The joint research project of EiABC and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) named ‘Contextualization of Vocational Training for the Building Sector in Ethiopia’ (short termed into ‘Rural Housing’) entered a new phase of technical know-how transfer with the start of a series of hand-on workshops being launched between EiABC and the Wolkite Polytechnic College.

The project is funded by the Arthur Waser Foundation, based in Lucerene Switzerland, and builds on a continuous academic research cooperation between EiABC and the Professorship of Dirk E. Hebel (the founding Scientific Director of EiABC) of Architecture and Construction at the Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability and the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore, a research institute of ETH in South-East Asia. To guarantee the best possible communication between the two partners, Tiago Damasceno, a researcher of the FCL/ETH under the Chair and guidance of Dirk E. Hebel, settled recently at EiABC, where he is integrated in the Chair of Housing under the new leadership of Imam Mahmoud.

Professor Dr. Elias Yitbarek initiated the project in 2010 as part of his work at the Chair of Housing at the EiABC and has secured funding from the Arthur Waser Foundation for a pilot project in 2011 called SRDU (Sustainable Rural Dwelling Unit). All this with the support of ETH Global in Zurich, Barbara Becker and Patricia Heuberger ,and the ETH Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland. The pilot was regarded as a great success. It involved building two housing units located approximately 250km south of the capital Addis Ababa, and experimentation with local building materials combined with new building techniques and autonomous operating energy supply units. In addition, a new typology was developed whereby hygienic aspects asked for a separation of cattle and humans. This success convinced the Arthur Waser Foundation to continue the engagement with the two universities and enlarge the scope of the work to include questions of capacity building, academic exchange with local schools and industry and the transfer of knowledge to a wide academic and non-academic audience in Africa.

Under this premise, the ‘Rural Housing’ project started on the weekend of December 7-9, 2013 one of its most important up-scaling programs by giving the first three workshops in the Wolkite Polytechnic College. 25 local students and instructors were introduced to the research underway as a body of practical aa well as theoretical knowledge. The students visited SRDU I and II and engaged in a dissemination of knowledge transfer with the team of EiABC and ETH about important principles of construction in local available materials.

The EiABC expert and former Chair Holder of Appropriate Building Technologies, Melakeselam Moges, together with Meron Kassahun – PhD candidate in the Chair of Housing – gave an introduction to earth as a construction material and its wide spread use around the world. Small practical tests were done with the students to experience the difference in various types of soils and their unique application technologies.

As part of the hands-on component, students produced earth masonry blocks from different soils to test their characteristic material properties and learned about appropriate application possibilities.

The EiABC team organizing and conducting this workshop consisted of Melakeselam Moges, Meron Kassahun, Yohana Eyob and Olaf Kammler with support of Tiago Damasceno from ETH/FCL. Also vital to the realisation of this workshop were Fita Ayalew Human Resource Development Core Process Officer of the Wolkite Polytechnic College and Eshetu and Kassa, graduates of the previous SRDU project.