Pavilion on ETH campus receives an Arc Award

Zürich, November 2023

Zürich - Ein von Studierenden der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule Zürich (ETH) mit Materialien von abgerissenen Pavillons errichteter Bau ist mit einem Arc Award geehrt worden. Mit dem Arc Award prämiert die Schweizer Baudokumentation jährlich die besten Bauten der Schweiz.

In a practical teaching project, students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich(ETH) have used materials from the demolished Huber Pavilions to construct a building in the spirit of the circular economy. According to a press release, the Re-Use Pavilion on the ETH Hönggerberg campus has been honoured with the Arc Award in the Next Generation category. The Swiss Building Documentation honours the best buildings in Switzerland every year with the Arc Award, which was first presented in 2012.

In summer 2022, three temporary wooden buildings – the “Huber Pavilions” – had to make way for a new building on the ETH Hönggerberg campus. According to a press release from ETH, the CircÛbi teaching project took advantage of this opportunity. Under the joint leadership of two ETH professors, civil engineer Catherine De Wolf and architect Momoyo Kaijima, students collected the structural elements or components of the dismantled teaching buildings in order to reuse the materials according to the principle of the circular economy. Around 30 students worked on the project for an entire semester. They inventoried the components with lasered QR codes and thus created a digitalised interface. This made it possible to create a new building from reused wooden components.

The jury particularly recognised the fact that this study project was developed in collaboration with various disciplines. “Circular construction requires collaborative work: Bridging different disciplines and utilising digital technologies are urgently needed to spread the principles of the circular economy in the construction sector,” civil engineer Catherine De Wolf is quoted as saying.

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