Spatial Negotiation and Energy Transition management: the University campus Zurich Case

Abstract

In the implementation of Energy Transition Strategies within urban (re)development projects, processes of spatial negotiation between functional needs (for buildings and transportation infrastructure) and energy solutions able to meet the energy performative targets have been observed. In a large number of urban transformation cases, spatial planning and design decisions are independent trajectories to which the energy optimization adapts, based on the idea that technological measures for reducing the energy consumption and for clean energy production can be adapted or integrated in a second stage at the building scale. Furthermore, competitive dynamics for the use of space, in particular in interventions of redevelopment within dense urban environments, contribute to exacerbate the conflict between the idea/principles for energy transitions and its spatial configuration.
The paper investigates the practice of energy transition in a Swiss case where the ambitious National Energy Strategies confront these obstacles in managing the implementation phase. The decision makers involved in the project of the Hochschulquartier (HQ), the new University Campus in Zurich, have been interviewed to understand how energy and spatial decision are taken and coordinated at the micro and macro level, and to understand the main constrains. The results show that the practice of spatial-energy integrated decisions needs new forms of coordination, decision structure and procedure, as well as a new role for designers.