Site Visits

1 | NEST at Empa

 

 

 

NEST (Next Evolution in Sustainable Building Technologies) is a dynamic, modular research and demonstration platform for advanced and innovative building technologies on the Empa-Eawag campus in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The project provides a basic infrastructure and access to an advanced geothermal system. This ‘backbone’ can accept up to fifteen modular buildings thus offering a unique setting for academic groups and innovative companies to implement their research. Construction is currently under way and the official inauguration of the NEST backbone is scheduled for May 23, 2016.

Bus transport will be provided.                 Guide: Reto Largo
Number of participants: 10 – 30               Duration: 3 hours

Read more on external pagethe NEST Project at EMPAcall_made

2 | Campus Tour – ETH Hoenggerberg

 

 

 

Over the years, the ETH Zurich campus Hoenggerberg has become the playground for ground breaking experiments in building technologies. The recently inaugurated House of Natural Resources (HoNR) is a 2D post-tensioned timber structure allowing earthquake resistance and extremely fast construction. Its facade features adaptive photovoltaic panels that showcase soft robotic technology developed at the Chair of Architecture and Building Systems. The campus tour will also include the Arch_Tec_Lab – the new home of the Institute of Technology in Architecture, where a robotically assembled roof has been designed by Gramazio Kohler Research Group. Finally, a low exergy heating system will be shown in the renovated HPZ building.

Guides: Arno Schlueter / Matthias Kohler / Chair of Andrea Frangi
Number of participants: max. 25               Duration: 2.5 hours

Read more on the House of Natural Resources at ETH Zurich

3 | Development of the District ‘Hardau’

 

 

 

A city district of Zurich with former bad reputation has been enhanced with new public buildings, a housing development, a park area and art projects. During this site visit we will see, amongst others, new buildings with high requirements on sustainability and innovation: a secondary school, a school extension for apprentices, a sports center, a new multifunctional stadium and a residential building realised by a building cooperative.

Guides: Annette Aumann / Annick Lalive d’Epinay / Silvio Brunner
Number of participants: max. 25               Duration: 3 hours

4 | Cooperative 'mehr als wohnen' 

 

 

 

‘mehr als wohnen’ (‘more than housing’) is a Zurich neighbourhood – home to approximately 1,200 residents since 2015. It offers a broad variety of infrastructure, workshops and business spaces like a guesthouse, reception space, restaurants, kindergarten, music rehearsal studios and a bakery.

‘mehr als wohnen’ was initiated and founded by Zurich cooperatives. It is based on the ecological principles of the ‘2000Watt society’ and aiming for housing affordability, social diversity and employment generation. Sustainable development is at the core of the project. The cooperative relies for instance on the use of low energy technology and residents commit to renouncing the use of private cars.

During the architectural competition residents and neighbours were allowed to interact with the jury, engaging in a process of dialogue and several participatory sessions that aimed to establish the future principles of cohabitation in the neighbourhood. Since the architectural competition, there was a joint effort to bring together future residents, neighbours and public entities through regular events and share information about the progress of the project.
 
Read more on external pagehttp://www.mehralswohnen.ch/hunziker-areal.htmlcall_made

Guide: Andreas Hofer
Number of participants: max. 20              Duration: max. 2.5 hours