Residential experiments in the building laboratory

Laboratories are not usually inviting spaces that encourage you to stay around. But things are different at the site of Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dübendorf (canton of Zurich). A building laboratory has been built here in which guests can even come to stay, thereby becoming an integral part of the research Projects.

The new building on the Empa site in Dübendorf is the size of an imposing apartment building, and several apartments could be housed on each of the four floors. “Could” is the operative word, however, since the building, occupied since mid-2016, is no ordinary residential building. NEST – its official name – actually houses laboratory units where scientists examine issues surrounding the buildings of the future. There are 15 laboratories in this unique research and innovation platform. Their joint aim is to test technologies, materials and systems under real conditions in order to develop them further.

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