History
Prof. Daniel Hall was Assistant Professor of the Chair "Innovative and Industrialized Construction" at the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management from January 1, 2018 to August 31, 2022. He left ETH in August 2022 and started his new position as Assistant Professor at the Faculty "Architecture and the Built Environment" at TU Delft in the Netherlands.
To reflect the change in direction of the institute with the reorientation of the chair for Planning and Management to Infrastructure Management, on 01 July 2010 the Institute for Construction Engineering and Management was renamed to the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI).
Since 2010 the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management comprises the following professorships:
- Construction Process and Enterprise Management - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Girmscheid
- Infrastructure Management - Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey
- Sustainable Construction - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Wallbaum
In August 2006 Dr.-Ing. Holger Wallbaum was appointed as assistant professor for the Chair of Sustainable Construction which to a significant extent is financed by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Since then, the chair supports the institute by focussing on life cycle-optimised products, processes and evaluation approaches. Prof. Wallbaum does research in the areas of building and infrastructure engineering at home and abroad, where socio-culturally, economically and ecologically varying parameters always demand different issues and solution processes. Full integration and adaption are the maxims of sustainability-oriented planners, tenants and operators as well as dealing with law makers, so that sustainable building can become a reality. We are committed to these requirements and contribute towards them through teaching and research.
At the beginning of 2010 Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey was appointed as the successor of Prof. Dr. Hans-Ruedi Schalcher. At the same time the focus of the chair was changed from Planning and Management to Infrastructure Management in order to do justice to the increasing demand for optimal decision-making in relation to infrastructures on which our modern society is based. The aim is to reposition the teaching and research within IBB.
Prof. Adey’s research in the field of infrastructure management can be grouped along three general research axes: prediction, decision making and implementation.
His mission is to improve the management of infrastructure by conducting and guiding innovative and world-leading research that results in the provision of cutting edge frameworks, methodologies, models and tools for the management of infrastructure and to prepare students to be future infrastructure managers, capable of making decisions that ensure that infrastructure is managed to maximize the benefit of society.
In the winter semester 1990/91 Dr. Hans-Rudolf Schalcher was appointed as a full professor of the Department of Construction Engineering and in 1995 took over the task as head of the institute from Prof. Fechtig upon his retirement. From October 1997 to October 1999 Prof. Schalcher was head of the Civil Engineering Department and in October 1999 he became head of the newly regrouped Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. Prof. Schalcher focused his teaching and research on the preparation, planning and commissioning of construction projects as well as on the optimal management and maintenance of buildings in use. Thereby economic and organisational issues from the investor’s and user’s point of view had priority. In the field of planning and management, Prof. Schalcher dealt in the broadest sense with all aspects of goal-oriented, systematic thinking, planning and managing in connection with the project-planning, realization and use of engineered structures both for construction above and below ground.
In the summer of 1996, as the successor of Prof Fechtig, Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Girmscheid was appointed as a full professor of Construction Processes and Management of Construction Companies; in October 1998 Prof. Girmscheid became head of the institute. Prof Girmscheid draws from his wide experiences in internationally operating construction corporations. During his career in construction management he has been intensively occupied with developing various construction procedures and methods of construction management. Based on this substantial market knowledge the research approach “System Provider Construction (SysBau)” was established, in which all research projects in the field of construction process and management of construction companies are embedded. The system provider approach is a strategic horizontal and leading theme which, based on the normative research model, connects the various research projects by handling the overall topic of construction management. The goal is to initiate changes in the construction industry which on the one hand enable a sustainable, integrative life cycle-oriented entrepreneurial service offering and on the other hand generate innovation and continuous improvements which lead to sustainability and higher customer benefit as well as supporting entrepreneurial competitiveness.
Upon the appointment of Prof. Girmscheid the professors for Planning and Management and for Construction Process and Management of Construction Companies together redefined the overall mission statement of the institute as:
“Increase customer benefit through sustainable improvement and innovation of the life cycle-oriented planning, performance, support and management processes in the building industry and of the process-oriented management of construction companies, and the construction engineering process applied to the construction of new and the maintenance of existing buildings.”
In November 1971 Angelo Pozzi was appointed as a full professor of Construction Engineering and Management and as head of the new institute. His efforts aimed at the development of an integrated approach to the training of civil engineers. Prof. Pozzi reduced his role at the ETH in April 1983 to become the Chief Executive Officer of Motor Columbus AG in Baden. From 1983 until 1990 he continued to mentor the lectures “Technical Economics” and “Planning Methodology”. Dr. Hans Knöpfel was interim director of the area of Construction Engineering during this period.
The rapid development of the institute during the early stage is also due to a further person: Prof. Dr. Oldrich Stradal. Prof. Stradel began his career in 1950 as a lecturer at the Technical University in Prague and emigrated to Switzerland in 1968. In 1971 he was appointed as, what is now called, an associate professor and in 1975 became a full professor of Construction Engineering and Management. Prof. Stradel focused his teaching and research on operation research methods and on systems theory. Prof. Stradal was given emeritus status in 1981.
In October 1981 Robert Fechtig was appointed as a full professor of Construction Management and Engineering Technology and at the beginning of 1983 he replaced Prof. Pozzi as head of the institute. Prof. Fechtig enriched the research and teaching at the institute particularly through his substantial practical experiences gained through involvement in many construction projects including power plants, tunnels, bridges and hydraulic engineering. It was particularly important to him to increase the future civil engineers’ understanding of the realisation of various building structures, mainly medium-sized to large civil engineering projects, and to introduce them to the management of large construction projects. His research in construction management was focused on improving the not yet matured technology of gunned concrete. This research was conducted in intensive collaboration with other institutes of ETH Zurich, with EMPA and with commercial researchers of building materials. In 1995, the institute’s abbreviation changed from IBETH to IBB due to ETH-internal reasons.
The Institute for Construction Engineering and Management was founded in 1972 in response to the demand of the Swiss construction industry for competent specialists for the leadership of construction projects and management of construction companies and construction sites. Increasingly complex projects as well as economic restrictions due to the oncoming recession at the time called for more effective management methods and construction techniques. Out of this situation the Swiss Schools Inspector (governing body of the ETH under the federal government) decided to create an independent institute at the ETH Zurich for teaching and research in the field of construction engineering and management.
Prior to the establishment of the institute, Angelo Pozzi conducted an international evaluation of the field of construction engineering and management, discovering that the focus in teaching and research at that time in the European zone was on the engineering technology of construction and related topics, whereas in the USA the focus was on handling technical-economic systems. On the basis of these findings, it was decided that the new institute for Construction Engineering and Management (IBETH) would focus on a middle path encompassing the entire building process. That definition of the institute’s area of responsibility, put forward by Prof. Pozzi prior to its formation, has remained valid in the broadest sense up until today. It reads as follows:
“The new institute shall engage in teaching and researching the purposes of building structures and the planning, managing and controlling of construction processes. The focus will be set on recognizing, formulating and methodical handling of problems in which issues of management, economics and technology arise interactively. Aspects of an ecological, social, political or legal nature may also play a role.”
Initially the institute was located in a residential building at Fliederstrasse 23, near the ETH main campus. In March 1976 it was moved to the new university building HIL at Hönggerberg.