Geothermal piles on the list of the 50 feats of EPFL in L'Illustré

50 feats matching 50 years of EPFL is the title chosen by the magazine L’Illustré for their article visiting the brightest events, technologies and discoveries that have influenced the development of the region’s scientific cradle. Geostructures, and more particularly, geothermal piles, have been developed at the laboratory of soil mechanics (LMS) by Prof. Lyesse Laloui. They made the list of the historical 50 achievements ever made by the university. These revolutionary foundations go beyond supporting structures, as they contribute to building energetics through heat exchanges with the underground. Since their first test in 1998 at EPFL, the LMS has been a worldwide pioneer of their development, culminating with their application on our own campus in 2014 with the construction of the SwissTech Convention Center. In 2018, a spinoff of the lab, GEOEG, has been launched, putting into practice the lab’s accumulated expertise in an attempt to further boost the transition of the technology from academia into the industry.

Geothermal piles are also listed among EPFL’s symbolic inventions, which will be presented in augmented reality starting September 14^th 2019 at the ArtLab of EPFL. An exposition entitled “Infinity Room 2” celebrating the history of the campus over its 50 years of existence will take place during the EPFL open doors (01/09/2019 – 26/01/2020).