Six professors from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich pooled their research approaches to build the Arch_Tec-Lab. This ‘building of the future’ is located on the roof of an existing car park on the Hönggerberrg campus and embodies sustainability at ever possible level.

When designing the building, the researchers focused on digital technologies and a resource-efficient construction, according to an ETH Zurich statement. For instance, in comparison to conventional high-rise buildings, which have up to 400 kilograms of material per cubic metre, the average built-up volume of the Arch_Tec_Lab is only 240 kilograms. The curved timber roof of the building was prefabricated by a single gantry robot using an integrated digital planning and production process, which was developed by the researchers together with the company ERNE.

The new building is designed to be environmentally friendly even after occupants move into it by using zero-emissions technology developed at ETH Zurich. Ventilation units known as airboxes were installed in the double floor to ensure proper ventilation of the building and helping to cool and heat it. The double floor also draws air into the rooms by creating a slight positive pressure above floor vents.

A robotic laboratory is located on the ground floor with a ceiling-mounted gantry system that allows for large-scale implementation of construction projects by means of four cooperating industrial robots. And so while many construction research questions were answered during construction of the building, many have been intentionally left unanswered: the Arch_Tec_Lab sees itself as a laboratory with real-world conditions where new solutions will be constantly tested on site....

Experts from around the world met earlier this month at Jeju Island in South Korea at the Global Green Growth Week 2016 to discuss green growth trends, financing models, technology and products and services. At the Rwanda Country Focus Session, Tim Hall, an architect from Light Earth Designs, presented on Rwanda’s urbanisation and green cities development plans.

According to Hall, “green cities development in Rwanda can be a generator for sustainable economic growth and job creation,” reported the Rwandan newspaper The New Times. He spoke about how the use of locally produced materials with low carbon costs encourages the private sector to invest more in producing green materials. This in turn generates jobs for local communities while also driving low carbon development and production.

Rwanda’s urban population is growing at 4.5 per cent per year, more than double the global average. “This alone is enough to put sustainable urban development at the top of the government’s agenda,” said Emma-Francoise Isumbingabo, Rwanda’s ambassador to South Korea. “When you factor in climate change and the desire for rapid socio-economic transformation, building green cities is no longer a nice add-on, but an essential part of improving the lives of our citizens.”

To this end, Rwanda is developing six green cities across the country. But as Isumbingabo points out, these are not just about energy efficiency and renewable resources; it means “building green cities with citizens at the centre of their development”....

The use of 3D printing represents a digital revolution for the construction industry as it allows complex structures to be created quicker and more affordably than traditional techniques, writes LafargeHolcim in a statement. In an effort to drive this innovation forward, the cement group is collaborating with the French start-up xTreeE, which specialises in the development of large-scale 3D printing systems.

The two partners have already achieved a first success: a 4-metre high load-bearing post used to support the playground roof of a middle school in France was printed by XtreeE and assembled by Fehr Architectural. As LafargeHolcim writes, it is the first 3D printed structural element to be marketed in Europe. LafargeHolcim’s R&D centre in L’Isle d’Abeau developed and provided the concrete mixes.

“Innovation is part of our DNA in order to respond to the trends in tomorrow’s construction market,” said Gérard Kuperfarb, group head of Growth & Innovation at LafargeHolcim. He calls LafargeHolcim a pioneer in 3D printing....

The quality of public space is becoming more and more important in the face of urban densification, as was emphasised at the 2nd Sustainability Forum of Zug Estates held in Risch Rotkreuz in the canton of Zug.

According to a statement from the property developer and manager, around 200 representatives from politics, research and business attended the forum and dealt with issues such as how a green counterpart can be added to the paradigm of architectural densification.

At the event, Zug Estates CEO Tobias Achermann also presented the company’s Sustainability Report 2016, which focused this year on the subject of green densification.

“Areas with green density and diversity – even when building upwards – as well as traffic-free outdoor spaces that offer a high quality of living are the tangible result of our strategy,” said Achermann.

The fact that the company was awarded the certificate from the Stiftung Natur & Wirtschaft confirms that it is pursuing the right path, said Achermann....

The consulting firm Arcadis examined 100 of the world’s leading cities on all continents according to what it calls the “three pillars of sustainability”: social (people), environmental (planet) and economic (profit).

In its Sustainable Cities Index, the city of Zurich leads the world for sustainability, coming first in the overall ranking and environmental sustainability. According to the index, Zurich topped the planet sub-index because of its commitment to becoming a 2000-watt society by 2050. To achieve this goal, the city is investing and focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable mobility and mobility for the future. Arcadis also called the city’s public transit “a sustainable model for other cities”.

Zurich also ranked for economic sustainability, coming in fifth place in the profit sub-index . The city came in 27th for social sustainability, in part due to the high cost of living.

The city of Geneva also made it into the top 20 by coming in 12th place. As Arcadis writes in a statement: “Switzerland performs well in the planet sub-index with Zurich and Geneva taking the first and third spots respectively.”

Zurich was followed in the overall ranking by Singapore, Stockholm, Vienna and London. No American city made it into the top 10, with most placing in the middle of the rankings. The bottom 10 is made up of cities in India, China and Africa....

After two years of negotiations and meetings around the world, a final burst of talks at the UN headquarters in New York resulted in consensus on the draft New Urban Agenda. According to a Citiscope article, consensus was only achieved after emergency talks were extended for an additional day, which saw diplomats work non-stop from Friday morning through Saturday night.

The major breakthrough occurred when diplomats were finally able to agree on the role of UN-Habitat, the UN’s lead agency on urbanisation. Until now, the G77 bloc of developing nations wanted the Nairobi-based agency to have primary responsibility for implementing the New Urban Agenda, something that developed world donor countries resisted.

Both sides ended up compromising in the new draft: the G77 bloc conceded that the agency will only be “a focal point on sustainable urbanisation and human settlements” in the UN system, while the developed countries lost their fight to keep the future of UN-Habitat out of the Habitat III debate entirely, reports Citiscope.

Other contentious issues that were eventually resolved included the notion of “the right to the city”, references to refugees and migrants, and the right to development.

“The golden rule is always consensus,” Senegal’s Mamadou Mbodj told Citiscope. “As a member of the [Habitat III] Bureau, I am happy with the result. It’s been two years and a lot of effort.” Saturday’s achievement raises the likelihood that next month’s Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador will be seen as a political success....

Following extensive research led by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) since 2001, the restrictions on the use of wood as a building material contained in the fire protection regulations have steadily been reduced. Over the years, wooden components protected with a non-combustible coating have become on par with non-combustible construction methods, and the use of wood in all building categories was approved in 2015 in accordance with the Swiss fire protection regulations. 

According to a statement from Lignum, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss forestry and timber industry, wood will now be used for the first time in a high-rise in Switzerland: a ten-storey office building made of wooden components will be built in Risch Rotkrez on the site of the Suurstoffi development, a residential, recreational and commercial district owned by Zug Estates AG. With its 1,500 residents and 2,500 jobs, the site will also be used by students from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The foundation stone for Switzerland’s first wooden high-rise was already laid in August, and the building will take less than two years to build. The use of wood-concrete composite structures result in a drastically shorter construction time compared to conventional construction methods.

“One of our conditions was for the planners to work with Building Information Modelling (BIM),” said Kim Riese, head of project development and construction at Zug Estates. The digital planning and process chains used in timber construction make it possible to adhere to building schedules without incurring higher costs than in massive construction methods....

The CPaaS.io (City Platform-as-a-Service – integrated and open) project links technologies like the Internet of Things, big data and cloud with open government and linked open data, writes the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) in a statement. Together with the YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory in Japan, it is coordinating the two and a half year EU-funded project to help cities address the challenges brought on by the digital society.

The platform will offer cities a range of different applications that can be provided either by the city itself or by third parties to the public and businesses alike. For example, when managing large events, the platform will offer analytics on the direction visitors are streaming, how to dynamically adapt public transportation to the event, or how authorities can react to hazardous situations, accidents or sudden weather changes.

The European coordinator, Stephan Haller from BFH, sees several benefits of such a platform. “It contributes strongly to urban innovation and strengthens the attractiveness and competitiveness of the city,” he said. “By providing open data, it possibly attracts additional businesses. And the platform empowers the individual citizen to gain control about his or her data and to define, who is allowed to use which data how.”

The European cities participating in the project are Amsterdam, Murcia and Zurich, and in Japan Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokosuka. Companies involved in the platform include the Zurich-headquartered AGT International and Microsoft....

The city-twinning project between Basel and Shanghai will celebrate its ten-year anniversary next year. Over this time, the two have undertaken several projects that have brought added value to both cities, said Basel city council president Guy Morin. Examples include the cooperation between the University of Basel, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and partner universities in Shanghai, an exchange programme for leaders, and collaboration in the healthcare sector. Between 2014 and 2016, a total of 23 projects involving 20 institutions from both cities were carried out.

The two cities have now signed an agreement to continue the partnership from 2017 to 2019. The agreement reaffirms the previous areas of cooperation: economy, life science and healthcare, education and science, location marketing, culture and society, as well as exchanges at the district level, according to a statement from the Canton of Basel-Stadt. 

In the area of the economy, the Congress Center Basel has now been included as a priority in the agreement, in addition to the EuroAirport, the Swiss Rhine Ports and BaselArea. Cooperation in conference activities will also be expanded, as will cooperation between the universities....

The Federal Statistical Office predicts that Switzerland’s population will reach the 9-million threshold by 2023 before rising to around 10 million by 2035. According to the think tank Avenir Suisse, it won’t be necessary to build up green spaces or alpine areas to accommodate this growing population. The focus should instead be on finding ways for these additional residents to live in cities and not scattered central Switzerland in single-family homes.

To accomplish this, cities must be made denser, but this will require overcoming regulatory hurdles. One problem is that small-scale federalism makes it difficult to coherently plan functional spaces. It would therefore require instruments that enable inter-cantonal exchange of building zones. Even if this would prove unrealistic, authorities should still at least aim to optimise settlements with the cantons. This would require measures that would make it possible to mobilise existing, well-situated building zones.

Another obstacle is that there are far less administrative and political hurdles to building up green spaces than urban spaces. One reason is that the interests of multiple stakeholders have to be satisfied in urban spaces. Rigid building codes and efforts to protect historic buildings also play a role.

Changes would also have to be made to inter-communal financial equalisation, explains Avenir Suisse. Unfavourably situated towns are trying to stay competitive by freeing up attractive land. They should instead receive compensation for the lack of growth potential from better situated towns....