As Christoph Graf, Head of Industrial Transformation at Tech Cluster Zug (TCZ), proudly states, “This is by no means an everyday project for engineers.” He is referring to the construction activities taking place on the TCZ site for the “Zephyr Ost” building. V-ZUG’s new five-storey production building will be home to spaces for production and assembly, an automated storage facility, offices and recreation rooms. The new building is the missing link between the “Mistral” production building and the “Zephyr Hangar”. “The preliminary underground works were complex, but now the building is growing day by day,” states Graf with enthusiasm.
The largest construction project in Switzerland to use more climate-friendly concrete
Like all V-ZUG buildings, “Zephyr Ost” is connected to the Multi Energy Hub. “Zephyr Ost” is an experimental project when it comes to sustainability. When the owner issued the tender, they specified the need to use a type of concrete with a smaller carbon footprint. This led to the use of recycled concrete from Holcim, which employs cutting-edge technologies to turn dismantled mineral construction materials from the region into high-quality secondary raw materials. These materials are then recycled as part of the concrete production process. A pioneering method devised by ETH spin-off Neustark enables the recycled concrete to be enriched with CO2 from a wastewater treatment plant, with the CO2 being permanently bonded to the material. Smart planning based on an optimised roof girder system with beamless reinforced roofs and hollow-core inserts to create more lightweight ceilings further cuts down on the use of concrete and reinforcing steel. This reduces the building’s environmental footprint. “The use of 4,200 m3 of recycled concrete saves us around 71 tonnes of CO2 compared to conventional construction methods,” states Graf. As it stands, “Zephyr Ost” is the largest construction project in Switzerland to use more climate-friendly concrete. Incorporating sustainability from the outset – it’s the V-ZUG way.
