EPFL doctoral student calls for smaller apartments
The downsizing of rental apartments is essential to reduce the ecological footprint of living. This thesis is represented in a doctoral thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
The ecological footprint of living in Switzerland by 2050 can only be reduced through a joint effort by homeowners and tenants. According to a press release from the university in Lausanne, this demand for smaller living space per capita is raised in Margarita Agriantoni's doctoral thesis. She is a civil engineering student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne ( EPFL ).
The work is based on computer simulations of various living scenarios for the next 30 years from 2020 to 2050. The result is therefore: If the energy consumption of apartments in Switzerland is to be significantly reduced, the entire industry must rethink its practices. This affects the way homes are planned and built, as well as the way they are used. Less living space is required per resident.
Around 58 percent of Swiss households rent their homes. The average living space of these apartments has risen steadily in recent years, as has the living space per capita – a key figure that directly correlates with a building's ecological footprint, according to the statement. Today, a 100 square meter apartment is built or heated in the same way, whether it is intended for two or four people. "The per capita area is the key figure that we have to reduce in the long term," the author Agriantoni is quoted as saying. "Reducing space by just a few square feet can have a real impact."
Agriantoni and her colleagues examined 11,000 apartments in buildings across Switzerland and interviewed 1,000 households.