foster Foundation’s Re-materializing Housing Workshop will take place on November 15–19, 2021, with the support of the Holcim Foundation.

“It is not enough to simply talk about better or more efficient steps to take within the existing systems; it is time for a real paradigm shift,” states Dirk Hebel. As he puts it, “We need to scrutinise our existing system and identify strategies that promote fundamentally sustainable practices, ranging from innovations in the material sector and shifting the way we construct in order to gain materials after use in their original quality to the promotion of circular metabolisms, detoxification and durability, as well as the elimination altogether of the concept of waste.”

This workshop will focus on materials, structures and spaces as part of the debate on sustainable living and sustainable construction. A special challenge is to design a final image of a design that can have multiple functionalities embedded within dignified housing environments and, at the same time, integrate a variety of functions able to respond to sustainable practices.

The Academic Body spans a wide range of practitioners that work in different fields related to sustainable construction and informal settlements. This year’s Academic Body includes Dirk Hebel, Professor, Sustainable Construction, Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany; Tom Bloxham, Founder and Chairman, Urban Splash, Manchester, United Kingdom; Anna Heringer, Founder and Director, Studio Anna Heringer, Laufen, Germany; Laila Iskandar, Former Minister of Environment, Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements, Cairo, Egypt; Johan Karlsson, Managing Director, Better Shelter, Stockholm, Sweden; Carme Pinós, Founder and Director, Estudio Carme Pinós, Barcelona, Spain; Stuart Smith, Director, Arup Berlin, Berlin, Germany and Brinda Somaya, Principal Architect and Managing Director, Somaya and Kalappa Consultants, Mumbai, India.

After reviewing applications submitted by hundreds of candidates from around the world, the selection committee awarded ten scholarships to students from the following universities and institutions: Harvard University, Cambridge, United States; University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai, India; University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Confluence Institute, Paris, France; Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Cordoba, Argentina; Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States; University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa and Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia.

The Re-materializing Housing Workshop will include seminars, lectures, one-to-one tutoring and architectural tours. The event will culminate in a five-day workshop led by the Workshop mentor, Dirk Hebel, Professor of Sustainable Construction, Dean of the Department of Architecture at the Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT) in Germany and Principal Investigator at the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore.

Public debates
November 17, 2021, 12:30–2:20pm
Venue: Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos

With the participation of Dirk Hebel, Anna Heringer, Stuart Smith, Johan Karlsson, Carme Pinós and Brinda Somaya.

Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax, London, United Kingdom, and part of the Advisory Board of the Norman Foster Foundation, will chair the debate.

If you are interested in attending the public debates above, please register via Eventbrite.