Digital and sustainable construction: FHNW strengthens expertise

The School of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW is further expanding its own expertise in the areas of digital and sustainable construction. To this end, it has established two new professorships, which will be taken up by knowledgeable experts with a high level of practical relevance and great innovative strength.

Focus on digital construction: Information Management

At the Institute of Digital Construction, which was newly founded in 2018 and has been growing rapidly since then, Lukas Schildknecht has been Professor of Digital Construction with a focus on information management since May 1, 2022. The environmental engineer and computer scientist had previously been involved as a research assistant and lecturer at the School of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics and the Institute Digital Building for five years. As head of the research product area, he built up the project acquisition and research activities of the still young institute and, among other things, led various projects on issues of construction information management on behalf of public and private partners. In his new position, he will continue to be part of the institute's management team and will focus even more on the management of complex data systems. "I am particularly interested in the interdisciplinary interfaces between information technologies and (digital) building models. Here we need compatible solutions for practice, for example through good integration platforms for harmonizing heterogeneous data sources," Schildknecht says. With the introduction of BIM, the construction industry is currently undergoing technological and methodological developments that took place in other industries more than ten years ago. It is therefore time to transfer the knowledge established in this way and to specify it for the construction industry without having to reinvent the wheel.

Focus on sustainable construction: Life Cycle Assessments in Construction

In addition to the digitalization of construction, the demand for sustainable construction processes is also gaining in importance for the School of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics FHNW. The Institute for Sustainability and Energy in Construction, which was realigned two years ago and is headed by Barbara Sintzel, has therefore created a new professorship in a field that is important for the turnaround in construction in Switzerland: life cycle assessment. For this position, the university was able to engage Daniel Kellenberger, an expert in sustainable construction and life cycle assessments. The cultural and environmental engineer was most recently a member of the executive board and head of the "Climate Protection and Energy Management" division of the interdisciplinary research and consulting company Intep and, among other things, worked on setting up the internationally renowned life cycle assessment database Ecoinvent. With his new position as professor for sustainable construction with a focus on life cycle assessments in the construction industry, he aims to establish the FHNW School of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics as a center of excellence for life cycle assessments in the construction industry. "In the past decades, research on the energy-efficient and climate-friendly operation of real estate has been very successful. However, implementation often takes place without consideration of grey energy and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. However, a consistent net-zero strategy can only be successful if the construction and building materials industry also makes a contribution. Life cycle assessments provide us with an important tool for this," says Kellenberger. He will take up his post on November 2, 2022. Source and further information: FHNW The post Digital and sustainable construction: FHNW strengthens expertise appeared first on Organizer.