Una Terra: Promoting sustainable projects

The project includes the installation of a green facade mock-up that is optimised in terms of building physics and promotes biodiversity. For the first time, the effects of the green façade on and for humans, flora and fauna will be considered holistically. In addition to a heterogeneous plant composition with changing and high flowering occurrence, the developed mock-up should also increase the structural richness and the number of nesting sites. The physical effects on the building will be taken into account. In addition of improving the microclimate, the project aimsto ensure absence of  building damages and  the increase of indoor comfort.

The mock-up will be installed at the University of Stuttgart at Pfaffenwaldring 9 on the Vaihingen campus and will be supported by IABP beyond the funding period. The installation will take place in November 2021.

Project team: Faculty 2 Civil- and Environmental Engineering, Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics (IABP), with Helix Pflanzensysteme GmbH

Contact:
Adrian Eitle, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-60414
Pia Krause, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-65347
Linda Meier, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-65629
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Philip Leistner, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-66577

Confronting with the mainstream, massive technologies in the building industry the research will approach the issue of sustainability in building construction by looking for alternative, lightweight and mobile structures. The well-known and still arising problem of high CO2 emissions in the building process will be reduced by minimizing the use of the building material. Air and lightweight foils will be used as the only structural and building envelope members. The project will use the principles of pneumatic architecture, once widely researched by Frei Otto. The proposed self-supporting pneumatic structure, similar in morphology to air matrices, could be used as nomadic or temporary, crisis relief shelters. By combining materials with different properties it will offer protection from wind, rain, sun, and temperature. The project will involve students and will be finalized by building a 1:1 prototype, which should be later exhibited on the university's campus.

Project team: Andreas Greiner, Piotr Fabirkiewicz, Faculty 1 Architecture and Urban Planning, Institute of Building Construction, Chair Building Construction, Building Technology and Design (IBK2)

Contact: Andreas Greiner, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-83255

We want to enable students at the University of Stuttgart to study outdoors without having to worry about how long their laptop or mobile phone battery will last. For this purpose, we would like to build a bench, a table or even a complete seating area with a roof, in which photovoltaic modules are integrated. Using a USB port, a mobile phone or tablet can then be easily connected to the bench and charged. Larger consumers such as laptops can also be connected to the roofing or the table and powered by a 12V power supply. When the sun is not shining, an integrated battery provides the necessary power.

In particular, the potential of small-scale PV systems to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 "affordable and clean energy" will be demonstrated.

Project team: Crossing Borders Stuttgart e.V., Website, Instagram, E-mail

Contact:
Theresa Paulus, Project coordinator, E-mail
Fabian Fröschle, Deputy project coordinator, E-mail

The main goal of the project is popularization of innovative building materials based on natural fibres. Biocomposites, although currently a hot research topic among material scientists, engineers and designers, are still relatively unknown to a wider audience. In the eve of a material revolution in construction industry, it is important to build a wider awareness and cultural acceptance for new material solutions and finishes in the architecture that will surround us. 

The project aims at achieving this goal by organizing an exhibition. Once putting aside scientific jargon and technical details, the exhibition will give every exhibitor a chance to experience, touch and feel various biocomposite material samples as well as larger demonstrators illustrating their potential use in constructions and architecture.

Exhibition will be available to the visitors from December 12th, 2021 until January 14th, 2022 in K1 building, main hall, Campust Stadtmitte, Keplerstrasse 11, 70174 Stuttgart.

Project team: Faculty 1 Architecture und Urban Planning, BioMat Department (Biobased Materials and Materials Cycles in Architecture) at Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE)

Contact: Piotr Baszyński, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-82770

Advances in research enabled a better understanding of the extent and impacts of microplastics in our environment during the last decades. This understanding allows the identification of sources of microplastics and to create innovative solutions to close the "plastic tap". However, there is a need to communicate these findings and to raise awareness regarding the alarming plastic consumption to the society and especially to the youngest generation. In the project "#wenigerplastik für unsere Umwelt und unsere Zukunft" (less plastic for our environment and our future), an information campaign will be established, which will not only present the existing environmental pollution in an age-appropriate format, but also impart knowledge on how we can avoid the production of microplastic in the future. In form of multimedia material and school visits, the goal is to communicate science to the youngest, but also to adults, by showing how we can take action to reduce our plastic consumption, and finally contribute to a more sustainable planet.

Project website and videos

Project team: Faculty 2, Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems (IWS) under direction of Stefan Haun, PhD, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-64691

Contact: Beatriz Negreiros, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-64739

The Covid pandemic has shown how effective tes­­ting strategies can help break infection chains. This requires affordable rapid tests that can be manufactured and distributed at scale for world­wide adoption, also in low resource settings. Current point of care diagnostic tests are difficult to recycle however.

We envision to adopt plant biotechnology methods, such as heterologous protein expression, to achieve alternative materials and manufacturing methods for plant based point of care diagnostics. As a sustainable resource, plants are easy to propagate, hence vast amounts of affordable tests are easy to produce. Plant materials are biodegradable, which reduces waste.

Project team: Faculty 4, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomolecular Systems

Contact:
Jun.Prof. Michael Heymann, E-mail,  phone: +49 (0)711 685-61686
Prof. Arnd Heyer, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-65051
PD Dr. Tatjana Kleinow, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-65075

Who of us is not familiar with the shattered glass bottle that never made it into the trash bin, the mask that ended up in the duck pond at the slighest gust of wind, the pizza cartons in the „Gelber Sack“? The Trash Talk Weeks address these and other unfortunate „trash incidences“ on the campus of the University of Stuttgart and the rest of the globe, and throw light on this topic from different angles. Agenda items such as a science slam, the ARTificial vernissage, and a cinema showing of the prizewinning documentary „A Plastic Ocean“ are only some of the many contents of the Trash Talk Weeks that mark a starting point towards a zero waste campus from May, 2nd to 13th 2022. This event pairs scientific expertise with studential dedication and desire for change towards a more sustainable, clean, and environment-friendly university campus. Further information on the final program will follow shortly.

Contact: Dr. Elif Köksoy, Green Office / Office of the Rectorate, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-81016

Our mission: Less emission. With the campaign "Keep your feet on the ground" we want to motivate university members to reflect the climate impact of air travel. Our goal is to raise awareness, discuss measures and alternatives, and engage in an exchange with students, employees, and faculties. We want to be the start of a participatory process of addressing this issue. How do we do that? We create a communal space to rest, lie down and reflect on the campus; in parallel, we launch an information campaign and offer workshops where students and employees can work together to find solutions for sustainable business travel. By doing so, we want to help defuse the conflict between international research and networking, the development opportunities of researchers, and climate protection. Our project contributes to the UN's 13th Sustainable Development Goal, the "Take Action on Climate Change" target.

Contact:
Laura Schlowak, Mobility manager, Green Office / Office of the Rectorate, E-mail
Juliane Heitkämper, Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, E-mail
Constantin Böhm, Materials Testing Institute, E-mail
Doctoral researchers, DoKUS

The idea: We are a group of students from different study programs, mainly from the University of Stuttgart, dreaming of less cars and more sustainability on our campus and in Stuttgart. At the moment, we all live together in the dormitory "Bauhäusle" on the campus Vaihingen. In order to make mobility there more sustainable, we recently financed and successfully implemented the self-building of cargo bike trailers via a crowdfunding campaign. We want to make these available to all people in Stuttgart via Lastenrad Stuttgart e.V., an initiative for free, donation-based rental of cargo bikes. 

For us, the dream of fewer cars is elementary for a sustainable development. And we see cargo bikes and bike trailers as a suitable alternative in city transport, as long as they are barrier-free and cost-effective for all. 

The project: That's why we now want to go one step further and create a wider range of high-quality and low-threshold alternatives to cars on campus. To do this, we will use the funding from the UNA-TERRA project to purchase electrified cargo bikes and make them available to rent on a donation basis (for maintenance), just like the homemade cargo bike trailers. 

Project team: Students with Institute of Photovoltaik (IPV), Faculty 5

Contact:
Christian Wolff, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)1577 0352814
Lisandro Behrens, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)1522 6246346
Instagram
#FuerAlle #FreieAusleihe #Lastenrad #Verkehrswende #NiemandMussAutofahren

With our project, we would like to implement another workshop on the campus Stadtmitte, analogous to the existing bicycle workshop of the stuvus on Vaihingen campus, for which tools and possibly a pavilion will be required. Other important purchases within our project are so-called bicycle repair stations, which have not yet been found either on the Stadtmitte campus or in Vaihingen. These are funded by RadKULTUR BW and enable students to carry out minor repairs to their bicycles themselves at any time, which means they do not have to rely on the help of a bicycle mechanic or the opening times of the bicycle workshop on campus. In addition, we use the rest of our budget to plan bike trips and repair campaigns.

Project team & Contact:
Daniel Siebert, Faculty 10, E-mail
Laura Schlowak, Mobility manager, Office of the Rectorate, E-mail
Jonas Wagner, Faculty 7, Institute of Laser Technologies (IFSW), E-mail

The project VR Orientation for International Students (VOIS) aims to design an orientation program to promote the integration of the students, who may be disadvantaged due to language barriers and limited mobility, utilizing immersive 360° videos and interactive VR orientation scenarios with useful information such as faculty facilities.

Extensive research should be conducted on questions:
(1) What are the major obstacles that international students have been faced with during orientation?
(2) How could a non-verbal and immersive program sustainably assist them overcome language and geographic challenges?
After understanding international students’ interests and concerns, a VR orientation program for first-year students is designed to promote not-language-intensive communication and to provide an interactive and immersive orientation environment.

The project addresses UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Project team: Faculty 10, Institute of Educational Science (IfE), Department Vocational Education focused on Teaching Technology (BPT) & Faculty 1, Institute of Urban Planning and Design

Contact:
Qi Guo, Institute of Educational Science (IfE), Department Vocational Education focused on Teaching Technology (BPT), E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-84363
Shiyu Yang, Institute of Urban Planning and Design, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-83360

The Una Terra-funded project of the higher educational #toolbox is dedicated to the education for sustainable development (ESD) on university level. The #toolbox is designed as an Open Educational Resource (OER) and aims to illustrate higher education key concepts and teaching strategies in simple and approachable ways, ready to be used by university teachers of all discpiplines. Important topics, such as Wicked Problems, narratives of sustainability or competencies for sustainability are explained concisely and complemented by further hint on how to bring these topics to the classroom. The #toolbox makes use of a variety of media formats and styles.

Project team at the Center for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning (zlw): Plamena Petrova (media designer), Anita Gashi (writer and researcher) and Dr. Thorsten Braun (higher education developer). Dr. Jochen Spielmann is an associated partner of our project at the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

Contact: Dr. Thorsten Braun, Center for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning (zlw), E-mail, phone: +49 (0)711 685-82028

Care-giving students, students who care for adults, mostly relatives, are often invisible in the university system. Yet the number of those in need of care is growing, hence, it can be expected that the number of care-giving students will increase as well. The project "Educational equality in aging societies" contributes to the reconciliation of higher education and care and to the sustainable establishment of a "University care culture" at the University of Stuttgart and intends to expand already existing support structures. In that sense an online survey addressed to all students at the University of Stuttgart examines how many students are engaged in the double role of care-giving and studying, which challenges arise from it and how the university can support care-giving students. Based on the survey results a workshop, where personnel of the respective departments at the university discuss the possibilities of further offers of support, will be conducted. The support structures at the university are then summarized in an info sheet for care-giving students.

Project team: Faculty 10, Institute of Social Sciences with Hochschule Niederrhein

Contact:
Anna Wanka, Institute of Social Sciences, E-mail
Moritz Heß, Fachbereich 06 Sozialwesen, Hochschule Niederrhein, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)2161 186-5661
Vincent Ziegler, Institute of Social Sciences, E-mail 
Nicolas Zörlein, Institute of Social Sciences, E-mail, phone: +49 (0)157 32403085