Swiss-Korean Academic Exchange Program ARC-HEST: Architecture for Human Environment with Smart Technologies Six universities from Switzerland and South Korea have developed an exchange program focusing on studying the working environment in both countries in conjunction with local culture and architecture.

The Housing Atlas is a source information about typomorphological features. Developed by the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (HEIA-FR) over ten years ago and updated at regular intervals by several professors, this online database was initially used by students. The current online database now needs to be completely redesigned to expand the current user community to include new target groups, specifically researchers and practitioners in the field of architecture. A working group comprised of architecture professors was established in the autumn of 2018 to assess the feasibility of this professionalisation project, which would entail the removal of content having limited relevance to HEIA-FR, the enhancement and restructuring of existing content and the addition of missing elements. In parallel to the project to redesign the online database, a project to develop a publication on contemporary housing will also be launched

Strong evidence suggests that clothing serves as a reservoir of chemical pollutants and particles, including bioaerosols, which may have health significance. However, little is known about the role that clothing may play in exposing people to airborne chemicals and particles. This project aims to better understand the role of clothing in exposure to gaseous species and particulate matter including bioaerosols. The results of this project will add knowledge and understanding of the role of clothing in contributing to primary and secondary exposure routes and could ultimately help strengthen exposure and risk assessments. The knowledge gained could also prove worthwhile for characterizing interventions to mitigate the transfer of airborne pollutants from clothing to the respiratory tract.

All demographic forecasts indicate that population density in urban areas will rise considerably in the coming decades. In order to limit urban sprawl and the resulting encroachment into agricultural and natural areas, urban areas need to be densified inwardly. This is also a requirement set out in the latest Spatial Planning Act (SPA), which takes into account a wide and variable range of old urban buildings. In order to accommodate a growing number of inhabitants over a constant ground surface, living spaces must reach towards the sky (because no one really wants to live underground). This baseline situation raises the following questions: 1) What building materials and techniques can be used to expand residential surface area by increasing the number of floors of current building structures without disproportionately affecting existing constructions and surroundings? 2) How to ensure that current and future economic, ecological and comfort constraints of users and citizens are taken into account in this vertical growth? Increasing the number of floors of existing buildings implies very different requirements from those of new constructions, particularly in terms of the production and use of construction elements. In order to avoid disproportionate overload of existing buildings, the installed construction elements must essentially be very light: lightweight materials can be used to produce normal-sized construction elements or high-strength materials can be used to produce very thin elements, decreasing overall weight in this manner. Economic and environmental performance depends on the materials, manufacturing and implementation methods used. Emphasis should therefore be placed on prefabrication or simple on-site implementation. Similarly, performance is also determined by the thermal envelope and finishing work ("non-load-bearing') needed to ensure the comfort of users. This, in turn, will mainly depend on the requirements arising from current and future building physics (which will increase as a result of dense cohabitation and climate change). The project should lead to specific technical proposals for the densification of urban living areas through the economic raising of existing buildings. These construction techniques will have to meet the multiple, complex and increased requirements resulting from denser cohabitation and more extreme temperatures associated with climate change. At the same time, a balance with nature should be achieved in terms of preserving natural resources and reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

The depletion of natural energy resources along with the increase of energy costs have made energy savings a priority. This led to a process of rethinking building practices so as to make them most sustainable and economical in terms of its energy consumption by ensuring the air tightness and a good thermal insulation. As a consequence of sealed homes, ventilation rates have reduced, and there is an increased presence of moisture, and higher concentration of pollutants in the indoor environment. The deterioration of the indoor air quality and the appearance of occupants non‐specific health disorders are the consequences. The research objective is to determine impace of energy‐efficient building practices on indoor air quality. These projects aim at evaluating indoor air quality in a large sample of new or refurbished energy‐efficient single‐family dwellings by analysing individuals' exposure to radon, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and molds. In these buildings a particular attention has been brought to the effective air tightness of the envelope as well as to the ventilation.

The Association pour la Création de Logements Sociaux Innovants (ACLSI) asked a panel of experts from professional and academic (EPFL, HEG, HEIA) spheres to assess the innovation situation of social housing in the Geneva area. Taking into account the many observations made by architects in recent years, the aim was to identify – for each respective sectoral aspect - the obstacles to innovation and how these obstacles could be removed

Buildings represent over a third of global anthropogenic greenhouses emissions. Load-bearing elements are the biggest contributor to the embodied carbon of buildings. New pathways for its reduction are to be found in order to avoid extreme climate catastrophes. However, the task of designing building remains very complex and environmental measures often contradict each other. How good is a new design? Is it actually better and more appropriate than previous ones? How can we objectively assess the environmental benefits gained when reusing load-bearing components over multiple life-cycles?

Design is an ill-structured and costly problem whose complexity can significantly increase during the process due to emerging requirements. How can the computer help the designer during the early-stage design of structures? How should they communicate together? How can the machine provide instant feedback on performance requirements, allow for fast generative exploration of alternative solutions and be capable of unveiling unexpected structural typologies? Our approach to solve this challenge is to let the designer operate on not-yet-complete structural systems while being informed by the computer of what would be the best next moves. Grammar rules are used as the common interface between user and machine in order to control both interim topologies and geometries. The approach fosters a close collaboration between user and machine, ensuring that the design process benefits from the experience of both the former and the latter.

Buildings represent habitats for various airborne pollutants that have direct or indirect effects on the quality of our living spaces, health, and well-being. As we spend most of our time in buildings, understanding sources and composition of indoor air pollutants is fundamental for interpreting the health risks and for developing improved building control measures to mitigate human exposure. Humans have been identified as strong contributors of airborne particles and bioeffluents in indoor spaces, not only through their activities, but also by continuos pollutant emissions from their skin, clothing as well as breath. The objective of this project is to use scientific-grade air quality instrumentation to characterize how human-associated emissions of particles and bioeffluents contribute to indoor air composition and to resulting inhalation exposures. The measurements will be performed in a controlled environmental chamber located in Fribourg (Switzerland).

The heat transfer requirements for opaque building components are generally prescriptive and given as static values in building performance standards. However, the thermal resistance (U-value) of the building walls with air spaces incorporated behind the exterior cladding is dynamic in nature due to the dynamic thermo-hydraulic behaviour of the air inside the ventilated air gap. This study quantifies the effects of air change rates on the thermal resistance of vertical air spaces behind common types of ventilated wall structures by performing the following tasks: - Overview of existing methods for predicting air exchange rates behind ventilated coatings such as brick veneer and vinyl siding. - Identify the factors that influence air change rates, perform a parametric study and determine the weighting of each factor to the thermal resistance of the air gap. Based on the parametric study performed, test and design recommendations will be made to take into account the impact of ventilation air flow on the thermal resistance of vertical spaces behind the cladding surfaces.

Climate change accompanied with increased global urbanization have led to increased demand for built environments that operate energy-efficiently and use renewable sources of energy. In parallel, the percentage of time that people spend indoors has increased to approximately 90%, where the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) shapes occupants' health, well-being and the productivity. One of the main objectives of green and healthy building certification systems is to improve building design and operation with respect to the environmental impact and occupant satisfaction. However, few detailed studies have investigated whether such buildings lead to higher occupant satisfaction with IEQ. The specific objectives of this project are to compare the human satisfaction in green-certified and conventional buildings, and to assess and quantitatively compare IEQ parameters in such buildings.

Methods of graphic statics were created in the 19th Century, at a time when the pencil and the piece of paper were the common medium. Combined with contemporary graphical capabilities of computers, graphic statics gain new relevance for early-stage structural design. Rather than assuming that modern graphic statics are just a computerized version of classical graphic statics, the old methods leading to the construction of graphic statics diagrams should be reinvented in order for designers to benefit the most from the new digital medium.

152 papers in the domain of Human-Computer Interaction that describe a living lab study are analyzed to create a structured understanding of how living lab methods have evolved in this domain.

Adverse health effects from air pollutant exposure are a global issue. As they circulate throughout their daily indoor (e.g., working, studying, playing, exercising) and outdoor activities (e.g., driving, biking, walking), people inhale air that is likely to poorly resemble the outdoor air quality that is commonly reported by governmental agencies and weather stations. In order to accurately assess individual level exposure to environmental pollutants, and ultimately its impact on health and well-being, it is important to better understand exposure in diverse indoor and outdoor spaces throughout human daily cycles. The objective of this project is to improve the understanding of exposure levels to carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, which will be done with a portable scientific instruments and samplers.

The urban environment affects the physical, social and mental well-being of inhabitants. In Switzerland as elsewhere, the main urban centres experience strong pressure to densify both for economic reasons (appeal of urban life, concentration of activities) and legal ones (i.e. the Spatial Planning Act). The climate outlook shows that these developments will be exacerbated in urban areas. The urban trees that politicians rely on to temper the climate are already heavily impacted. The strong constraints to come must be understood and anticipated without delay, given the lifespan of urban developments and planted green spaces. Readings taken in several large Swiss cities using the microclimate-meter developed by hepia have made it possible to highlight situations that cannot be explained on the basis of the state of knowledge or modelling. For example: a) Why is it that trees do not always have a cooling effect in urban areas? b) Why is it that bodies of water only rarely produce the expected freshness? c) How can we ensure that urban areas are properly used as a means of climate control? d) How can green spaces in urban areas help to improve the climate situation? In order to ensure targeted climate policies and subsequent expenditure and achieve the expected ecosystem services, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms that influence Swiss urban microclimates, and specifically to identify the conditions that limit tree development in the urban areas. With this aim in mind, the MACADAM project involves: a) taking detailed microclimatic readings. b) documenting and analysing the contributions of each element affecting the identified areas, namely: plant, water, materiality and their spatial distribution. c) creating useful indicators to assess the microclimatic context of people and vegetation. d) drafting a reference guide illustrating case studies and providing concise, factual explanations on how the various elements interact in an urban setting. The project is intended to contribute objective knowledge on the determinants of urban microclimate. Solid knowledge and appropriate references will enable communities, urban planners, developers and landscape architects to effectively implement measures that improve the well-being of city dwellers. The contribution of green spaces is a strong element in these strategies and will only be effective if the right conditions are in place for their development.

Commentary to articles 213–218 of Swiss Civil procedures Code (mediation during court proceedings).

Apart from the 'performance gap', we now know how to achieve lower or even negligible energy consumption in buildings in the operating phase. However, the savings are clearly at the expense of building materials and their consumption of non-renewable primary energy ('grey energy') and associated greenhouse gas emissions. The final extent of building material consumption is influenced to a greater or lesser extent, favourably or unfavourably, by decisions reached in the various planning phases of a building. Progressive builders and planners often want to know how much environmental savings potential can still be tapped in specific planning phases through the use of alternative 'green' building materials. Alternative building materials therefore have little chance of being implemented, even though their use in load-bearing and non-load-bearing structures is becoming increasingly important as part of the Energy Strategy 2050. Moreover, an environmental assessment is hardly feasible under current conditions and their potential cannot be fully exploited. The proposed project is therefore intended to pursue two objectives: (a) creation of benchmarks (incl. possible variations of primary energy sources and greenhouse gas emissions) for the construction of buildings in the respective planning phase, and (b) development of simplified procedures for measuring the volume of primary energy sources and greenhouse gas emissions for non-standardised building materials. For the preliminary study phase, MINERGIE-ECO projects will be evaluated on the basis of suitable key figures for the project. Case studies of different types of load-bearing structures will be used to show the savings potential that can be achieved in the preliminary design phase. Then case studies comparing the most common building components and materials with ecofriendly alternatives will be used to demonstrate the savings potential that can be achieved in the construction phase. Finally, case studies of interior fittings will be be used to demonstrate the savings potential in the implementation phase. In addition to these evaluations, a methodology will be developed for simplified life cycle assessment of alternative (low-tech) and recycled building materials. This methodology will be applied to the design of new components, which offer the possibility of even lower environmental impact during the construction phase. The results of the study will be presented in a report and condensed into a guideline in German, French and Italian on the optimisation potential of primary energy sources / greenhouse gas emissions in the construction of buildings and common components at different planning phases. The results of the study can also serve as a basis for updating life cycle assessment databases, developing alternative new construction solutions and as a starting point for specific additions to reconstruction procedures.

The project should lead to greater coherence and understanding of urban planning projects that include sustainability aspects, from a human, urbanistic and architectural perspective. The methodology will be used to ensure that the elderly continue to live at home under the best possible conditions and, therefore, to foster socially cohesive neighbourhood life. The collaborative project between PRO SENECTUTE VAUD and TRANSFORM presents a multidisciplinary structure intended to build bridges between the social and built environment for greater coherence of urban constructions and transformations.

Commentary to articles 81 (public works), 81a (public transportation), 82 (roads) and 88 (pedestrian ways and cycling paths) of Swiss federal constitution

The reuse of load-bearing components in new constructions is not a recent matter. The practice probably existed as soon as humans started to build shelters. However, the design of load-bearing systems for explicit or implicit reuse of components in future life-cycles is not very well documented. Some approaches and technologies have failed, others have succeeded. What can we learn from this vast experience? How can we use it to improve contemporary construction processes and techniques?

In this research project iimt and TRANSFORM researchers combine social networks in the Smart Living Lab with its spatial structure in order to develop novel analytical tools for reviewing innovation spaces.

The expansion of urban areas and the development of transport links between urban areas is a reality that affects the entire Swiss Plateau. Although essential to the country's prosperity, the result is the fragmentation of natural environments, which threatens biodiversity and reduces living standards of the population, particularly urban dwellers. Faced with this reality, the Confederation has published its 'Swiss Biodiversity Strategy', which is intended to promote the conservation and development of ecosystem services, even in urban areas. The challenge is thus to reconcile the development of urban areas and transport routes with the maintenance of functional biological corridors. Each of these parts - communication routes and biological corridors - has a similar function, but for different landscape actors. They constitute networks of linear structures that connect reservoirs, agglomerations on the one hand and biodiversity reservoirs on the other. At the same time, they are preferential pathways enabling the expansion of agglomerations or natural environments respectively. The UrbEco project is intended to reconcile these needs by providing a decision-making tool for elected officials, managers and planners. This tool should ensure that urban development takes into account economic, social and environmental aspects at local and regional levels.

The project targets at evaluating relevant multifunctionality properties and ecological impacts of new slab elements to be developed. It aims at identifying thermal properties of newly developed wood-based "bio-concretes", and at evaluating impacts of different conceptual designs for hybrid slabs on overall energy consumption of a case study building and eco-balance. The projects also envisages fabrication of a demonstrator, in view of a potential commercialization of the construction system.

Building-integrated photovoltaic systems (BIPV) could be a high growth market with high impact for the economy and the "Energy turnaround". A better understanding of the technology acceptance and of the needs of the market is required for the design of optimised solutions and to ensure efficient knowledge and technology transfer. Value proposition breakdown along the value chain is essential to guarantee benefits for each actors.. The research will focus on the systems studied and developed in the joint project, in the context of urban renewal in general and applied to the City of Neuchâtel. Once realistic and promising value propositions will be assessed for the key market segments and technologies, the project will focus on the design and implementation of communication and knowledge transfer tools.

Urban and architectural design is an important part of the necessary evolution towards the large-scale advanced implementation of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) into urban renewal processes. A key factor is finding a qualitative and quantitative way to link BIPV with the future renewal of the considerable existing building stock in the next decades. In that perspective, the main objectives of the subproject are to cross over the limits of the current practice and to develop a holistic strategy for BIPV-adapted solutions in urban renewal design processes in the Swiss context. In this respect, this project will contribute to significantly advance the architectural practice in the manner of addressing BIPV in urban renewal projects. By assuring the integration of applications-tests carried out on representative case studies in the City of Neuchâtel, this project will offer an attractive link between the development of industrial elements and the generation of operational knowledge directly integrated into new adapted solutions. It represents a strategic potential in terms of transferability and will have positive repercussions for the urban, architectural and constructive design practices.

How prosumer behaviors influence the stability of an electricity network.

Integration and optimization concept for advanced intelligent heat exchange networks, in operation at the blueFACTORY site in Fribourg.

Design of a load-bearing system for office buildings, constrained for extreme versatility and reuse.

The aim of the CIMI project is to generate recommendations for the systematic design of construction elements, taking into account multiple requirements (such as static, building physics, energy production and storage, technical installations, economic and environmental factors, and architecture) for construction designs developed using innovative new materials as well as utilizing existing construction elements for new applications. The objective is to produce buildings that respect economic criteria as well as environmental concerns.

Road traffic has a considerable impact on the comfort and quality of life in our neighborhoods and cities, notably on air quality and noise pollution. The recent evolutions in sensors, communication networks and Big Data analytics open up new perspectives in the measurement and analysis of those impacts. The CityPulse project seeks to offer live, localized and continuous measurements of the city through the installation of a network of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.

Human-IST has developed an interactive device that measures environmental conditions, communicates objective comfort measurements with users, and receives feedback from them. Learning from user feedback helps to tune prospective behavior. ComfortBox is equipped with ten indoor environmental sensors that together can create an insight into indoor thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort, while also evaluating air quality. ComfortBox is intended to create a dialogue channel between human and building, and it can also evaluate indoor conditions in relation to the productivity and health of the occupants, especially over the long-term.

FAR has been working on a study that seeks to verify/demonstrate the potential of local industry in Sri Lanka to support and/or accept transformations in the way concrete-based social housing is conceived of and procured. This by: 1) identifying economic and social elements that are lying dormant within existing cycles of housing development; 2) checking the ability of alternative and geographically available building fabrication systems to become part of the low-income housing supply chain; 3) considering the possibility of integrating unconventional practices, crafts and materials into such systems; 4) defining how the design and planning process could be modified so as to facilitate the implementation of the framework.

Identification of socioeconomic motivations and regulatory measures, as well as specific and sustainable funding policies supporting the Crowd Energy concept and, along with this, the energy turnaround.

Identification of requirements concerning the Digital Infrastructure and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the smart living lab's future building.

The Journal of Electronic Science and Technology (JEST) is soliciting original manuscripts for its Special Section on Energy-Efficient Technologies (EET) — Crowd Energy Applications (CEA), which appears on JEST periodically. This Special Section on EET intends to bring together state-of-art research results and industrial applications of energy-efficient technologies. Professor Teufel presides over this issue's Special Section, while the Guest Editor and the JEST team focus on Crowd Energy Applications.

A system analysis of already existing prosumer‐based organizational forms and an investigation of interest in becoming involved in prosumer‐based organizational forms.

The main purpose of this project is to investigate and optimize second-life scenarios of aged batteries with reduced performances compared with new ones in order to minimize the overall economic and environmental impact of the smart building.

The goal of this project is to develop a demonstrator for testing the viability of new energy management systems. The physical infrastructure consists of a detached office unit, fully equipped with a heat pump, solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, and thermal and electrochemical storage. The testing of new energy management procedures developed in the framework of the smart living lab would then be possible in real conditions.

The goal of the proposed research is to establish the first cornerstone of a methodology and to develop a test and demonstration platform at the smart living lab to measure and assess the benefits of using innovative luminaires from both technical and user perspectives. Insolight has developed a smart LED panel with the ability to dynamically change its light beam output (in both direction and intensity). The panel takes the form of a smart luminaire for multi-functional spaces, adapting the light beam according to the user's task. This project proposal aims to install, benchmark and test the second-generation prototype with users of the "Halle Bleue". Ultimately, this project will demonstrate and potentially validate the interest in using such a luminaire in an office environment.

This project seeks to develop an interactive simulation of a Crowd Energy system, acting as a test bed for static and dynamic experiments on the sharing behavior of energy prosumers within the crowd. The experiments will focus on i) investment decisions and ii) the trading of energy/electricity among the crowd.

The history of watchmaking in the Jura Valley has produced a unique kind of industrial urbanism where urban design and building type have evolved almost together, to define spaces of production that were not only functional to their remit but also expandable within the city and across the land. Thus, the socio-technical history of watchmaking buildings constitutes a fertile area of investigation. FAR is working on a systematic technological review of approximately 200 factory buildings with specific typological traits across the valley, aiming at determining the degree of production-induced innovation in the building systems they used, both within the territory and as a theoretical step in the creation of industrial comparative advantage.

The goal of the Interreg France-Suisse Jurad-Bat project is to develop a trans-border platform to promote the pooling and sharing of experience and competencies, as well as training professionals in the area of radon risk management, which particularly affects the trans-border region of the Jurassic Arc. The platform will serve as a decision-making tool. www.jurad-bat.net

The aim of this project is to develop an evaluation approach for innovation processes in experimental environments centered on learning, knowledge sharing and innovation empowerment, drawing on previous research on the role of experimental spaces as well as on empirical research.

The goal of the MUBI project is to propose a mobile interface to interact with a building database, allowing for the browsing of real-time environmental and energy data gathered by the building sensors relative to the space occupied by the user. Taking advantage of the mobile platform, it will also augment sensor data by gathering user comfort perception data, in order to analyze correlations between both datastreams. In this project, focus is placed on the development of a mobile tool with large diffusion potential in order to allow for its adaptation to different building contexts.

Systematic understanding of user comfort in offices

The project idea here is to review the innovative performance of the smart living lab by conceptualizing it as a innovation niche / experimental space in the understanding of Strategic Niche Management (SNM) and Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA).

Comprehensive in-depth analysis of all 2016 and 2017 court decisions (Swiss Confederation, Swiss Cantons, European Court of Justice) about public procurement law cases published online; summaries of important court's considerations; editing of comments for legal science and legal practice

This research focuses on: - Establishing a cybersecurity framework for Crowd Energy communities - Defining risk management for cybersecurity in Crowd Energy systems - Evaluating the proposed framework by simulation experiment

The field of humanitarian shelter is fertile ground for innovation. New and innovative emergency shelter solutions are regularly produced yet the impact of these efforts on the challenge of housing populations displaced by disaster and conflict is minimal – rigid frame tents, prefabricated containers, and ad-hoc structures remain the norm. FAR's research into emergency shelter addresses the issues that hinder effective innovation. Rather than producing the next shelter design, FAR's work contributes to the development of a framework within which the value of new design solutions can be assessed, thereby supporting more effective innovation in the field.

Constructing a connected building using a battery-free Bluetooth Low Energy mesh network

Construction of the Smart Living Lab's own dedicated building in Fribourg is set to begin in 2020. This multidisciplinary living laboratory will serve as a catalyst of progress, providing fertile ground for carrying out work in real conditions. The new building should encourage rigorous investigation and lateral thinking thanks to its range of facilities for different types of research activity. The building will be at the cutting edge of efficient resource use over its complete life cycle. Its construction comes 30 years in advance of Switzerland's 2050 energy targets.

The construction industry is a principal consumer of raw materials and one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases and waste. The reuse of carrier system elements in new building projects remains an underutilized strategy for reducing the construction sector's environmental footprint. This research project develops algorithms to identify structural system geometries that make optimum use of existing component inventories. Full-scale prototypes are developed to demonstrate feasibility at the level of design detail. Finally, the environmental benefits of reuse are assessed using a life-cycle analysis.

In this project, spaces of artistic creation are studied in terms of their affordances for crafting, prototyping, and demonstrating ideas. The study also includes social factors such as how space is shared among a group of artists and how it is used for exchanging ideas.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) are examples of disruptive innovations that are changing the way we think about construction processes. They bring new opportunities to integrate and connect up a building's technical installations. The project makes use, in particular, of the Unity3D platform, openBIM tools, and the MQTT protocol. The NeighborHub, which came top in the Solar Decathlon 2017, has been reassembled at the blueFACTORY. It has an entirely modular software architecture, and was designed in accordance with the IoT paradigm. Current research seeks to demonstrate the opportunities and relevance of a convergence between IoT and BIM, and should greatly simplify the design and configuration of technical management systems for buildings, as well as generating human-building interfaces.

The term innovation describes a process of "marginal substitution', whereby a specific task with defined objectives is carried out in a way that uses either a differently structured or a new combination of components, or alters tested procedures. Since the building industry does not provide the same level of means, motives and opportunities for beneficial technical change evenly across its sectors, we could exploit our ability to understand what makes a context conducive to particular strands of innovation, and assign products in that context explicit "industrial development' responsibilities. FAR's research into technical change investigates how building products developed in suitable sectors could be targeted to act indirectly as Trojan horses for horizontal product innovation in other sectors.

Collecting data from the physical work environments of 370 Mechanical Turk workers, we aim to derive correlations between their routines for space use and productivity in a very specific work process with inherently nomadic (space-independent) attributes.

THE4BEES focuses on the behavioral changes of users in public buildings where there is a requirement to reduce energy consumption. Such changes will be originated by the use of innovative ICT applications developed by a transnational ecosystem. These applications will be used by the target groups in the demonstration sites (schools, houses, and factories) to encourage behavioral changes for energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction.

The editorial project "Towards 2050" attempts to showcase the ambitious undertaking of the Smart Living Lab in its various development stages, characterized by the exceptional interdisciplinary collaboration based on the building's usage, performance, and life cycle.

Design and structural assessment of traditional interlocking timber joinery.

Triple E: Energy, economic, and environmental optimization of production and of a building's electrical and thermal energy storage and consumption through the integration of user behavior and mobility. The overall goal of this project is to optimize the links between production systems (for renewable energy) and the building's energy consumption (including for mobility by automobile, electric bike, etc.). The use of intelligent control and of an electrical and/or thermal energy storage system should reduce CO2 emissions and reliance on the power grid, while increasing the building's energy efficiency. The three criteria of energy, environment and economics will determine the strategy adopted by the control algorithm.

Using real building management system data, the aim of this master project is to infer the presence and behavior of users through visual analytics techniques.

Air-Sûr - Development and testing of an open-source prototype for monitoring internal air quality in spaces used by children. The aim of the Air-Sûr project is to develop an installation that continuously monitors the health conditions of an indoor environment based on measurements of a set of chemical, physical, and even biological parameters. Whatever the complexity of this set of parameters, the installation needs to satisfy several criteria: flexibility, modularity, scalability, accurate measurement, and cost optimization. It can be mobile and diagnostics based, or it can be fixed and integrated in a given space for the purpose of conducting long-term health monitoring. It could also potentially be used as part of a technical management system for the building. Moreover, it is a scalable system, which will be capable of integrating new sensors in the course of future development in different labs. Our overall goal is to develop an installation that is robust but affordable in terms of material, operating, handling, and maintenance costs.

This project explores the relationship between architectural quality and the building implementation process. It defines the process for implementing the smart living building as a learning process, creating a common culture between the main stakeholders (decision makers, designers, users and builders). This process is outlined by: - an iterative and incremental brief, gradually introducing the criteria of architectural qualities and environmental performance and allowing users to specify their needs; - collaborative conception phases (test studies and preliminary design) between several studios, organized in thematic sequences that allow a continuous evaluation of design proposals.

BBDATA stands for Big Building Data, and is intended to develop a scalable cloud platform and tools for storing and processing smart living lab's building data. The services are targeting data access, processing, and analysis, using open, robust, standardized, and secure big-data technologies

BB Data Demo aims to demonstrate the functionality and benefit of an Internet-based big-data platform, allowing researchers and building professionals to collect, store, process, and visualize data. This platform is designed to guarantee reliability (robustness and safety), adaptability and scalability. It is particularly suitable for monitoring buildings after commissioning (post-occupancy evaluation - POE).

Identification and investigation of legal issues raised through the application of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology in the construction sector, in particular in contractual, procurement, and public construction law.

This project focuses on passive systems to increase comfort, experimenting with different thermal inertia, lighting and ventilation scenarios. For instance, it allows for a better evaluation of bioclimatic strategies, such as using rammed earth to increase the building's thermal inertia.

The outcome sought through this experiment is to optimize the correlation between renewable energy availability and the building's energy demand. Because renewable energy is not constant, a methodology is necessary to balance the carbon footprint on an annual basis with hourly time accuracy.

Crowd Energy information security culture - security guidelines for smart environments.

Basic research on computerized instruments and results in construction design and supervision contracts.

Analysis of the British construction contracts adjudication legislation, case law and practice; basic research on the feasibility of implementation of the adjudication procedure between two parties under existing Swiss law.

A seminar organized with internationally recognized lecturers in the field of human interactive experience in built environments.

The need to formulate proactive land policies to improve Fribourg's economic appeal is undermined by the lack of concrete tools for facilitating this. The "Urban development: key condition for economic development" (DevEco) project aims to overcome this shortcoming by establishing a framework for urban development that will galvanize economic growth in and around Fribourg.

Analysis of existing methods to deal with disputes and conflicts in the construction sector.

The goal of the project consists of prototyping an interactive software solution targeted towards building designers and building managers that would allow them to rapidly and dynamically assess and visualize GHG emissions during the operation phase of a given building.

In order to embrace the carbon and energy parameters from the early stages of a project, the research group has developed a prototype for a life-cycle assessment (LCA) method to highlight technical and architectural solutions for abiding by low-carbon and low-energy constraints.

The energy refurbishment of multi-dwelling buildings is a key issue of the Swiss Government's 2050 energy strategy. eREN focuses on building envelopes in western Switzerland, and is proposing a global approach of well-balanced solutions between energy efficiency, constructive feasibility, building physics, costs, and preservation of the architectural heritage.

eREN2, in line with the eREN project, analyzes possible synergies between energy-efficient renovation and densification on the basis of a representative selection of existing multi-dwelling buildings in western Switzerland.

A workshop organized at the DIS (Designing Interactive Systems) conference in Hong Kong with architects, designers, and computer scientists so as to envisage the interactive aspects of future smart buildings and cities.

A workshop drawing experts from the fields of architecture, human–computer interaction (HCI), and psychology to discuss the vision of future living.

Study of the integration of active solar components (thermal and photovoltaics) in a portfolio of existing buildings previously studied from an energy efficiency perspective.

Research on the premises of a legally effective incorporation of SIA terms and conditions in Swiss construction contracts.

Indicators of daylight and sunlight access in urban areas.

Master's thesis of Nico Faerber, aimed at increasing the accuracy of indoor localization using Bluetooth Beacon technology.

Analysis of public procurement and contract law implications of time delays occurring during a public tender procedure. Attempt to propose solutions which are workable in practice while simultaneously respecting legal principles such as non-discrimination and freedom of contract.

Living lab studies have been proliferating within the human-computer interaction (HCI) research community, providing a test bed for context-aware automation and new styles of interactivity. In this project, we look at living labs as a developing research methodology situated between controlled experiments and field studies, and we discuss the theoretical groundings particularly for the domain of HCI.

This project aims to generate average reference data on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for a multi-family apartment building and a detached house in different Swiss urban contexts. The method adopted involves the analysis and comparison of several variants of these two types of residential buildings in order to assess their environmental impacts throughout the life cycle, including the induced mobility.

The creation of sustainable neighborhoods often comes up against reduced acceptance of densification by the public. The MODD project seeks to develop a business process as well as tools and methods to design and evaluate such neighborhoods while considering social criteria.

The main objective of this project is to develop a tool to easily design, model, and optimize thermal storage for SMEs.

The applied research project PerEn seeks to develop a tool to reduce the observed discrepancy between the calculated energy efficiency of a building during the design phase and the actual energy efficiency measured during its exploitation.

Capitalizing on the advancement in environmental and physiological sensing, this projects aims to predict the working conditions that may harm knowledge workers' productivity and well-being. The findings are communicated in a way that leads to user actions while not disturbing workflow.

Analysis of the legal status of public procurement conducted in the context of unbound public assets

Comprehensive in-depth analysis of all 2016 and 2017 court decisions (Swiss Confederation, Swiss Cantons, European Court of Justice) about public procurement law cases published online; summaries of important court's considerations; editing of comments for legal science and legal practice

Exploring solutions to integrate phase-change materials (PCM) into an active (dynamic) climate control strategy.

The goal of the proposed research is to establish a cornerstone of "eye-sight external Venetian blinds" technology and to develop a test and demonstration platform at the smart living lab to measure the accuracy and evaluate the performance of a set of innovative external Venetian blinds with their automation system based on real-time sky monitoring and computing from the perspective of daylight regulation and glare protection. The Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory (LESO-PB) in EPFL has developed a new automated external Venetian blinds control system with a sensing device targeted at the sky, which can dynamically change the shading positions according to the conditions of the sky. This advanced control system is predicted to regulate the daylight more precisely by employing a high-precision motor, thus enhancing users' visual comfort by reducing glare. This project aims to set a benchmark by testing this eye-sight external Venetian blinds prototype in the complex setting of the smart living lab. Ultimately, this project will demonstrate its benefits, reliability and precision in daylight regulation and glare protection.

The objective of this project is to implement a double approach of social design for the implementation of the future building in Fribourg: • a top-down approach with members of the smart living lab's Management Committee • a bottom-up approach with employees from the three institutions involved in the smart living lab (EPFL, HEIA-FR, UNIFR) • a synthesis of these two approaches to define a coherent social project bridging user expectations and the political vision.

Using Bluetooth wearables we recorded the movement of building occupants over 8 weeks and analyzed the correlation between space-use routines and professional profile of the occupants.

The project has sought to examine how the study of space perception and its impact on space-use behavior can inform sustainable architecture, specifically in the context of shared office spaces.

This project aims at developing a prototype tool to support decision-making during the urban planning and design process, by providing the means to decompose a site-level performance objective into context-specific sublevel (e.g., building-scale) targets, and anticipate the environmental impact of decisions to be made later on in the project's development process.

Reduction of the ecological footprint: Legal challenges of tiny houses and the mobility of single-person households.

Special issue on Human-Building Interaction in the most prestigious journal of human-computer interaction. The papers will be published by the beginning of 2019.

This project has shown that urban biodiversity goes hand in hand with the diversity of human habitats. It has led to the development of an innovative tool to aid the design of projects that combine densification in peripheral urban zones with improvements in biodiversity. The tool contains a typology of forms of human-nature cohabitation, as well as a presentation of the interdisciplinary design process.

Project goals: - Definition of a strategy for the user environment based on user behavior as well as on the identification of indoor components/furniture according to their performance and impact on user comfort. - Prototyping and experimental campaign research in the Blue Hall on user feedback. - Designing and conducting a user study to understand occupants' mobility and space usage behavior. - Defining policies for the re-design of office spaces within the Blue Hall based on the human-centered design paradigm.