Matthias Rudolph, Dean of the Department of Architecture ABK Stuttgart and Joachim Dieter , EiABC Scientific Director 

On October 30th, a delegation of 3 people from the Stuttgart Academy of Sciences visited EiABC. The Delegation comprising Prof. Fabienne Hoelzel, Chair of Urban Design, Matthias Rudolph, Dean of the Department of Architecture and Predrag Markovic, Head of Finance, conducted various meetings in their 3 day mission. The trip was funded by the DAAD as a “Fact Finding Mission” to set up a long-term collaboration between the EiABC and the ABK in the area of Urban Design, some of the goals being to establish a joint Urban Design Master between EiABC and ABK and to do a collaborative research on the topic of rural-urban transformation.

The ABK delegation had meetings with the EiABC’s Scientific Directors, members of the Chair of Urban Design, Chair Holder of the chair of Urban and Regional Planning, and members of the research team at the Emerging City Lab - Addis Ababa (ECL-AA). Upon the finalization of the  collaboration agreements with specific EiABC chairs and Research Units, ABK plans to bring a group of MSc.students working on the planned Urban Design Studio to EiABC and vice versa. In collaboration with the ECL, ABK will work two to three new towns in Ethiopia as well as conduct an excursion with their (ABK) students to Ethiopia in September or October 2018.

The Fact-Finding Mission was concluded with an MoU signing to establish a cooperation with EiABC. The collaborators from both institutes will continue discussions on the content and scope of the planned Urban Design Studio and research projects and also look for grants for future mobility programs and research projects.