How should we live in the future?

HSB launches its "Living Lab"

Gothenburg, 12 April 2016 | Published in Social, Research

HSB Living Lab - Homes of the future

HSB Living Lab is the only one of its kind in the world. It’s a residential building for up to 40 students, guest researchers and doctoral students at the heart of Campus Johanneberg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

While providing a home for many people for a long time, the entire building will be set up for research on sustainable living. There are other living labs around the world, but none where so many people will be living permanently for such a long time. At HSB Living Lab research will be moving in with the residents and not the other way round. The building is being constructed in modules and will be in place for a decade before being dismantled and moved.

In HSB Living Lab new technologies and innovations are created, while behavioral research gets an exciting new arena. The 29 apartments is equipped with monitoring stations and 2 000 sensors. The HSB Living Lab is a building where everything will be in constant change; from interchangeable facades to housing modules that self-adapt to temperature and human activity. HSB Living Lab is a test arena where new materials and new technologies are tested. Together with researchers and partners HSB Living Lab allows HSB to evaluate different solutions that can later be used in regular new building production.

One of the project goals is to develop knowledge about technology that conserves resources. But also how people can reduce resource use through behavior and lifestyle choices. The knowledge from HSB Living Lab will also contribute to the economic model favoring investment for low energy systems in the production stage.

There are many questions that the project will try answer. For example: will we meet in the laundry, or wash in the meeting room? Can the laundry room - and community hall be joined in a common room that also includes other activities? The interaction between people and the behavior that we develop will be studied carefully to create optimal solutions for the future collaborative spaces.

HSB Living Lab is a collaboration between 13 partners.