A cooperative in Switzerland has built sustainable apartments. The residents say they feel at home, while recycling materials helps save the climate.
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00:00A construction project in Switzerland is setting standards for sustainable building.
00:05The Horbelwerk aims to make climate-neutral living possible.
00:10It's very sustainable and it's also good for the children to grow up like this.
00:16The Horbelwerk project's concept isn't just about climate, but also new forms of communal living,
00:22as evidenced by the many common spaces.
00:26Being connected to the community like this is very good for me as an artist.
00:30It's also about innovative architecture.
00:34The staircase is fairly narrow, but also relatively spacious.
00:38It connects all the spaces here, so the whole building comes together.
00:44The trip from Zurich to Winterthur takes about half an hour by train.
00:49In the building cooperative's five houses, a good 400 residents are trying to achieve on a small scale
00:55what the whole of Switzerland wants to do by 2050 – become CO2-neutral.
01:03Solar panels on the rooftops generate power that we feed back into the buildings.
01:08We're using recycled construction elements, which greatly reduces the CO2 footprint.
01:13And we're including large green spaces to help reduce much of the excess heat.
01:20Architect Pascal Flammer cuts back on CO2 by planning in a widespread use of second-hand materials.
01:29He had windows installed that were taken from demolished buildings.
01:33And cladding from an old factory hall.
01:37These balcony railings used to be bed frames in a prison.
01:41Recycling materials means using less energy than making new ones from scratch.
01:46But it also presents other challenges.
01:51If you don't even know what materials you're going to build with in the future, you can't plan very exactly.
01:57So you don't really have your materials together until construction is just about to start.
02:03And that leads to a certain imprecision.
02:07You can really see that here, for example, by these frontal facades that bring together a collection of different materials.
02:14A patchwork that you kind of have to piece together.
02:21The Horbelwerk encourages a sense of community.
02:24Studio apartments like these are open to the courtyard.
02:27In the little two-room apartments, residents can combine living and working in one space.
02:33And passers-by can knock any time.
02:37I like having the working and the living area together in the apartment.
02:41Also that I'm included in the community and that people are always dropping by and looking around the studio.
02:50Generous common spaces and individually usable private spaces.
02:55These are called cluster apartments.
02:57The concept cuts down on living space per person and saves energy.
03:04We're a nuclear family of five.
03:06My husband and I and three children and two foster children live with us.
03:11My mother's also got a cluster apartment here.
03:14It's nice to have a spacious common living and dining area where we actually spend most of our time and everyone has their private space too.
03:24It's not just a question of using less energy for heating in the future.
03:28With global temperatures rising, it also becomes a matter of cooling.
03:32The Hobelwerk has created this green, spongy area where rainwater can collect and slowly evaporate, cooling the whole complex.
03:41Right from the start we called it the jungle and it was meant to eventually be like a jungle.
03:46A combination of green, lush, tall trees and different plants that would all promote condensation and evaporation.
03:53And help reduce the heat in summer.
03:57These different concepts are all combined in the Hobelwerk to make CO2-neutral living possible in the near future.
04:05And to boot, communal living concepts offer its residents far more than just cheap and space-saving housing.