“It is possible to build with respect for nature and people”
On the occasion of Guillaume Habert’s promotion to Full Professor of Sustainable Construction at D-BAUG, we asked him what currently drives him in research and teaching. He also shared with us what he considers the most important things in life and what he would do if he had an extra 53 minutes to spend every week.
Professor Habert, congratulations on your promotion at ETH Zurich! What are your current research interests?
Honestly, I am interested in trying to find ways to give my children functional buildings and infrastructure. By functional, I mean buildings that do not destroy the planet, but rather repair it, that do not intoxicate the users, but rather improve their health and that do not increase the inequality and the financial accumulation of wealth, but rather try to relocalize the economy and redistribute the benefits of construction. This seems utopian? My work is to demonstrate the opposite, and to show that paths towards a regenerative economy are the most robust, cost-effective and enjoyable alternative we have.
In particular, my work is very focused on material choices and the social, environmental and economic consequences of material choices in different contexts.
What is the impact of your research on society?
I’d like to see it bigger for sure! Some results are used in new standards. Some material developments are used in industry or end up being used in new start-ups. It’s too small and it’s much too late, given the climate emergency and the societal collapse. To me, this is a real dilemma in sustainability science. On the one hand, science is about creating new knowledge, and it’s not the role of the academic institution to apply the knowledge created and build a future fair, healthy, respectful society, that is up to all of us as a society. On the other hand, do we really need to create new knowledge, or should we just spend our time to doing what we know and saving the last bit of nature and humanity? It’s a recurring tension in the work we do in my group. When should we stop and transfer our findings outside ETH to have an impact? In terms of research, I don’t think that we should do research to see the immediate impact of our work on society. Somehow, I think we should do research that will be relevant in the next five to ten years. So in five years, when industry or government comes to us for answers, we don’t suggest that they do new research work, but that they use the work we did five years ago.
For teaching, I see the impact of our work much more directly. When I have 300 students enrolled in my optional master’s lecture on the resources we can use for sustainable construction, and I show them real life, built examples of multi-story buildings made of straw, hemp, massive stone, or mud, I feel I am having an impact. They will leave this institution knowing that it is possible to build with respect for nature and people.
Where were you working before you came to ETH?
I was in Paris, working as a researcher in the laboratory of the National Civil Engineering Institute. That’s where I learned everything about concrete, because my training is far from civil engineering. Until I got my Ph.D., I was just looking at natural rocks and trying to explain the history of the Earth. I studied geology. I was dealing with millions of years as a time scale and hundreds of Kilometres as a length scale. Switching to civil engineering was quite refreshing. We were dealing with human time and space.
What courses are you most excited about teaching at ETH?
I like the courses where I can show very simple things that the students have not thought about. It’s a way to open a door and allow them to discover a whole new World. Yes, we can build earthquake resistant 7-story buildings out of straw bales… no it doesn’t cost any more than what we are building en masse now… no, it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t rot, and it doesn’t smell. I like it because among the many students I teach, there will be one or two who will pick it up, fall in love with such materials and go to work with them in practice.
What do you do if you have a few minutes to spare?
Do you know the story of “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupery? He once met a seller of advanced thirst-quenching pills, who said “Take these pills once a week and you will no longer feel the need to drink”.
“Why are you selling them?" said the little prince.
“It's a great time-saver," says the merchant. “The experts have done the math. You save fifty-three minutes a week.”
“And what do we do with those fifty-three minutes?”
“You can do whatever you like with them...”
“As for me," said the little prince, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend, I'd walk very slowly towards a fountain..."
I’m not the little prince, but what I love to do is to sit on the terrace of a café, drink a coffee, read a newspaper and spend this time not doing much.
Do you have a general philosophy or motto you try to live by?
Donella Meadows, the great scientist and lead author of “Limits to Growth” wrote: “We need to learn, but we need to waste no time with our learning.
I really like this idea of not getting lost in the complexity of what we could do, but always think about the why and what is the appropriate level of complexity in our work that can help us to answer the meaningful question.
“At ETH, you should focus on learning rules and concepts, but the solutions, they are up to your imagination.”Prof. Guillaume Habert
What book, podcast or movie related to your research field would you recommend to students and colleagues?
Aristide Athanassiadis is doing a podcast on urban metabolism, some are in French, some in English. And he has interviewed all the great thinkers of the discipline. So if you want to understand all the social, economic, philosophical, technical aspects of urban metabolism and how to steer our society towards a better future, you should take a look.
Dominique Gauzin Muller, has published numerous books on building with regenerative materials, but the latest one on TerraFibra Architecture shows a real and credible example of what construction could look like that respects people and nature.
And the movie is probably “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo Di Caprio, because unfortunately it describes very well the absurd World we live in. The end is not the one I would wish for my children, but the difficulty to engage in a transition is extremely well presented.
What advice would you give to students who are just starting out in (civil) engineering?
Be curious. Most of what we (as a society) have built in the last 100 years is horribly wrong. But the laws of physics are still the same and won’t change. So you have to know the rules in order to be able to play with them afterward. At ETH, you should focus on learning rules and concepts, but the solutions, they are up to your imagination.
Professor Guillaume Habert (*1977) has been promoted from Associate Professor at ETH Zurich to Full Professor of Sustainable Construction in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering as of July 2023. Guillaume Habert’s research focuses on the sustainability of buildings and infrastructure. His goal is to implement sustainable construction practices using innovative construction techniques and sustainable materials, based on a detailed analysis of the technical, economic and socio-cultural situation. His research has already resulted in a spin-off company, as well as software and a number of tools for use in the humanitarian sector. At ETH Zurich, this acclaimed researcher has also succeeded in building a successful research team and an extensive collaborative network.