NeighborHub was officially inaugurated on Thursday in Fribourg’s blueFACTORY innovation district in the presence of Swiss President Alain Berset, Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard and the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as part of his two-day state visit to Switzerland, announced a statement.
Known as the Swiss solar house, NeighborHub was developed by a team of students and professors from the Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) Lausanne, the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (HEIA-FR), the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD) and the University of Fribourg.
It has already won accolades, emerging victorious at the Solar Decathlon in Denver in October last year. Subsequently, the 70 tonnes of materials required for its construction crossed the Atlantic to Fribourg, where the building was reassembled from February to April.
Among its credentials, NeighborHub has 29 photovoltaic solar panels on its façade and the building is fitted with power optimizers to maximize the available surface. It also has a closed water circuit to recover rain water and its structure is made up of wooden modules to delimit a heated centre, the “core”, and a tempered outer area, the “skin”.
Imagined as a meeting place for local residents, the Neighborhub has flexible architecture and mobile, foldable furniture that allows it to be adapted for different activities, such as sustainable cookery courses.
