Think Earth – Innosuisse Flagship

The construction industry with its high CO2 emissions plays a significant role in climate change. Temperatures are expected to continue to rise in the Swiss Plateau with an increasing number of tropical nights. This can be countered by the efficient, cycle-oriented use of all building materials and the increased use of renewable building materials.

We are also experiencing an upswing in timber construction due to the medium-term storage of CO2 in wood. With the increase in the low reuse rate of wood (currently 10%) to 90% targeted in the flagship, material efficiency can be increased and buildings made more climate-neutral with the help of other regenerative materials, such as earth-based building materials. Earth-based building materials such as clay are used in Switzerland in exclusive small-scale applications based on little-distributed expert knowledge. In order to use earth-based building materials, which are available in unlimited quantities in the circular economy, they are being investigated in greater depth with regard to industrial, reliable production, reliable material properties and the development of design bases. The combination of both materials to activate the thermal mass of the clay makes it possible to save energy and building technology through solar gains in winter and efficient night-time cooling by means of free ventilation in summer.

A systemic approach is needed so that wood, clay and their combination can realize their potential to accelerate the transformation to a net-zero economy. In the "Think Earth" flagship, a fundamental transformation process towards climate-neutral construction with wood and clay is developed in 3 stages:

1. recycling or reusing wood
2. earth-based building materials and components
3. wood-clay hybrid constructions

and two levels, which integrate 10 interlinked sub-projects focusing on materials/processes, engineering/architecture, circularity & re-use and framework conditions.