From May 22 to 29, 2024, the "Fibra Award Bambus" exhibition was on display in the faculty foyer. It has been on tour as a traveling exhibition since 2019 and has already been presented at various locations. Thanks to Dominique Gauzin-Müller, we were able to get in touch with Andrès Bäppler, who is in charge of this exhibition, and win him over for our faculty.
Andrès Bäppler, architect and pioneer of bamboo buildings, opened the exhibition in person. He gave a guided tour of the exhibition and gave an informative talk about bamboo. The various background stories about the individual projects were enriching for the guests and gave the exhibition opening a very special setting.
Born in Colombia, he discovered his enthusiasm for the material very early on. Together with his wife and friends, he founded the non-profit association "Schule fürs Leben" (School for Life) in Frankfurt in 2003/2004, which was also founded at the same time as the partner association "Escuela para la Vida" by his brother and friends in Cali, Colombia.
This was the foundation stone for educational projects in Colombia, all of which were created with bamboo. One of the most important realizations during these projects was the experience of focusing on local, available resources and developing them further in a local architectural language, which ultimately leads to a local identity.
Since 2015, he has dedicated many months of the year to the people of Colombia, helping them to develop schools, training workshops, libraries and learning forests. One of his projects, the "Colegio de las Aquas" school building in Montebello, was also awarded the "Fibra Award Bamboo" in 2019.
In addition, he was awarded a special prize at the "First World Prize for Contemporary Plant Fiber-Based Architecture" in Paris in 2019 for his pioneering work in building with bamboo and at the same time published the book "GUADUA, The Supergrass: Building the Future with Bamboo".
At the same time, he published the book 11.2019 he was then awarded a special prize at the "First World Prize for Contemporary Plant Fiber-Based Architecture" in Paris for his pioneering work in building with bamboo.
The faculty would like to thank Mr. Andrès Bäppler once again for his support and the opportunity to present this exhibition and for sharing his enthusiasm for bamboo as a material.
