CRC/TRR 280 Design competition starts - Tiny House made of carbon concrete

Competition theme

The rapid growth of the world's population is increasing the need for built structures with a wide variety of functions. In large cities, housing shortages are the rule. On the one hand, more people simply need living space in terms of numbers, on the other hand, a single person takes up more and more living space for himself. In 1965, 22 m² of living space was available per capita in the Federal Republic of Germany; in 2021, the average was just under 48 m². But "more and more, bigger and bigger" is neither sensible nor sustainable. Limiting ourselves to the essentials, for example with Tiny Houses as a form of housing, can be an effective contribution to more sustainability in building and using what is built.

Why carbon concrete?

For more than a hundred years, most of our built environment has been constructed from mineral-bonded, reinforced concrete. Concrete is simple, quick and inexpensive to produce and extraordinarily durable. It can be cast into almost any shape and is the only building material that is also used extensively in developing and emerging countries. Concrete is by far the most important material for building housing and infrastructure. But: we use too many raw materials in concrete construction and emit too much CO2. Carbon concrete is an alternative. This combines filigree, bendable, high-tensile reinforcement elements with high-strength fine-grain concrete. This opens up enormous scope for design and construction, but so far only rudimentary use has been made of it.

Competition objective

The competition is intended to encourage students and doctoral candidates to explore innovative forms, design concepts and production methods of and for carbon concrete. We are looking for designs for Tiny Houses as student accommodation or to house visiting scientists at universities. The main load-bearing elements and parts of the opaque building shell of the Tiny Houses should be made of carbon concrete. The houses should be designed for one person and do not have to be self-sufficient.

We look forward to receiving numerous inspiring proposals and thank you in advance for your support in disseminating the call for proposals.

Contact for queries:
Dr.-Ing. Silke Scheerer
Technische Universität Dresden,
Institute of Concrete Structures,
01062 Dresden
Phone: +49 351 463 36527
E-mail: silke.scheerer@tu-dresden.de

All required information is available here: https://www.sfbtrr280.de/wettbewerbe/