ECL-AA

Ecl photo 2019 09 02 12 29 34

The ECL-AA is a research center, real laboratory, and exchange platform. It was jointly established in 2015 by and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) and the bauhaus.ifex at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

The ECL-AA is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching and research platform focused on urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa. The title of the lab refers to so-called "emerging cities" which points out those towns and cities in the Global South which are currently facing rapid population growth. In the context of Ethiopia such cities might be the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, regional capitals such as Bahir Dar or those rural towns which develop from small settlements in the coming 15 years. But the focus is not on Ethiopia exclusively. We aim to exchange findings and methods with researchers and practitioners from Germany and other African nations at all times. In this context, the lab serves as a framework to enable teaching and research that is directed towards practice-based and interdisciplinary research as well as design in the context of emerging cities with Ethiopia as a showcase. Furthermore, the lab is directed towards the improvement of relevant structures and skills to further push for an innovative research and teaching environment at EiABC and BUW.

ECL-AA is governed by an Ethio-German Steering committee and supported by an Advisory board of public institutions and industry partners. The lab is hosted by EiABC campus of Addis Ababa university and is currently co-funded by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and Addis Ababa University with support from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as well as the private sector from Addis Ababa. Administration is being handled locally at each of the secretariats in Addis Ababa and Weimar.

Mission

The ECL-AA aims to facilitate interdisciplinary research and teaching on emerging cities of the Global South with the specific goals to:

test design and planning ideas, hypotheses, and suggested solutions concerning emerging cities and their built environment under lab conditions,
implement and test innovative ideas in the urban context,
publish on, teach about, and create a network on practice-based and interdisciplinary planning in Ethiopia and Africa,
qualify teaching and research staff through interdisciplinary, intercultural, and practice based projects (capacity building),
pass these skills on to students through regular semester projects, workshops, and field trips which are directly connected to the ECL-AA’s research,
exchange student and staff members.

The ECL-AA is based on a broad array of researchers, students, and teaching staff from both institutions as well practitioners and policy makers through joint teaching and research projects. Hereby, the ECL-AA puts particular emphasis on displaying the special focus of EiABC and BUW: interdisciplinary and international cooperation as well as practice orientation. The ECL-AA is committed to constantly broadening its network and to cooperating with new partners from research and teaching.