Rethinking Switzerland’s built infrastructure

Overall view: Numerous factors and goals influence the necessary strategies and decisions. Graphic: Empa - Buildings, roads, railways, supply and disposal networks and much more: The entire Swiss built environment is as complex as its challenges for the future - due to climate change, natural hazards, population growth and other factors. Where to start? With which priorities? An expert group has launched an initiative for an overall view - and thus is giving new impetus for research and practice. Reducing CO2 emissions from heating, building more densely, making greater use of solar energy and storing it efficiently, rethinking mobility and transportation: These are the buzzwords that come to mind for many contemporaries when asked about urgent tasks. But what is most important? How can our limited resources be used most efficiently to achieve the net zero target in greenhouse gases by 2050, for example? When, at the same time, the Swiss rail network is at capacity, the road network is highly congested, and the volume of traffic continues to rise? These are questions that make even experts wonder. In view of the manifold challenges, five experts now want to give new impetus to the project "Entwicklung Bauwerk Schweiz" , which started about ten years ago (see info box). Under the leadership of Peter Matt, Fritz Hunkeler, Hans Rudolf Ganz, Laurent Vulliet, Professor at the EPFL, and Empa Deputy CEO Peter Richner want to provide new food for thought - with a bird's eye perspective of all the tasks ahead.