Transforming the built environment – eight million Swiss francs for 13 projects
How can the built environment adapt to social and ecological change? As part of the National Research Programme "Baukultur" (NRP 81), the SNSF is funding 13 projects exploring this question from different perspectives.
Current practices in managing the built environment face significant challenges. The building sector is a major contributor to CO2 emissions, while urbanisation, demographic shifts, evolving work and living patterns and digitalisation are accelerating changes in social and economic structures. Addressing these issues requires radical measures. The National Research Programme "Baukultur. For a Social and Ecological Transition of the Built Environment" (NRP 81) aims to improve our understanding of processes in the built environment and their evolution through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation.
Inclusion of practice partners
Eighty-one pre-proposals were submitted in response to the corresponding call. Of these, 26 teams were then invited to submit detailed research proposals, and 13 projects were selected to receive a total of 7.9 million Swiss francs over the next five years. These projects approach the research topic of "Baukultur" from different perspectives. They cover all language regions of Switzerland and focus on both individual buildings and entire landscapes, investigating processes and developments in cities and urban centres as well as in villages and rural areas. A particular feature of NRP 81 is the involvement of practice partners in the research projects, which enhances the practical relevance and significantly broadens the circle of stakeholders involved.
Solving current problems
National Research Programmes contribute to addressing contemporary issues of national significance. The Federal Council selects the research topics and entrusts the SNSF with implementing these programmes.
Three selected projects
- Densifying residential areas. The Spatial Planning Act of 2014 is clear – Switzerland must build densely to accommodate its growing population while safeguarding the landscape. David Kaufmann from ETH Zurich is exploring how to achieve these goals while balancing social and ecological sustainability requirements. Instead of the prevalent strategy of demolition and new construction, Kaufmann is focused on the potential of gentle urban transformation, which improves current building stock and creates affordable housing. With the cities of Winterthur, Lausanne, Kloten and Renens as practice partners, the project aims to identify sustainable approaches to densification tailored to diverse local conditions.
- Respect for existing buildings. Nearly half of all Swiss buildings were constructed between 1946 and 2000, and many now need renovation to meet today's requirements for functionality and energy efficiency. However, the pace of renovation is far too slow. Franz Graf, Giulia Marino and their teams from the Università della Svizzera italiana and KU Leuven are collaborating with their practice partners – the City of Lausanne, the Canton of Vaud and the architectural collective Sujets Objets – to examine the complex renovation process. They aim to find out what administrative, regulatory and cultural challenges are hindering progress and develop a methodology that preserves the material characteristics of existing buildings during refurbishment. Baukultur must incorporate the values of the built environment right from the planning phase.
- Transformation in rural areas. The restructuring of services and supply infrastructures in rural areas is the focus of a project led by Dirk Engelke from the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST). On one hand, this restructuring reduces the number of places where physical encounters take place. On the other hand, it also results in the loss of uses for buildings or town centres, some of which are of cultural and architectural value. The researchers are interested in how Baukultur can be integrated into this transformation process to foster sustainability and new functionality. Stakeholders from politics, administration, businesses and civil society are actively involved in the research. The project's practice partner is the Schweizerische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Berggebiete (Swiss Association for Mountain Regions).