HSRM at European Bamboo Expo 2023

27.06.2023 - The European Bamboo Expo is an international English-language bamboo trade fair that took place in Europe for the first time at the beginning of June. The Competence Center for Renewable Building Materials at Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM), part of the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, had its own stand at the fair in Dortmund.

Experimental pavilion made of bamboo slat beams

The HSRM Competence Center for Renewable Building Materials, which is still in the project planning phase and is part of the research group Resource Efficient Building and Development of New Materials in the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, was one of the main attractions at the international trade fair with its experimental pavilion made of bent bamboo slat beams. The concept for the pavilion was developed in the winter semester 2022/23 as part of a series of seminars on climate-friendly construction by Prof. Sascha Luippold, adjunct instructors Andrés Bäppler and Christoph Diekhans, and Dr. Oliver Bletz-Mühldorfer from the Laboratory of Timber Engineering at HSRM, and was put into practice in a design-build workshop in the current summer semester and is now being built for the Expo in Dortmund. The interdisciplinary and international team of 26 students was recruited from different degree programs across all departments, as well as exchange students from various partner universities and international auditing students who had come to the HSRM especially for the project.

International projects of the HSRM presented

For several semesters, the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering's field of climate-friendly construction has been dedicated to building with bamboo and clay. Projects take place in Europe as well as in an international context and in cooperation with the Laboratory of Timber Engineering, the founding process of the HSRM Competence Center for Renewable Building Materials has now been initiated. As part of the trade fair appearance at the European Bamboo Expo in Dortmund, both the socially and ecologically motivated project for a bamboo training center in Ghana and the similar project for a bamboo research center in Mozambique were presented together with various international partner organizations.

Intercultural exchange between researchers and activists

The practical and, above all, experimental work with the renewable building material bamboo on the one hand and the international and intercultural exchange with climate-committed researchers and activists from all continents on the other made the pavilion project and the trade fair and congress appearance a sustainable experience for all members of staff. "A perfect start for the HSRM Competence Center for Renewable Building Materials!" said Prof. Sascha Luippold.

More than 40 speakers were represented at the accompanying congress. Participants from bamboo research and industry as well as numerous NGOs and universities from all continents traveled to the European Bamboo Expo 2023. Bamboo is considered by these experts to be the plant with the greatest and most diverse socio-ecological potential to counter global climate change and its social and ecological consequences.