Sustainable Incremental Construction Unit

Sustainable Incremental Construction Unit (SICU) is a process-oriented building prototype that also deals with participatory design to be done in a highly dense neighborhood of Addis Ababa. It will be a showcase where the team of students with their tutors will research and explore possibilities of designing and realizing an incremental housing unit in an urban context.

Researching and implementing innovative and low-cost constructions and materials for urban areas in Ethiopia and thereby addressing the high demand for housing in the country. The prototype is a showcase for integrative disciplinary research and experimental prototyping, raising up new space arrangements and building methods to give evidence for cost-efficient implementation. The research considers locally available material resources and the local mode of living, introducing innovative construction techniques. It also offers a parallel strategy to the existing governmental housing project in the city offering different options and possibilities in how to make dense urban settlements. It also serves the purpose of the government whilst realizing the design potentials of the students, researchers, and the community.

SICU won the third price in Regional Holcim Award 2014 Africa Middle East

• https://www.uni-weimar.de/de/architektur-und-urbanistik/institute/bauhaus-ifex/emerging-city-lab/projects/titel/sicu/
• Here you can access all resources you need to build your own SICU (Please give us feedback on your experiences, problems or questions)
• SICU on EiABC website
• SICU on Bauhaus University Weimar website