Climate-adapted construction – Foundations for the future

Buildings constructed today are exposed to the climatic changes of tomorrow. To optimally design the building architecture and technology and to assess the future energy demand of buildings, a Switzerland-wide basis in the form of hourly climate data sets for building simulations is now available.

View from outside through a window with half-closed sunblinds. There is a fan by the window inside the room.

According to the CH2018 Climate Scenarios for Switzerland, heatwaves are set to significantly increase in frequency, intensity and duration as climate change progresses. This also has implications for the building sector. As part of the project "Climate-adapted building - Foundations for the future", MeteoSwiss, in collaboration with the Canton of Zurich Building Department, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), has compiled hourly climate data sets for various periods in the future. The data allow to evaluate the future indoor climate in buildings and to optimize the dimensioning of heating as well as cooling systems for the future. The new climate data sets describe both a typical year and a warm summer for numerous locations in Switzerland.

By using these datasets, building designers will contribute to significantly reduce future impairments of user comfort and performance and to ensure the optimal design of buildings' technical services. The new Switzerland-wide data supplement the existing data from the technical specification SIA 2028:2010, ensuring that buildings constructed today are also fit for the climate of tomorrow.

Links

Climate scenarios indoor climate
Homepage of the project “Climate-adapted construction – Foundations for the future” at MeteoSwiss
Final report (in German)
Final report of the 'Climate-adapted construction – Foundations for the future' and 'Up-to-date climate data for building designers' projects (in German)
Access to the data download
Freely accessible data download
Recommendations (PDF, in German)
Recommendations for the use of the climate scenarios for future indoor climate as well as energy-related tools, resources and software (in German)