Review of the event ‘Net-zero buildings – on the way to the perfect house?’ Christoph Kellenberger presented approaches from Clever Architecture for an architecture that optimises energy and CO2. The focus was on key questions: How can a building be planned in a climate-adaptive way? How can it be made CO2-neutral in operation? And how can it even act as a CO2 sink in the future?

The lecture presented strategies for reducing energy demand through targeted design and engineering, and how innovative materials can be used to turn a building into a CO2 sink.

• Buildings as heat or cold stores
• Avoiding active heating and cooling as well as mechanical ventilation
• Façade openings with daylight utilisation and solar heat gain
• Use of CO2-negative materials

To name just a few approaches. CO2-negative building materials are currently being investigated in the Unit Beyond Zero project in the NEST research and innovation building in collaboration with Empa.

More about the zero-energy company building for Sonova Communications AG

More about the NEST-Unit Beyond Zero research project