Science Day 2024 ALLIANCES curated by aob    ALLIANCES is the title of the upcoming Science Day 2024 organized by the recently established Junior Professorship of Construction and Design – “act of building” (aob).   Since many years we have been witnessing the surge of multiple crisis linked to the architecture field, ranging from the climate crisis to the housing crisis. These events have been in part shaping the architectural discourse and inspired the narrative of many present (and future) practices. The architectural society has been discussing and developing ideas in response to these challenges. How these responses are received depend heavily on political and market-driv- en agendas; architectural ideas for the future risk being limited in their implementation by outdated and systemic relations between humans and nature. New sorts of alliances must be set up in order to break this pattern.   The Science Day wishes to probe for alliances along 3 strategies which the chair of...
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Workshop week in the summer term 2023 The summer term workshop took place during the white week, from the 31st of May to 3rd of June. This year, three courses took part simultaneously: the bachelors’ as well as the masters’ elective course, and the students completing the year-long M2 project. Within the course earth construction workshop, bachelor students completed a pavilion which built on the work of the previous years’ workshop. The ambitious design proposal included a curved brick wall – using factory-made loam bricks – and a wall built with unfired earth bricks. The students constructed both in the span of three days, learning different bricklaying techniques and masonry tricks of the trade. The pavilion was topped off with a shed roof, reusing an old truck tarpaulin and steel beams. A number of tension belts connect the roof to the walls and the grounding plate, and make the entire construction easily demountable. The master students of the elective course geosourced...
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Previous slide Next slide JAA 2023! The theme of this years‘ annual exhibition JAA 2023 was titled “pathways to climate neutrality“. Fittingly, we exhibited many of our self-made material mixes and sustainably created sample products, and presented experiments and methods used when working with earth materials. The ongoing work of the M2 students was showcased all around the chair, from the beginnings of analysing regional quarries to the final construction planning of their prototype models. We also laid out our ever-growing library to allow visitors to browse through some current publications on the topics of building with earth materials, sustainable resource use and circular economy among other things. We very much enjoyed welcoming many interested visitors, and getting to spread the intention and doings of our chair a little further! 
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AOB @ JAA 2023 AOB would like to invite you to this year’s annual exhibition of the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, where we will be present. Our pop-up presentation in the foyer of the faculty will deal with the topics of sustainable building and the circular economy, as well as show perspectives for tackling contemporary building tasks with ecological architecture. In addition to our pop-up presentation, you can have a look at the work of our students in the Lehrstuhl. There you can learn more about the importance of sustainable building and the use of earth as an innovative building material. The annual exhibition will be held on 24 and 25 May 2023 bundled with the Science Day at the Reiff Museum.  We look forward to welcoming you at the Lehrstuhl.
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Teaching in the summer term 2023 AOB presents the new course offering for the upcoming summer semester. The overarching theme is the development of creative and technically sophisticated solutions for construction tasks using sustainable building materials. Both theoretical knowledge and practical skills in dealing with new materials and production methods will be taught. The programme is aimed at students who want to expand their skills in the field of modern construction. During the White Week, the „geosourced prototyping workshop“ is offered as an excursion to Brussels. The course is intended for all students who want to expand their practical skills in working with natural building materials. Participants will work in small groups and have the opportunity to develop and implement their own projects. Students will be supported by our lecturers, who will be able to share their experience and expertise. Registration is possible for both Master’s and Bachelor’s students. For...
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M2.1 midterm review On Tuesday 6. December our students presented their work of the first ACT of our M2 studio „the architect changemaker“. During 6 weeks 3 groups of students investigated the quarries of the Euregio Region, where Aachen belongs to. They visited in total 12 Quarries in Province Liège, Province Limbourg and Cityregion Aachen and brought back an enormous amount of stone, gravel, sand, clay and other minerals. In two workshops that took place at BC materials production site in Brussels they developed prototype materials that will now in ACT 2 be used in different types of  earth construction such as in-situ and prefabricated rammed earth as well as compressed earth bricks. Phillipp Hoppe from lehmlabor and RWTH Aachens Chair for building construction contributed his knowledge as a guest critique during the review.  We are curious to see the students material prototype developing into a building material in ACT 2! 
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Act of Building at JAA ’22The junior professorship Act of Building warmly invites you to the lecture by Laurens Bekemans on 9 September starting at 4 pm.The presentation will take place in the foyer of the Reiff Museum as part of the opening days of the annual exhibition JAA 2022 at the Faculty of Architecture.  The focus will be on presenting the new research efforts at the Act of Building Chair around the topics of sustainable resource use, circular economy, clay and earth materials and urban mining. You will also be able to examine a collection of sustainably produced material samples as well as a feature of the results of our last semesters earth building workshop (see canvas below).  We would be delighted to see you there! 
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Voriger Nächster © AOB WF.B EARTH BUILDING WORKSHOP   Elective Bachelor summer term 22 one week intense workshop @ Weiße Woche   A successful first elective of the new junior professorship took place during the white week in summer 2022 as an intense earth building workshop on the production site of bc materials. We had a great insight in the development of bio- geo- and urban-sourced building materials as well as into examplatory projects  throughout all Belgium through day trips.   This elective will be offered in Winterterm 22/23 again. More infos here!
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Find Act of Building @InstagramThe Act of Building junior professorship is now on Instagram. We regularly post about our research and teaching activities.To stay updated, it’s well worth subscribing.Follow us @actofbulidng_rwth 
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