IDEAS Lecture | 01 April 2015

The axis Integrated Design, Architecture and Sustainability (IDEAS) is a joint initiative of both the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID) and Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) of the ENAC School at EPFL. It aims to address an increased integration of the various issues related to sustainable architecture within the framework of the Doctoral program Architecture & Science of the city (EDAR).

Energy harvesting of the future: the dilemma of density

This intervention represents a straight continuation of the work carried out within the research program “Ignis Mutat Res: Looking at architecture, the city and the landscape through the prism of energy” (IMR, Reform team). It addresses the necessary creation of new territorial balances driven by the comparative analysis of energy demand for local production of renewable energies. The main hypothesis, for the built fabric, is the following: what if urban morphology governs production capability more than energy demand?

Architect and engineer, Raphaël Ménard is the founder of Elioth. Under his direction, this multidisciplinary team manages innovative and high-value-added design projects (light structures, façades, integration of energy and climatic issues into architectural and urban design). Since 2011, Raphaël is also director of the future-oriented urban planning division of Egis and co-director of its consulting-innovation-design branch.
Raphaël has developed several innovations in the field of renewable energies, such as the Solar Mountains, Wind-it, Cellter, Maxwell’s Demon or urban thermal cells. Since 2013, he is associate teacher and member of the scientific board of the DPEA Architecture Post-Carbone at Ecole d’Architecture de la Ville et des Territoires de Marne-la-Vallée.