ETH and Siemens research CO2-free buildings
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) has opened its Zero Carbon Building Systems Lab. It includes test cells, climate chambers and test rooms. Siemens has equipped this research lab for decarbonising buildings with state-of-the-art digital building technology.
With the Zero Carbon Building Systems Lab(ZCBS Lab), ETH has put into operation an experimental research facility that it describes as “groundbreaking”. There, systemic aspects of materials, energy and human users for the decarbonisation of buildings are to be investigated on a 1:1 scale and under a wide range of environmental and climatic conditions.
Siemens has packed this two-storey building with state-of-the-art digital building technology solutions, according to its media release. In the test cells, climate chambers and modular test rooms, active and passive technologies for energy supply, automation and air conditioning of buildings are researched under a wide range of environmental conditions.
The ZCBS Lab was initiated by Arno Schlueter, ETH Professor of Architecture and Building Systems. The lab is closely linked to other innovative groups of the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich, such as the Robotic Fabrication Lab or the Immersive Design Lab.
The “highlight of the new ETH facility” is what the press release calls a room with a so-called solar emulator. Here, in addition to temperature and humidity, solar effects can be simulated during the course of the day. Such a research facility is unique in the world, according to Siemens.
“With our building management system, the foundation has been laid to further develop the existing ETH systems as needed and to connect them in the future to the open digital building platform Building X, which is part of Siemens Xcelerator,” Matthias Rebellius, CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure, is quoted as saying. Siemens has already been funding the ETH Sustainable Building Technologies professorship since 2009.