Fribourg and EPFL solidify their partnership
The Smart Living Lab will be built on the former Cardinal area in Fribourg. © CPI - FRIMA
The Fribourg-based research center for smart habitats of the future has entered a new phase. The State Council and EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) have signed an agreement that sets out the terms for the creation of a new branch of EPFL in Fribourg. This branch will work with EIA-FR and UNIFR to establish a joint project, the Smart Living Lab (SLL).
Beat Vonlanthen, President of the Fribourg cantonal government, and Patrick Aebischer, EPFL President, signed an agreement for the establishment of an EPFL branch in Fribourg, an important step for Fribourg, EPFL and the blueFACTORY technology park.
The text defines the outlines of the research structure that EPFL will set up under the name EPFL Fribourg. In particular this involves establishing the Smart Living Lab (SLL) in partnership with EIA-FR and UNI-FR. It also involves initiating public-private partnerships within the SLL, notably concerning the construction of a dedicated building that will house the joint teams from the various institutions starting in 2018.
EPFL Fribourg will include five research chairs. Their research areas will be related to building technologies: materials science and fluid mechanics, renewable energy production systems, taking into account aspects related to comfort, health and air quality associated with the occupation of buildings.
The construction of the Smart Living Lab building is an integral part of the project. The result will serve as a model for illustrating a “Vision 2050” of future buildings, showcasing both the technological capacities of the 21st century and the flexibility and adaptability, two essential elements of sustainable buildings. Three working group made up of partner institutions will work in the Lab: BUILD (design and construction of the building), ACAD (academic development), DEMO (demonstration and outreach to the general public).
EPFL also includes its Fribourg branch in its innovation and technology transfer strategy, notably as regards its integration into the National Innovation Park (PNI) project.
Within the next five years, the SLL will in principle have an experimental building that can house researchers. In the meantime, they will use temporary quarters on or near the blueFACTORY technology park.
The building will include offices, experimentation areas, and experimental housing over a total area of 4,000 m2. The building’s footprint will be 700 m2. A zone reserved for SLL is included in the master plan that is being prepared and which will be put up for approval in summer 2014.
The Smart Living Lab will enable Fribourg to permanently associate its image with EPFL’s global brand and network, to position the canton and the blueFACTORY technology park both nationally and internationally in the area of innovative technologies – and a step towards Fribourg’s participation in the National Innovation Park.
The Smart Living Lab will also, with its new collaborations, strengthen the core of architecture and civil engineering already present at EIA-FR as well as the expertise of UNI-FR in the area of low carbon society, human-machine interactions and construction law in a transdisciplinary approach centered on the buildings of the future.
The blueFACTORY technology and innovation park is a partnership between the state and the city of Fribourg. The 60,000 m2 park occupies the site owned by the Cardinal brewery for more than 100 years. It already houses more than 20 innovation and sustainability-based start-up companies in its existing structure. Seventy people are already working at the site. Four technological platforms will make up bleuFACTORY’s backbone (Smart Living Lab, SICHH, Innosquare and Biofactory).