Research, teaching, and practice are directly interlinked, with the aim of testing research findings within the project itself and making a tangible contribution to the fields of construction in existing buildings and adaptive reuse. These insights are intended to be transferable to other projects and buildings.
The LLHIL was initiated by Professor Matthias Kohler in the Department of Architecture and Hannes Pichler, Director of Real Estate Management at ETH Zurich, with the involvement of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering D-BAUG. The project is coordinated and developed by the internal LLHIL planning team.
EVENTS & NEWS
Why is everyone looking up?
Our project office becomes a space for learning and investigation for students from the courses “Master of Integrated Building Systems I and II”.
Opening the Façade, Upgrading the Glazing
Diese Woche haben wir die hermetische Hülle des HIL geöffnet, um auf Ebene C eine temporäre Tür für den Makerspace einzubauen.
Hilti supports the Living Lab HIL
The Hilti Group, based in Liechtenstein, will support LLHIL as a funding partner from 2026 to 2028.
INPUT PROJECTS
The HIL building project will serve research and teaching purposes over a period of three years. It aims to develop new approaches to planning, construction, and use, by leveraging interdisciplinary collaboration between ETH professors and their students and researchers, as well as with specialist departments at ETH and partners from the construction industry.
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2026Tracking Building Components for Reuse
How can digital passports help us understand what a building is made of and what can be reused? This project develops a «Dynamic Digital Passport Explorer» that links building models with detailed information about individual components and tests the approach using HIL as a real-world case study.
Prof. Dr. Catherine De Wolf -
2026Continuing to develop HIL together
A systematic assessment of the requirements and expectations of HIL users serves as the empirical basis for the future transformation of the building.
Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Prof. Momoyo Kaijima, Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann, Prof. Dr. Laurent Stalder -
2026HIL Facade: Performance and Potential
How can the existing HIL facade become more sustainable? The project investigates the energy performance, occupant comfort, and emissions of potential retrofit scenarios.
Prof. Dr. Arno Schlüter -
2025Closing water cycles in the HIL
This master’s project examines the conditions under which closed-loop water systems are feasible and beneficial for the HIL building.
Prof. Dr. Max Maurer, Prof. Dr. Eberhard Morgenroth -
2026Gilded Glass
Coated solar-control glass is a defining feature of post-war modernism, yet is increasingly disappearing. This thesis from the MAS ETH in Built Heritage and Repair highlights the architectural and ecological value of solar-control glass and explores strategies for its preservation.
Prof. Dr. Silke Langenberg -
2026Life cycle assessment of technical systems
The objective is to quantify the environmental impact of technical systems based on the end-of-life scenarios of existing ones.
Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert
