ENGINEERING & INNOVATION · SWITZERLAND
Empa NEST
The building where the future of construction is tested on real people
Original schematic illustration · created for the Atlas — stylised technical drawing, not a photograph.
01 In brief
NEST, which opened in 2016 on the Dübendorf campus of Empa and Eawag (two institutes of the ETH Domain), is a building that behaves like a laboratory. A permanent central core — with energy, water and data infrastructure — hosts interchangeable "research units": complete building modules in which industry and research partners test new technologies under genuine operating conditions, with real users living and working inside.
Instead of waiting years for a finished technology to appear on a real construction site, NEST accelerates the loop: build, occupy, measure, improve, replace. Its working themes read like the construction industry's agenda — low-carbon and carbon-negative materials, circular construction and urban mining, digital fabrication, adaptive building services and the integration of buildings into energy systems.
02 Why it's interesting
- 01 It solves the construction industry's innovation bottleneck — the impossible gap between lab samples and real buildings — by making the testbed itself a real, inhabited building.
- 02 Circular construction is practised here, not just discussed: units are designed to be dismantled, materials are documented for reuse, and the concept of "urban mining" (buildings as material banks) is made tangible.
- 03 In 2025 Empa reported NEST work on CO₂-negative technologies — construction approaches that remove more carbon dioxide than they emit — pushing the frontier beyond "less bad" toward net-positive.
- 04 It is a rare example of research infrastructure deliberately designed for collaboration between competing companies, who meet in one shared building to pre-competitive standards.
03 How it works
NEST's architecture is its method: a fixed backbone plus swappable modules.
The central core rises through the building, supplying energy, water, air and data, and providing the platforms on which research units are placed. Each unit is a collaborative project — planned by an industry-academia consortium, financed substantially by the partners, and typically remaining in place for several years of measurement before being replaced by the next experiment.
Because people actually live and work in the units, the data includes the messiest variable of all — human behaviour. Measurement infrastructure records energy flows, indoor environment and system performance at a granularity impossible in a conventional building.
Findings feed directly back into codes, standards and products: when a technology proves itself at NEST, it arrives on the market with something no startup prototype has — years of real occupancy data.
| Opened | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Operators | Empa and Eawag (ETH Domain) |
| Location | Dübendorf campus, canton of Zurich |
| Model | Permanent core + interchangeable research units |
| Focus themes | Low-carbon construction · circularity & urban mining · energy integration |
Facts per Empa/NEST official publications and news.
04 The organisation behind it
NEST is run jointly by Empa (materials science and technology) and Eawag (aquatic research), both institutes of the ETH Domain. Its consortium model brings together companies of every size with university groups, and the Swiss Confederation's energy research programmes orient its agenda.
05 In the real world
Technologies matured at NEST — new façade systems, storage and building-services concepts, circular materials and construction methods — migrate into Swiss and international construction practice. The building also serves as a visible demonstration object for the industry's decarbonisation pathway, regularly hosting professional delegations from around the world.
06 Can you visit?
Partly. NEST regularly hosts professional workshops, delegations and open-campus events — it is designed to be shown. Public open days occur periodically, and guided tours can be arranged for groups.
Check the official NEST and Empa sites for event dates; the Dübendorf campus is a short ride from Zurich.