Winter School in Fribourg to study comfort in coworking spaces

With the support of the Science and Technology Office Seoul, the Smart Living Lab and its three partner institutions (EPFL, School of Architecture and Engineering of Fribourg, and University of Fribourg) launched an academic exchange program between Switzerland and South Korea on the issue of sustainability and comfort of the built environment, together with the SungKyunKwan, EWHA, and Hanyang Universities from South Korea. The program followed by 30 students, called “ARC-HEST Architecture for human environment with smart technologies”, started in South Korea with a Summer School in Seoul, in August 2019. It successfully continues with a Winter School in Fribourg, from 2 to 14 February 2020, and focuses on comfort in coworking spaces.

Indoor comfort

Attention to human comfort and performance in the indoor built environment is growing worldwide due to the increased number of hours spent indoors and space limitation in highly populated cities. The working environment and cultural differences, traditions, and challenges of Switzerland and South Korea is fertile soil to brainstorm around the indoor built environment issues. The ARC-HEST academic exchange program focuses on the synergy between architectural design, human factors, and technologies in the office buildings as well as their combined effects on the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and interaction of the occupants with the building.

Coworking spaces under the microscope in summer and winter

Thanks to the cooperation of the Science and Technology Office Seoul, the Swiss (EPFL, HEIA-FR, and UNIFR), and South Korean academic partners (SungKyunKwan, EWHA, and Hanyang) selected a group of 30 students, five per institution, in the fields of architecture, civil engineering, IT, management and environmental sciences, in order to examine the behavior of buildings, and indoor environmental quality during the cooling season(summer), and the heating season (winter). Due to the success of the Summer School, from 18 to 30 August 2019 in Seoul, participants - mentored by a group of professors - will be getting together again during the upcoming Winter School, from 2 to 14 February 2020 in Fribourg. Multi-disciplinary group work is closely linked to varied visits, measuring sessions on site, performance reviews, and interviews in building with coworking spaces, such as the ImpactHub in Berne and Lausanne, Gotham in Lausanne and Vibration in Fribourg. Based on their findings, students will seek to develop innovative solutions to improved indoor built environment, occupants’ satisfaction, and human-building interactions. The results of their analysis will be communicated on 14 February 2020, in the Blue Hall on the bluefactory site, during a final presentation open to media and program partners.

Student projects final presentation: 14 February 2020, 15:15-18:30, Halle Bleue, bluefactory, Fribourg.
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Swiss-Korean Academic Exchange Programme ARC-HEST 2019-2020 Fribourg

02|14Feb.
2020

Contact

Martin Gonzenbach

Director of Operations EPFL Fribourg and Smart Living Lab
-modeling, simulations and algorithms
-technology transfer
-administration

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ARC-HEST Architecture for human environment with smart technologies

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