Winner of Solar Decathlon 2017
Project
The aim of the Swiss Living Challenge project is to encourage people to reduce their energy consumption and ultimately preserve the country's natural resources.
How are we going to do it? To really reduce our energy consumption, we must act on a daily basis, from our mobility to our food. The Swiss Living Challenge project (which brings together 4 universities) offers alternatives that suggest to the inhabitants of a district to adopt sustainable features thanks to its sustainable solar power prefab house, the NeighborHub.
NeighborHub
The team has built a sustainable solar power prefab house for a neighborhood, initiating changes and integrable in different urban areas. Named NeighborHub - this space aims to converge the inhabitants of a neighborhood and imagine with them solutions to consume less and better.
We must act together to reduce our consumption. The NeighborHub will be a place for meetings and exchanges where activities will be held and where we will share moments of life. There will be tools and alternatives for seven levers of action we can act on:
- energy
- water management
- waste management
- mobility
- food
- materials
- biodiversity
Local residents will benefit from advice, interactive activities and conferences around these themes. The NeighborHub is also architecturally designed to adapt to all these moments of sharing with a large multifunctional space.
By changing our habits today, we can change the world of tomorrow.
7 Levers of Action
Energy
The electricity production is provided by 29 photovoltaic solar panels arranged only in frontage. Two batteries make it possible to manage the production and consumption flows to ensure a supply corresponding to needs of sustainable solar power prefab house inhabitants.
Water Management
With regard to water management, the aim of the Swiss Living Challenge is not simply to reduce its consumption. Indeed, it is essential to differentiate the various qualities of water that enters and leaves a sustainable solar power prefab house, assigning it the proper use or valuation. For example, the rainwater collected on the roof is fed to washing machine.
Biodiversity
The vegetated roof and the phytopurification basin serve as habitat for flora and fauna. In addition, vertical greenhouses integrated in the structure of the doors welcome shoots of local plants. One of the most important energy consumption items is mobility.
Mobility
A change in our habits supported by the provision of shared electric cars, bicycles or tricycles would reduce our consumption in this area.
Waste management
As far as waste management is concerned, the aim is first of all to reduce waste and this goes through choices such as shopping at the market and buying vegetables without packaging. Since zero waste is not so easy to achieve, product reuse and recycling remain important points in the economy of our resources.
Materials
Choosing to be surrounded by healthy materials that do not release harmful particles and promote good air quality is important for our health but also for the environment. The entire structure of the sustainable solar power prefab house is made of wood. In addition, the kitchen worktop is made of 75% recycled materials such as porcelain, ceramic, glass or mirror.
Food
In the NeighborHub, a common kitchen is available to the inhabitants. They can organize courses to share their culinary knowledge and together find tips to consume more sustainable. Around the NeighborHub there are also vegetable gardens where gardening classes take place.
Description from Solar Decathlon
The bar was set sky high from the very start. As soon as the Swiss Living Challenge team set foot in the Solar Decathlon arena when scouting the SDE14 event in Versailles, they knew; they could go the extra mile. And they did. One house for a single family? Why not for a whole community? The Swiss Team thrived, and three years later they won first place during the SD17 competition in Denver, USA. The secret to their success? A big part was the social aspect, which was key to the NeighborHub project.
The Swiss Team’s NeighborHub sustainable solar power prefab house was immediately identified as an instigator of change. The notion of a communal space where neighbours are inspired toward energy-efficiency & behavioural change was embraced by visitors touring the NeighbourHub at the SD17 event, all in the name of resource-responsibility. In this process of learning by doing, the emphasis on human interaction to incite change reflected the collaborative and integral character of both the Swiss team and the NeighborHub itself. “Innovation is about integration on all sorts of levels,” says former decathlete Florian Meyer. He was part of the Swiss Team’s engineering group and worked on the electrical systems of the house.
To the Neighborhood
It took total dedication and a fundamental joint effort to turn the NeighborHub concept into reality. The Swiss sustainable solar power prefab house was designed by a total of 250 students and professors from four schools: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg, the Geneva School of Art and Design, and the University of Fribourg. “The connection between team members was very strong,” Florian said. Besides the hands-on approach, what drew him to the project was the interdisciplinary spirit of the team: “It was incredible to work with such a diverse team from beginning to end.” In addition, The Swiss Living Challenge team was supported by 150 teaching staff members from industry and academia. Recently, Florian and his former team members joint forces again as the NeighborHub came back to life in April, 2018 at the smart living lab of blueFACTORY in Fribourg, Switzerland. “We built the NeighborHub such that it would be robust to adaptations in various contexts and urban settings,” Florian explains.
Vegetated Roof
He continues, explaining that the NeighborHub might not include the most state-of-the art technologies; however, the ways in which all elements come together are unique, maybe even cutting edge: the Swiss Team worked toward a seamless integral system of technology and design. One of the NeighborHub sustainable solar power prefab house’s eye-catching features is its vegetated roof, free of solar panels, designed to stimulate biodiversity in urban settings. The roof houses very particular nectar-giving plants that provide sustenance to bees, whose alarming decline in numbers is currently a pressing EU issue. Simultaniously, the roof absorbs rainwater via its plants and gathers it elsewhere for use in certain household appliance such as the washing machine. Wastewater from such appliances is treated in a phyto-purification basin next to the NeighborHub where reeds absorb a large quantity of pollutants out of this wastewater. Purified wastewater can then be infiltrated in the ground, for example, to water other plants. It is a beautiful example of how the Swiss Team aimed to create closed systems to maximise efficiency in and around the NeighborHub sustainable solar power prefab house.
Snow Proof
Instead of placing solar panels on the roof, the Swiss Team ingeniously attached their photovoltaic solar panels to the facades and doors of the NeighborHub sustainable solar power prefab house. They designed the doors to open vertically like a garage door where the wall rotates towards the exterior and then towards the top. As such, solar panels can adapt their orientation according to the position of the sun, allowing the sustainable solar power prefab house to capture more energy as the seasons change.
This means that in winter, the external walls remain closed in vertical position to accommodate the solar panels to the lower position of the sun. During the SD17 Competition this characteristic proved itself exсeptionally useful when falling snow in Denver had no effect on the effectivity of the NeighborHub’s solar panels. In summer, the external walls remain open and the solar panels are inclined at a 35-degree angle to maximize the high position of the sun. In this configuration, the wall creates a covered terrace that goes all around the prefab house, enabling the NeighborHub to capture solar energy while simultaneously providing shade to the people moving around the house. As such, design and optimal comfort for the community go hand in hand.
Talk to the Neighborhub
As for Florian, he knows the business of making systems and devices communicate with each other to exchange information, and developed the ‘Talk to the NeighborHub’ app. The application monitors and integrates all sorts of technological house data, which is then translated into engaging information that its users can comprehend. “If all lights in the NeighborHub prefab house are switched on, the app prompts the question whether it is necessary to keep them on,” Florian explains. The above and many other aspects of the NeighborHub solar power prefab house’s design makes the community sustainable house an inspiring meeting place for local residents to co-create solutions for consuming both less and better.
In the coming five years, the NeighborHub prefab house opens up room at the smart living lab of Freiburg for a range of activities such as eco-friendly cooking classes with local foods, bike repair workshops, gardening lessons or coworking days and other social gatherings. As such, the NeighborHub solar power house carries on as a social hub in Switzerland to work together towards sustainable solutions on energy, water management, biodiversity, waste management, mobility, materials, and food.
