“Build your own stuff, with your own hands”
Catherine De Wolf has been Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Circular Engineering for Architecture at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich since September 2021. In this short interview, she talks about her research and teaching and explains why building projects also play an important role in her private life.
Professor De Wolf, welcome to ETH! The furniture at your office looks unique. How come?
Thank you! When I arrived at ETH, I had the chance to order new furniture for my empty office. As I encounter a lot of perfectly good furniture and materials that would have been thrown away otherwise in my daily work, I decided to reuse furniture or to make my own furniture with reused materials instead. For many meetings in my office, it has become a conversation starter about the circular economy.
What are your current research interests?
I have always been interested in making construction more environmentally friendly. Currently, I look at digital innovations that are being used in other sectors, exploring how these innovations could be translated to the built environment. I believe that digitalization will be a major agent in the transition from a linear take-make-waste model to a circular economy through the longer use, reuse, regeneration, repair, refurbishment, and recycling of construction resources. Digitalization can help overcome technical, but also legal, economic, political, logistical, or sociological barriers. Digitalization for circularity is also the focus of my new lab, the Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA) lab here at D-BAUG. We use machine learning, laser scanning, augmented reality, blockchain technology, etc. to facilitate the reuse of building materials.
What is the impact of your research on society?
Circular construction has tremendous benefits for society, most obviously for the environment, but also in other ways, for example, for the job market. The building sector is responsible for about 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Not to mention that construction and demolition waste accounts for more than a third of all our generated waste. As the global population rises, there will be more and more construction in the decades to come – estimates say that the world will add the equivalent of another New York City every month. So, as engineers, contractors, and architects, we play a huge role in the climate crisis!
Instead of extracting raw materials for construction while throwing away other materials due to renovation or demolishment, it just makes so much sense to do reuse. The circular economy also creates a series of new purposeful, local jobs. With my lab, I want to contribute knowledge on how to upscale reuse, so that it is not just for niche projects but for the entire sector. Digitalization can help make those new material usages and construction jobs competitive.
Where were you working before you came to ETH?
After my PhD at MIT and postdoc at EPFL, I worked at TU Delft in the Netherlands, where I had the chance to collaborate with global experts on circularity. For example, the Dutch government has made a (very ambitious) push to be ‘fully circular’ by 2050 as a country. This sparked many research initiatives on circular construction which taught me a lot.
Which courses will you be teaching at ETH?
I will be teaching new courses on digitalization for circular construction. I’m really excited, as I love the discussions with students. My teaching is very hands-on, so I will go to demolition sites and reclaim elements with the students. I will make them interact with pioneering industry practitioners. They will also design their own circular construction for the ETH campus. I like to work in an interactive and interdisciplinary way, showing students from different disciplines how much they can learn from each other. This kind of teaching also gives me a lot of energy and insights for my own research.
After six months, what are your impressions of Switzerland and ETH Zurich?
Switzerland has awe-inspiring nature, which reminds me why I do what I do. I think, Switzerland is also a country that really enables entrepreneurship. Especially at ETH Zurich I feel this “everything is possible”-vibe strongly. Everyone has been very welcoming to me, and I meet brilliant researchers and students every day, who want to change the world for the better. The more I get to know my colleagues and the students, the more honored I am to be part of this institution.
What do you do if you have a few minutes to spare?
I spend time with my partner and take a walk with our dog in the mountains! I also love taking the train or my bike to discover new places and to visit my friends and family. Together, we then do things such as rock-climbing, yoga, and playing the piano. As I am very passionate about my research topic, I also apply circular, low-carbon construction in my daily life, by making furniture and interior design with waste materials or disassembling abandoned buildings and making greenhouses, cabins, or nomadic architecture out of the reclaimed materials.
What advice would you give to students who are just starting out in construction?
To do exactly that: build your own stuff, with your own hands, with materials you reclaim from your own neighborhood. We acquire so many useful skills at school and in our daily lives, especially digital skills (which you should absolutely learn!), but you must construct something yourself to realize what kind of ‘real-world’ problems need solutions and to realize what questions need to be asked. Yes, certain classes do offer construction experience, but don’t wait for those: go and build something that your community needs, preferably with reused materials. Don’t miss opportunities to apply your (digital) skills in a way that could be impactful for the construction sector, and for society as a whole!
More about the Circular Engineering for Architecture research group led by Professor Catherine De Wolf