immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Studierende

  • Walz 4.0 brings construction into the digital future

    Walz 4.0 brings construction into the digital future

    The Institute of Constructive Design at the ZHAW Department of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering in Winterthur is taking over the Swiss lead in the Interreg project Walz 4.0. Together with universities and foundations from Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein, the aim is to create an educational and practical network by 2028 that merges traditional craftsmanship with innovative university research and digital tools.

    Walz 4.0 is more than just a symbolic name. It deliberately draws on the journeymen’s travelling trade, a centuries-old form of experiential learning, and transfers it to the reality of modern higher education. Concrete construction projects, sustainable materials and digital applications are used to bring the transformation of construction to life.

    Building sustainably means rethinking
    Circular construction as the foundation for a new building culture. “In view of the climate crisis, circular construction in the sense of building on existing buildings and reusing components is more important than ever,” explains project manager Andri Gerber from the ZHAW. This is precisely where Walz 4.0 comes in: historical building fabric is preserved, materials are reused and new constructions are created in the spirit of resource conservation.

    Special attention is paid to practical teaching. Craftsmen and students work together in teams on renovation and construction projects. Digital tools are used as well as centuries-old techniques. This turns theory into lived experience, a key success factor in the fight against the shortage of skilled labour and for a resilient construction industry.

    A European network for innovation
    Four countries, seven institutions, one common goal. Walz 4.0 brings together partners from four countries.

    Switzerland: ZHAW Winterthur (lead partner), OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, Denkmalstiftung Thurgau

    Germany: HTWG Konstanz (overall coordination), OTH Regensburg

    Austria: FH Vorarlberg

    Liechtenstein: University of Liechtenstein

    New learning centres, exchange formats and digital tools are being developed together. The aim is to create a cross-border dialogue that increases both the quality of construction and the attractiveness of skilled trades. The funding totalling around 5 million euros comes from the European Regional Development Fund, Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein.

    Building bridges for the next generation
    The great strength of Walz 4.0 lies in its interdisciplinary nature. Architects, heritage conservationists, civil engineers and craftsmen think and build together. The results should not only have an impact in specialist circles, but also provide impetus for politics, education and property development.

    At the same time, the project creates space for experimentation. New construction methods are being tested, digital planning processes optimised and craftsmanship re-evaluated. The aim is a resilient, locally anchored and ecologically responsible construction industry, supported by people who have mastered their craft and are willing to learn new things.

  • Launch of the competition for the “Aerogel Architecture Award 2024”

    Launch of the competition for the “Aerogel Architecture Award 2024”

    The fourth “Aerogel Architecture Award” is looking for inspiring examples of the use of aerogel in architecture and construction. The competition, which takes place in the categories “Realised Solutions” and “Student Designs”, offers a unique platform to present and honour innovative ideas and projects. An expert jury will select the finalists from all submissions, who will compete for the “Aerogel Architecture Award 2024” at an event on the Empa campus in Dübendorf on 12 July 2024.

    Architecture and civil engineering firms with projects in the areas of renovation, refurbishment or new construction can take part. Students of architecture and civil engineering are also invited to submit their designs and proposals for the use of aerogel. All projects will be assessed in a selection process that will be held in English. Realised renovation projects for listed buildings that have been improved with aerogel insulation materials will be particularly recommended.

    The award ceremony on 12 July 2024 in the NEST building on the Empa campus in Dübendorf will be available as a public livestream. The winning projects will not only receive recognition and public attention, but will also be published in international journals and on online platforms.

    Interested parties are invited to submit their projects in the form of a ZIP or RAR file by the closing date. Submissions should include a PDF poster in A1 format, JPEG images of the project, details of the use of the aerogel insulation and a registration form with a detailed description of the project. By entering the competition, participants agree to the publication of their project and confirm that they respect the rights to images, graphics and drawings of their submissions.

  • Limmattal Summer Academy presents future projects

    Limmattal Summer Academy presents future projects

    The results of the Limmattal Summer Academy are currently being presented to the public by the OST- Ostschweizer Fachhochschule. The Summer Academy was about finding and describing future projects for the Limmat Valley. According to a media release, 60 students and young landscape and spatial planners, architects, traffic experts, sociologists and artists from universities in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands examined the Limmat Valley over the course of a week.

    The Limmattal Summer Academy was commissioned by the cantons of Aargau and Zurich and carried out by the OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule. Its results can be seen in the marquee at the Schlierefäscht until 10 September and will then travel to the Limmattal communities.

    “The Limmattal is one of the most dynamic core regions in Switzerland, the number one growth region,” Schlieren’s mayor Markus Bärtschiger is quoted as saying during this presentation. In order to be prepared for a sustainable future, however, the Limmat Valley needs new and unconventional impulses.

    The activities are concentrated on four focus areas: For example, the Zürcherstrasse between Unter- and Oberengstringen is to be upgraded to an aggloboulevard with recreational and green spaces. Another group of students combined the Fahrweid area into an emerald green ring by upgrading and linking ecological bridges in the area.

    The Silbern industrial cluster in Dietikon is to transition to a circular economy and become climate-adapted thanks to a pilot project. Ensuring public accessibility and usability of the riparian areas for all calls for a project around the Spreitenbach, Killwangen and Würenlos railway station area.

  • When glacier sticks carry over a ton…

    When glacier sticks carry over a ton…

    A box of ice cream sticks, a tube of glue and creativity and intuition: that’s all it took to take part in Switzerland’s national bridge-building competition. The interest of the vocational schools from the three language regions was correspondingly great. The 64 participating trainees in the professions of draughtsmen and draughtswomen in the fields of civil engineering, geomatics, architecture, landscape architecture or spatial planning as well as carpenters constructed their bridge models in
    their free time and invested up to 100 hours in it. The competition is also increasingly popular with the FH students, who participated with eight teams and 21 participants. The bridge-building competition is organised by the VSS together with the engineering firm AJS.

    The presentation of the bridge models in the congress centre in Biel showed the whole range of creativity of the students: From elegant and light to massive and heavy, inspired by classical forms or simply springing from free imagination, meticulously worked out to the last detail or rather improvised. Jean-Marc Jeanneret, President of the organising Association of Swiss Road and Transport Professionals (VSS), was also pleased with the huge
    variety of the models presented. For him, this competition, which has been established in many countries for years, has another effect that should not be underestimated, especially in the digital age: “When you assemble the construction ‘by hand’, you understand it in the truest sense of the word. Weak points become more concretely apparent than with static calculations or 3D models on the computer. In this way, learners gain a lot of knowledge in a playful way, which they otherwise often have to painstakingly acquire
    . That’s why this competition is also a good introduction to professional life.”

    The highlight of the event was the resilience test, with which the most effective bridge was chosen. First crackling, then crashing and with much applause from the audience, the bridge models break on the test bench. The effectiveness of the bridge is rated according to the load-bearing capacity achieved in relation to its own weight. This evaluation formula rewards those who arrive at the most efficient solution with a minimum of material consumption – entirely in the spirit of a resource-efficient
    economy.

    As in the previous year, the team from the ZHAW Winterthur solved this task best among the students. Their bridge carried a load of an incredible 1060 kg! The three students Pascal Lämmler, Fabio Schäfer and Naatan Lohrer not only won a cheque for 1000 Swiss francs, they also won the “maximum load” category and set a new record. A team also dominated in the apprentice category: the Wetzikon Vocational School with Valentin Voll, Pascal Roffler and Denis Bilgin won both the “most effective bridge” and the “maximum load” category (773 kg).

  • New reuse pavilion at the FHNW Campus Muttenz

    New reuse pavilion at the FHNW Campus Muttenz

    In the spirit of the annual theme "Constructive Futures – Beyond Concrete", the students of the third year course of the bachelor's degree in architecture, under the direction of Professors Ursula Hürzeler and Shadi Rahbaran, dealt with the reuse of components. The starting point for this was the floor-to-ceiling wooden ramp, which was attached to the front facade of the Swiss Architecture Museum S AM as an urban intervention as part of the exhibition "Access for All – Architectural Infrastructure Buildings São Paulo" 2021. This ramp was dismantled again after the end of the exhibition and the components should now be used for a new purpose.

    Architectural competition for students
     For this purpose, an architecture competition was held among the students in the 2021 autumn semester. The task was to design a place to stay in the park that was protected from the wind and sun, for use and free use by the university and the district. The winning project "Silvestris" that emerged from the competition was selected for further development and implementation. The students then developed the design idea together and in the spring semester of 2022 went into more detail in an interdisciplinary elective course. At the same time, the structural design, the static dimensioning, the development of the node connections and the execution planning were carried out by the Institute of Civil Engineering under the direction of Prof. Dr. Simon Zweidler, head of the construction laboratory. From the design to the manufacture of all steel nodes, digital fabrication was used in a pioneering way: After the complete 3D modeling, the surfaces required for the fold were calculated by software and the developed surface was cut from the solid sheet by laser; the subsequent three-dimensional bending was also carried out fully automatically.

    Static Challenges
     In the course of this detailed planning, various structural and static challenges had to be mastered. The limits of the reusability of components also became apparent; In this specific case, the old wood did not have the strength required for the new arena and the planned intensive use and duration. This led to the decision to build the statically relevant components with construction wood intended for this purpose with the appropriate strength and to use some of the old wood for secondary components. This resulted in a valuable learning process regarding the complexities and challenges of reusing components. However, the original structure of the ramp is still reflected in the dimensions of the elements and the shape of the new arena.
    The arena created in this way should offer various possible uses. The roof made of light fabric creates a shady place to stay, which can not only be used for teaching and teaching at the university, but also provides space for performances and also invites residents in the neighborhood to use and help shape it. The winning project and all other project proposals developed by the students are also on public display in an exhibition in the porch of the campus building.

  • ZHAW offers four new courses

    ZHAW offers four new courses

    At the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ( ZHAW ), 4,500 new students are starting their academic training in the winter semester. In the previous year there were 4,700. As of September 19, a total of 14,100 people will be studying at the three ZHAW locations in Winterthur, Wädenswil and Zurich. That's 600 fewer than at the beginning of last year.

    The ZHAW Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management recorded the largest increase with an increase of 13 percent. According to a press release , the two new bachelor’s courses in biomedical laboratory diagnostics and applied digital life sciences as well as the master of science in real estate and facility management are primarily responsible for this.

    The two ZHAW departments of Health and Life Sciences and Facility Management work together on the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics course. According to the ZHAW, the course meets the growing social and technical requirements for diagnostics and health care.

    The Applied Digital Life Sciences course forms the interface between data science and life sciences. The Applied Law course is also new. It provides a general basic legal education. Real Estate & Facility Management is the first master's degree in Switzerland to combine real estate and facility management with sustainability and digitization.

  • Building for the ZHAW in Winterthur

    Building for the ZHAW in Winterthur

    2021 Eulachpassage castling
    In summer 2020, the ZHAW Health Department will move from the Eulachpassage to the new Adeline Favre building on the Sulzer site. The ZHAW School of Engineering will temporarily use the space in the Eulachpassage as a Rochade building, while the new Technikumstrasse campus will be built over the next few years.

    2023 laboratory building RD
    A unique center for food and beverage technology will be built on the Reidbach campus in Wädenswil by summer 2023. The new building not only unites the ZHAW Institute for Food and Beverage Innovation in one place, but also the entire value chain of the food industry. In the future, food and beverages will be researched here, from raw materials to the market.

    Construction time: 2019-2023
    Architecture: Leutwyler Partner Arch.

    2024-2034 Campus T
    The ZHAW School of Engineering is getting a new, attractive campus with a park on the Technikumstrasse site in Winterthur. The buildings and green space required for this will be implemented in four stages by 2035.

    The first includes the two new laboratory buildings TT (2024) and TL (2027), with laboratory, teaching and office space as well as a cafeteria and a public park with access to the Eulach. In the longer term, all buildings around the main building by Theodor Gohl (1878), which is worthy of protection, and the east building by Hermann Fietz (1908) are to be replaced by new buildings. For the second stage, the renovation and densification of the building complex with the east and chemical building TE / TZ (2029) is planned.

    In the third stage, the historic main building TH (2032) will be renewed and expanded to the south. In the final fourth stage, the physics building is to be replaced by the new laboratory building TP (2035), provided that the old building by Hans Suter (1960) is removed from the inventory of buildings worthy of protection.

    2025 Shedhalle Reidbach
    The ZHAW has been renting the former factory premises of the Wädenswil AG cloth factory since 1999. As soon as the so-called shed halls have been converted, they will be used from 2025, for example, as a new university library as well as learning and common rooms for students from the ZHAW Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management.

    Construction period: 2023-2025

    2033-2034 Rochade Eulachpassage and meander
    In the long term, the ZHAW Department of Applied Linguistics will settle on the Eulachpassage and make room in the meander for the ZHAW School of Management and Law, which is to expand entirely on the St.-Georgen-Platz campus.