Background
The Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development was officially inaugurated on March 6, 2010. It is the latest chapter of a long and vivid history of the school. Before becoming EiABC, the school was part of the Faculty of Technology of Addis Ababa University. And before that, it was known as the Ethio-Swedish Institute, or in short: the Building College. This institution was founded in 1954 through a bilateral agreement between the Ethiopian and Swedish Governments. The initial educational scheme, launched in 1955, aimed to offer a three-year diploma program in Building Engineering. At the end of the 1957/58 academic year the training was upgraded to a four-year program leading to a B.Sc. Degree in Building Engineering. As a result of recommendations made at various times, especially those of the Presidential Commission in 1968, and the report of the Technical Survey Team of 1969, the Building College and the College of Engineering merged to form the Faculty of Technology in 1969 till 2009 under Addis Ababa University.
In 2005, a nation wide effort was started to introduce a unified Bachelor and Master system in Ethiopia and with it establishing international recognized curricula in the field of Architecture, Urban Planning and the Engineering disciplines. From that date on, the Department of Architecture at the ETH in Zürich, Switzerland played a very important role as a strategic partner in introducing new academic structures, pedagogical concepts as well as a capacity building program which continuously supported the exchange of faculty and students between the two institutions. In 2008/09, the strategic concept of the establishment of IoTs in Ethiopia was co-developed with the ETH Zürich and led to the installation of the founding Scientific Director coming directly from the ETHZ. The cooperation continues in project partnerships and research activities, ranging from Urban Design studios to prototypical construction proposals in full scale, always accompanied with academic and pedagogical training sessions.
Having a functional relationship with the University, EiABC has the following competence centers and Chairs.
| Competence Centre 1 | Competence Centre 2 | Competence Centre 3 |
| Architecture and ArchitecturalDesign | Building Technology andStructural Design | Project and ConstructionManagement |
| Chair of Basic Architectural Design | Chair of Structural Design | Chair of Project Management |
| Chair of Architectural Design I | Chair of Appropriate Building Technology | Chair of Construction Management |
| Chair of Architectural Design II | Chair of Building Construction | Chair of Construction Law and Contract Management |
| Chair of Visual Arts and Graphic Communications | Chair of Infrastructure Design and Construction | Chair of Quality Management and Capacity Building |
| Chair of Computer AidedDesign and Geoinformatics | Chair of Construction Materials and Geotechniques | MRTC Materials Research and Testing Center |
| Chair of Building Sciences |
Establishment
- Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City development (EiABC) is a State Institute, known as the Ethio-Swedish Institute, or in short: the Building College. This institution was founded in 1954 through a bilateral agreement between the Ethiopian and Swedish Governments.
- Thanks to different international partners (ETH-Zurich, DAAD Germany) to implement different reforms, the institute moved forward the Autonomy under the umbrella of Addis Ababa University in 2010 and through the proclamation 691/2010 made by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia as an IoT (Institute of Technology).
