Strategies for Symbiotic Urban Neighbourhoods ― Towards Local Energy Self-sufficiency

Utilizing the results of a case study on the Gare-Lac sector in the city of Yverdon-les-Bains – the site is currently a large urban brownfield, intended to host ca. 3,800 additional inhabitants and 1,200 jobs upon completion – this work examines how to design attractive urban neighbourhoods that generate endogenous economic activity and foster socio-cultural dynamics, while moving towards local energy self-sufficiency.

Exploring the different dimensions influencing energy self-sufficiency at the neighbourhood scale by integrating parameters related to buildings, infrastructure, mobility, food, goods and services, the work focuses on three scenarios (technological, behavioural and symbiotic) for the future development of this neighbourhood through 2035. The scenarios test different design strategies related to industrial symbioses, production, storage, transportation, and urban agriculture.

Dr. Sophie Lufkin graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2005. She is the author of a doctoral thesis on the densification potential of disused railway areas and is currently working as a scientist and lecturer at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies.
Prof. Emmanuel Rey, from the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), focuses his research and teaching in the field of sustainable architecture, with particular emphasis on the transcription of the principles of sustainability at different levels of intervention.

Prof. Suren Erkman earned his PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Technology of Troyes (FR). After working several years as a science and business journalist, Suren founded several companies: Institute for Communication and Analysis of Science and Technology (ICAST, Geneva), Council on Industrial Ecology (EIC, Paris), and Resource Optimization Initiative (ROI,Bangalore). In March 2005, he joined the University of Lausanne, where he is currently professor and head of the industrial ecology group (School of Geosciences and the Environment, UNIL).