AENKI ARCHITECTURE PLC

"Environmental Building Envelopes" (EBE) is an international workshop / master class held at the EIABC (Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development) in Addis Ababa in early 2014. EBE was set out to explore facade alternatives for the city of Addis Ababa which are environmentally conscious and culturally sensitive. At the same time the workshop intended to test the collaboration of an international team of designers and professionals to meet Ethiopian students and think about new ways of collaboration within a globally merging construction market. the semester was split into three phases: the artistic phase, where students had to analyse the path and shadows of the sun, a major design parameter integrated into the overall approach; the digital phase, where engineers form the UK held a number of workshops introducing digital tools like grasshopper into the design phase; and finally, the building phase. this phase started with the overall construction process, by defining and testing locally available materials, building small scale prototypes to test weight, sun exposure and other design parameters. finally, the structure was then built at the scale of 1:1, a detail measuring 3 meters by 2 meters, exhibited on the university campus. Team: Brook Teklehaimanot, Sebstian Behmann, Adiam Sertzu, Julia Mauser