The students’ interest in ecological and cost-effective housing began at the beginning of their studies, when they planned and built an energy self-sufficient clay house in the desert of Morocco with the TH Lübeck team “Afrikataterre” as part of the Solar Decathlon Africa. The SolarDecathlon is the world’s largest interdisciplinary student competition for sustainable building. The mud house in Morocco was a particular success for the Afrikataterre team: they received first prize for architecture and second place for sustainability.
The cornerstone was laid in Morocco
After this success in Morocco, Marvin Martin and Paul Tschense took part in the first German Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 in Wuppertal with the Deeply High team led by Prof. Heiner Lippe. Within just two weeks, an energy self-sufficient passive house in timber frame construction was built in Wuppertal. These two international projects and the studies laid the foundation for the upcoming project in Ghana. Marvin Martin: “I have Ghanaian roots and the country’s development is particularly important to me.” The country is currently facing many challenges, such as climate change and skyrocketing raw material prices. The western-oriented country has an acute housing shortage and has to import raw materials such as cement and sand from abroad at great expense. Traditional building traditions that are perfectly adapted to the region and the climate are being lost and attributed to the poor population. Marvin and Paul are developing solutions to these challenges with Isopterra. The startup’s name derives from Isoptera, commonly referred to as Termite. Iso means “equal” and ptera “winged”. In Isopterra, “tera” is replaced by “terra” which means earth.
Earth building: traditional and yet modern
With the construction of a model housing estate, the students want to show that modern architecture can be combined with traditional building culture and sensitize the population to sustainable building. The focus is on clay and bamboo. Both materials are in abundance locally. The Isopterra team is currently developing a modular house that is adaptive and changeable, depending on whether it is in the country, on the outskirts or in the city. The team is very broadly based with a cooperation of students from Ghana, Turkey and Germany.
The foundation stone for the first house on a property near the coastal town of Butre will be laid this November. In addition to the preparations for the construction site, the students founded the startup ISOPTERRA, started a crowdfunding campaign, won the first AiDiA (first Afro-German startup pitch) and have been taking part in the GründerCube’s “Gründungskontor” university program since October 14, 2022. The founders provide regular information about their project: both via their website www.isopterra.com as well as under ISOPTERRA on LinkedIn and Instagram.