Site Visit – SWEET Lantern at NEST, Empa
On April 15th, 2025, the SWEET Lantern team had the opportunity to visit NEST – the modular research and innovation building of Empa and Eawag, located in Dübendorf. This dynamic space is not only a symbol of cutting-edge architecture but a living lab where the future of construction and energy technologies is being shaped.
NEST is built around the idea of testing, validating, and accelerating new technologies, materials, and systems under real-life conditions. By working closely with research institutions, industry leaders, and the public sector, NEST plays a crucial role in bringing sustainable and circular innovations to the market faster.
Opportunities offered by NEST
For the SWEET Lantern project, this visit was an eye-opener. It helped us envision how NEST could support our mission by offering a real-world testbed for prototyping new innovations and concepts. From smart energy systems to circular construction solutions, NEST offers a space where impactful research can be put into practice, monitored, and refined through hands-on experimentation.
During the visit, we had the chance to explore several units currently operating within NEST and hear from researchers and partners about ongoing high-impact projects. The experience confirmed NEST’s potential as a platform not only for technical testing but also for communicating and disseminating results—an essential step for building public trust and awareness around innovation.
Another key takeaway from the visit was the importance of market outreach. In our conversations, it became clear that for Living Lab innovations to reach their full potential, they must be designed with scalability and leverage in mind. It’s not enough to co-create solutions—we must also ensure that they have a clear path to implementation and adoption in the real world.
Deep Dive session - Experimenting & co-creating in a Living Lab environment
The following day, we continued building on these insights with a Deep Dive training session co-organized by SWEET Lantern and our sister consortium SWICE. Living Lab managers and researchers gathered once again in Dübendorf for a full-day session focused on experimenting, co-creating with stakeholders, and sharing real-world challenges and methodologies from socio-technical Living Labs. The training, led by experts from ENoLL (European Network of Living Labs), was a rich opportunity for peer learning, collaborative reflection, and exchanging concrete examples from both Switzerland and abroad. Many thanks to Dimitri Schuurman, and Leidy Enriquez for facilitating such a meaningful experience!
