Development Induced Empowerment: The Roof Villages of Addis Ababa

The following design hypothesis addresses the spatial dilemma between city development and lack of tenure security of informal housing dwellers with a special emphasis on improving the economy of both of the individual households as well as supporting the development of the city.<br/><br/>The goal of the research and the main goal for the design...

Rediscovering the Roots of the City: Creating Synergy Between Addis Ababa’s Urban Dwellers and Rivers

This project seeks for an alternative low-cost housing strategy for the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Currently, the condominium housing scheme is implemented everywhere throughout the city. Despite the impressive amount of newly constructed dwelling units, shortcomings of this housing strategy have drastic consequences within the social and...

Radical Vernacular: A New Ethiopian Urbanity

Addis Ababa is a city experiencing a huge population boom, and where the vast majority of housing can be classified as “slum”. State-owned kebele housing, which houses an estimated 40% of the city’s inhabitants, has very low rents but is not maintained, leading to deterioration. Thus, the city is left with a severe shortage of adequate housing....

Escalera San Augustin: Building ties in the Cerro Cordillera through co-working spaces

This work investigates the relation between domesticity and productivity in a working-class neighbourhood in Valparaiso, Chile. <br/>The aim of the project was to turn the local manufacturing productions into an economical resource, by providing co-working spaces for the local communities. <br/>

The Living Landscape of Quebrada Jaime

A self-sufficient Industrial Building, that focuses on the production of 1. Adobe construction materials (mudbricks, rammed earth, la quincha panels, earth-bag technology) 2. Region specific wine (Amphorae clay fermented wine, specialised fruit wines, grappa etc...). Both crafts are synonymous with Chilean culture.<br/>The intervention initially...

Down to Earth

The first half-year we were working in a collective (9 persons) and doing a thorough research and analysis. We took the Riberas del Bravo settlement in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez as a case study. This city has numerous problems, of which the emerging phenomenon of abandoned and deserted housing in Mexico is among its most...

Adobe structures in earthquake zones: Experimental study on the repair of adobe constructions damaged by earthquake loading and the development of an ATENA-GiD model to simulate shaking table tests for these structures

The aim of this thesis is to apply a reparation method, developed by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, on an adobe structure damaged by earthquake loading. This loading is applied with a shaking table test. Using these tests an ATENA- GiD model is made which is able to simulate the behavior of adobe houses under earthquake loading. A...