Thinking: Prospective Concepts for Architectural Design (Towards 2050)
Synopsis "Thinking: Prospective Concepts for Architectural Design (Towards 2050) "
The building sector is one of the world's biggest contributors to CO2-emissions and energy consumption. Finding strategies to improve energy and carbon performance of buildings is the goal of smart living lab, a research cooperation for the built environment between three Swiss universities: EPFL's School of Architecture in Lausanne, the College of Architecture and Technology HEIA-FR in Fribourg, and the University of Fribourg. Both home and workplace of this interdisciplinary centre of excellence for entirely new concepts and technologies in sustainable construction, is the smart living lab building in Fribourg, an emblematic high-tech structure ahead of its time. The initial volume, Thinking: Visions for Architectural Design follows the phases of preliminary research for the smart living lab building and features visions for sustainable buildings in 2050, offering original views of the manifold future challenges and opportunities, as well as of the promising leads to success factors and drivers of change. The second volume Exploring: Research-Driven Building Design features research results of Building 2050, the research group conducting the smart living lab's initial two-year programme. It focused on finding solutions for a building that meets the ambitious 2050 targets for a 2,000 watt-society, and which is representative of both a sustainable structure and an evolving construction process.