Nest, Dübendorf, 2010-2016
Research Building and Guesthouse for the EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology)

NEST is a dynamic, modular research and demonstration platform for advanced and innovative building technologies in the heart of the Empa/Eawag campus. Used as an academic guest house and experimental office space, it will serve as a «Living Lab for Sustainable Construction» that allows novel materials, components and innovative systems to be developed, demonstrated and optimized under real-world conditions.
NEST consists of a central «backbone» for the load-bearing structure and for access to services and media and a basic grid for the accommodation of about 50 exchangeable living and office units. Due to its highly flexible design which allows for the exchange of complete living/working units or even entire floors in a «plug-and-play» mode, NEST will constantly change face and tackle the «hot» topics of the time.

Credits:
Gramazio Kohler Architects, Zurich

Client: Empa - Materials Science & Technology, Dübendorf
Collaborators: Philipp Hübner, Claudia Kuhn, Sarah Schneider (project lead), Julian Gatterer, Matthias Helmreich, Kathrin Hiebler, Marco Jacomella, Panagiota Michailidou, Jürgen Pauger, Marion Ott, Sebastian Pajakowski, Poltak Pandjaitan, Henning Proske, Christian Schwarzwimmer, Miriam Zehnder, Basile Diem