April to June 2023

The construction site of Franklin University Campus in Sorengo. The BIPV system was installed on the new auditorium’s facade on the west side of the campus. The building will be the subject of an on-site visit on 28 April 2023. Photo: Franklin University Switzerland.

SUPSI and the Swiss BiPV Competence Centre within the Institute of Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment (ISAAC) are pleased to invite you to participate in a new experiential course format: the continuing education course “Swiss-solarchitecTOUR”.

This experiential course is aimed at professionals working in the construction sector, through a new format based on “training on site”. The course offers a training experience, within the real and operational context of tangible implementation and concrete examples of pilot buildings with integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), offering knowledge transfer and active involvement of the participants. Through direct contact with a network of sector experts, industry and other professionals, experiential learning can help increase the knowledge of the process, technologies and the technical-economic feasibility aspects of solar buildings.

The energy strategy presents an opportunity to consider solar as a renewable source of decentralised energy production in buildings. More and more, facades and other ancillary elements of the envelope can be made active in addition to the roof. The realisation of buildings with integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) poses hybrid challenges between the construction and electrical engineering sectors, still often fragmented in their respective disciplines and professions, from design to realisation. The result is a lack of confidence and the perception of cost and quality risks, with low market numbers.

“Swiss-solarchitecTOUR” seeks to foster experiential learning and strengthen interdisciplinary skills through direct contact with a network of experts, workshops, professionals and companies in the sector, and by the active involvement of the participants with moments of interaction and “action-learning”.

The course consists of five training days: an introductory module, 3 study days with guided tours of best-practice BIPV solar buildings and a final module which will be an on-site workshop at a company in the photovoltaic industry.

For more information and to register: Swiss-solarchitecTOUR – edition 2023 (only in Italian).