Towards symbiotic districts ?
Thanks to the support of the Collaborative Research on Science and Society Program (CROSS), the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) will continue its prospective research on the integration of sustainability issues at the neighborhood scale. Entitled SYMBIOTIC DISTRICTS, this new research project is initiated in collaboration with the "Industrial Ecology" Group of the Institute of Land Use Policies and Human Environment (IPTEH) of the University of Lausanne (UNIL). The main objective is to transpose the use of industrial ecology tools to the urban environment, in order to develop a new design and calculation methodology for creating symbiotic districts in the urban context in Switzerland.
Within a context of a growing effort to create sustainable development strategies, much of the research has focused on energy-related issues in the built environment. And for good reason: over 40% of worldwide energy consumption can be attributed to the construction sector. In Switzerland, total energy expenditures associated with buildings account for no less than half of total energy consumption. Ambitious objectives to reduce non-renewable energy consumption are now being set by several European countries, following the example of the 2000-Watt Society concept developed in Switzerland or the political vision of phasing out nuclear energy.
In this perspective, the Symbiotic Districts Research Project has as objectives to examine the scientific, technical, urban development and architectural aspects of local energy and resource self-reliance at the district scale, by integrating issues related to buildings, infrastructure, mobility and food, and to develop the methodological bases for the creation of future urban symbiotic districts in Switzerland.