NEST – una plataforma para acelerar la innovación en edificios

The speed and quality of innovation in the construction sector has to be substantially increased in order to meet the pressing challenges associated with the building stock. For this purpose, the NEST project was started in Switzerland. NEST is a flexible and open research and technology transfer platform for partners from academia and industry where new solutions can be implemented and validated in a real life environment. NEST consists of a backbone, the static part, and research units which serve as office or living space where people live and work. Each unit is addressing specific research topics such as timber construction or digital fabrication and bears numerous innovation objects which are subject to continuous development and evaluation. NEST is a vertical neighbourhood of units, which are connected to a water hub and an energy hub. Once the research questions in a unit are answered and new products have been developed, the unit is deconstructed and replaced by a new unit addressing new topics.