Research module Bamboo Construction: Summer School in Hoogcruts
From 6 to 10 June 2022, the Department of Architectural Theory and Research at RWTH Aachen University, under the direction of Prof. Axel Sowa, organised the second Summer School on sustainable building with clay, earth and bamboo in the Hoogcruts monastery not far from the Dutch municipality of Gulpen. 20 students added a bamboo roof to the rammed earth pavilion created in summer 2020. The teaching and research area of architectural theory is in close exchange with the Sitchting het Limburgs Landschap. The Dutch foundation intends to transform the monastery complex into a future workshop where people will think about the building and living of tomorrow.
The results of the Summer School 2020 form the basis for the bamboo roof construction. The pavilion consists of four rammed earth walls, which have now been supplemented and completed with a roof.
Preparation for the Summerschool in connection with:
“Indo-german centre of experimental architecture and material culture” // DAAD University co-operation “a new passage to India”
Teaching Staff: Prof. Axel Sowa, Prof. Smriti Saraswat, (IIT Roorkee), Dipl.-Ing. Bernadette Heiermann, Joost Meyer, u.a.
In the first part of the research field, an extensive building database on Indian and European earth and clay buildings was created. This inventory is an operational store of knowledge with information on substances, construction techniques and forms of use and forms the basis for experimental design and construction processes. On the site of the former Hoogcruts monastery, we will realise a selected design in earthen construction in August.
First preparative session: Thursday, April 16, 2020, 10 am – 1 pm at Hoogcruts (NL) Further preparative sessions, Thursday mornings (t.b.d.), Chair Theory of Architecture, Templergraben 49, 2nd Floor Summer School: August 10-20, 2020 (accommodation and cooking facilities will be provided at Hoogcruts)