Composite City Lifting
Composite City Lifting © Modulart.ch
The modulart.ch platform, an online magazine dedicated to the design of modular buildings, made a report on the research project entitled "Composite City Lifting". Developed by an interdisciplinary team bringing together three EPFL laboratories and several private partners, this project provides an original solution for buildings heightening.
The Composite City Lifting system is designed in a modular and hybrid way, so that existing buildings can be heightened, adapting to a wide variety of situations. The interdisciplinary approach is based on the combinatory of large prefabricated elements, which allow building several types of spaces dedicated to housing. The typical unit is a duplex with a series of rooms on the lower level and a large day area on the upper floor.
The rooms’ floor is made of a series of three-dimensional wooden elements, which extend from facade to facade. These combine the roles of structure and separation between the rooms. In addition, they include, in their thickness, service spaces such as sanitary, dressing and technical space. The upper floor benefits from the use of static performance of composite materials. The result is a large open space, which includes the kitchen, the dining area, the living room and a terrace under one same roof. This roof is made up of a specific assembly of sandwich panels combining glass fibers, balsa and PET.
In addition to structural and material issues, the design of this housing unit also incorporates bioclimatic architectural principles and natural lighting devices, to ensure an optimal comfort for users.
The approach has led to the development of an innovative and worked-out concept at the architectural, structural, technological and constructive level. The realization of a prototype, originally planned as part of the NEST developed by EMPA in Dübendorf, did not materialize for budgetary reasons. A concrete experimentation, however, remains possible in another context.
Project partners
Research funding :
Empa, Dübendorf
Research partners :
Composite Construction Laboratory (CCLab); Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST); Laboratory of Integrated Performance in Design (LIPID); Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Private partners :
Renggli, Sursee; Colevo, Sins; Bauart, Bern / Neuchâtel / Zurich; Makiol + Wiederkehr, Beinwil am See; Ernst Basler & Partner, Zurich; Bakus Bauphysik & Akustik, Zurich