Rebecca Hartwell, Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Architecture at EPFL in Fribourg; Advancing circular construction research and education

Rebecca Hartwell, Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Architecture at EPFL in Fribourg; Advancing circular construction research and education

Portrait of one of our new professors: Rebecca Hartwell - EPFL

Portrait of one of our new professors: Rebecca Hartwell

Import & publish the news

Are you sure you want to import this news into ?

This news will be sent to its subscribers.

Portrait of Rebecca Hartwell, new Tenure-Track Assistant Professor. A material scientist & engineer working at the intersection of materials science, architecture, and sustainability, she joins EPFL Architecture and will lead theMATR Lab(Materials in Transition Laboratory) at theSmart Living Labin Fribourg.

Previously Postdoctoral Researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, she has been appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Institute of Architecture and the City, part of the ENAC Faculty. At EPFL, she will lead theMATR Lab(Materials in Transition Laboratory) at theSmart Living Labin Fribourg.

Rebecca Hartwell’s work spans materials science, architecture, and civil engineering, focusing on sustainable material flows and reuse in construction. She developed an innovative glass connection technology that led to patent applications and industry partnerships, and her research has influenced European glass recycling strategies. With her interdisciplinary expertise, she will strengthen teaching and research at EPFL in circular construction and sustainable architecture.

At TU Delft, she led postdoctoral research and teaching in theStructures + Materialsgroup at the Faculty of Architecture. She holds an MEng from the University of Manchester and a PhD from the University of Cambridge on material efficiency in architectural glass and façade design. Her doctoral work, funded by an EPSRC scholarship, resulted in collaborations with the Society of Façade Engineers, Permasteelisa, and Eckersley O’Callaghan.

An advocate for interdisciplinary education, she recently developed a cross-faculty Master’s course onFuture Materials. At TU Delft, she also secured a funded collaboration with TKI, Permasteelisa, and Autodesk to translate her research into digital tools for assessing the reuse potential of building elements. She continues to lead applied research on reversible, demountable construction systems and collaborates with engineering firms to bring innovations into practice.

Research and Teaching at EPFL

Rebecca’s research and teaching focus on promoting an environmentally responsible built environment by understanding materials across scales, from micro-level composition and processing to building system performance, use cycles, and eventual decay. Her new laboratory will pursue three key areas: developing digital assessment tools to guide design and reclamation under uncertain future scenarios; creating efficient test protocols and novel connections to scale reclaimed construction products; and exploring alternative material compositions, including carbon-sequestered options, with suitable fabrication methods to optimize performance for climate-resilient architecture.

Through education, Rebecca is committed to mentoring students to navigate economic, social, and ecological trade-offs in material selection. She introduces methods for understanding how design decisions, like material choice and interface configurations, impact multi-life-cycle environmental performance, emphasizing the origins and uncertainties of environmental data, such as material value chains or recycled content. She also fosters a microstructural understanding of materials to enable creative use of non-conventional options and aims to build hands-on capabilities at EPFL, providing students with practical experience in materials testing and characterization.

All Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering | ENAC news

Previously Postdoctoral Researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, she has been appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Institute of Architecture and the City, part of the ENAC Faculty. At EPFL, she will lead theMATR Lab(Materials in Transition Laboratory) at theSmart Living Labin Fribourg.Rebecca Hartwell’s work spans materials science, architecture, and civil engineering, focusing on sustainable material flows and reuse in construction. She developed an innovative glass connection technology that led to patent applications and industry partnerships, and her research has influenced European glass recycling strategies. With her interdisciplinary expertise, she will strengthen teaching and research at EPFL in circular construction and sustainable architecture.At TU Delft, she led postdoctoral research and teaching in theStructures + Materialsgroup at the Faculty of Architecture. She holds an MEng from the University of Manchester and a PhD from the University of Cambridge on material efficiency in architectural glass and façade design. Her doctoral work, funded by an EPSRC scholarship, resulted in collaborations with the Society of Façade Engineers, Permasteelisa, and Eckersley O’Callaghan.An advocate for interdisciplinary education, she recently developed a cross-faculty Master’s course onFuture Materials. At TU Delft, she also secured a funded collaboration with TKI, Permasteelisa, and Autodesk to translate her research into digital tools for assessing the reuse potential of building elements. She continues to lead applied research on reversible, demountable construction systems and collaborates with engineering firms to bring innovations into practice.‎‎Research and Teaching at EPFLRebecca’s research and teaching focus on promoting an environmentally responsible built environment by understanding materials across scales, from micro-level composition and processing to building system performance, use cycles, and eventual decay. Her new laboratory will pursue three key areas: developing digital assessment tools to guide design and reclamation under uncertain future scenarios; creating efficient test protocols and novel connections to scale reclaimed construction products; and exploring alternative material compositions, including carbon-sequestered options, with suitable fabrication methods to optimize performance for climate-resilient architecture.Through education, Rebecca is committed to mentoring students to navigate economic, social, and ecological trade-offs in material selection. She introduces methods for understanding how design decisions, like material choice and interface configurations, impact multi-life-cycle environmental performance, emphasizing the origins and uncertainties of environmental data, such as material value chains or recycled content. She also fosters a microstructural understanding of materials to enable creative use of non-conventional options and aims to build hands-on capabilities at EPFL, providing students with practical experience in materials testing and characterization.

Stacked glass leaves with ReSolved connection technology, GlassTec, Dusseldorf 2024, photo by Andreas Weise

Reclamation potential in the Built Environment: A method and metric for assessing environmental benefits beyond, first use in Buildings and Environment (Research Article: Hartwell, R.; Overend, M. 2024)

Laminated glass separation to enable flat glass reuse (PhD thesis, Rebecca Hartwell)

Live Disassembly Workshop, ARIT1508, Future Materials, TU Delft

Student Project Work, ARIT1508, Future Materials, TU Delft