NEST Unit DFAB House opened

The DFAB House on the NEST building belonging to the Empa and Eawag in Dübendorf, Switzerland, was officially opened on 27 February 2019. It is the world's first inhabited house that was not only digitally planned, but also largely digitally built with robots and 3D printers. The construction technologies employed were developed by researchers at the ETH Zurich in cooperation with industrial partners.

The three-storey "residential house" sits atop the highest of three platforms in the NEST. Together with industrial partners, researchers can test new construction and energy technologies under real conditions on this modular research and innovation building belonging to the Empa and Eawag. NEST consists of a central building core to which different building modules – so-called units – can be docked. For the construction of the Unit DFAB House, researchers from eight professorships at the ETH Zurich have for the first time transferred several innovative, digital construction technologies from the laboratory to real applications within the context of the National Research Focus [Nationaler Forschungsschwerpunkts(NFS)] "Digital Fabrication" in cooperation with industrial partners. The goal of the digital technologies is to make planning and construction not only more efficient, but also more sustainable. For example, the digitally planned floor of the DFAB House is statically and structurally optimised in such a way that considerable quantities of material can be saved in comparison with a conventional concrete floor.

The technologies also open up new possibilities with regard to design. Hence, the two upper storeys are shaped by timber frames that were manufactured and arranged in complex geometries with the help of two construction robots. "The architectural potential of digital construction technologies is enormous. Unfortunately these technologies hardly ever reach the building sites. With the DFAB House we can try out new technologies hand in hand with the industry and thus accelerate the transfer of research to practice", says Matthias Kohler, ETH professor of architecture and digital fabrication.

An intelligent home

The first inhabitants have now moved into the DFAB House. These are academic guests of Empa and Eawag. They will live in an intelligent home in the DFAB House. A consortium of companies led by digitalSTROM AG has installed the first smart home solutions in the DFAB House, which are based on the vendor-neutral digitalSTROM platform. Amongst other things, these include an intelligent multi-stage burglary protection system, automated glare and shading options and the latest generation of networked intelligent household appliances. However, DFAB House is not just smart when it comes to the domestic electronics, but also where the handling of energy is concerned: photovoltaic modules on the roof supply about one and a half times as much electricity as the unit itself uses on average over the course of a year. An intelligent controller coordinates all consumptions and ensures that no load peaks occur. Two start-up ideas that are being accompanied by researchers from Empa and Eawag help to save additional energy: firstly the heat from the wastewater, which would otherwise be lost, is regained directly in the shower trays via heat exchangers and secondly the hot water, if unused, flows out of the pipes back into the boiler instead of cooling in the water pipes. This method not only saves energy and water, but also minimises the danger of bacterial growth in the pipes.

Research and industry learn from each other

The sixth unit in the NEST research and innovation building is a good example of how the cooperation between researchers and the industry leads to trailblazing solutions. "Traditional construction methods and new concepts from the digital world meet in the implementation of a construction project such as the DFAB House. The way from the digital drawing board to the real building was a challenge to scientists and experts. Through the constructive dialogue, the visionary became practically feasible and hopefully it will soon be used in the construction industry", says Gian-Luca Bona, Director of the Empa.

Research and industrial partners involved ETH Zürich, NFS Digitale Fabrikation, ERNE Holzbau, Holcim, Laufen & arwa, Schenker Storen, V-ZUG, ABB, AGITEC, Bürgin Creations, digitalSTROM, Duscholux, Nussbaum, Pfister, Schibli, Securiton, Sika, ENGIE Service, Frutiger, Joulia, Lehni, Meyer, 3Eflow, Carl Meier Sohn, Christenguss, NOE-Schaltechnik, Pemat, Schlatter Industries, Seele, Sommerlatte & Sommerlatte, Stahl Gerlafingen, Stahlton, Welti-Furrer and Zühlke.

DFAB House construction project team
Building owner: Empa, Swiss Federal Material Testing and Research Institute, Dübendorf
Concept, design and building planning: ETH Zurich, National Research Focus [Nationaler Forschungsschwerpunkts(NFS)] Digital Fabrication, Zurich
General contractor: ERNE AG Holzbau, Laufenburg