Resilient Campus

A greener, more user-friendly campus that is better adapted to climate change.

Resilient campus © EPFL, Niels Ackermann / Lundi13

Our Lausanne campus was built in the 1970s and was modeled after a small city, where nature and buildings merge together seamlessly. Since then, however, the campus has become more and more built up, resulting in fewer outdoor spaces. We are committed to providing a pleasant working and living environment for our community and to making all our campuses more resilient in the face of climate change.

As the Lausanne campus has become more and more built up over the years, the amount of paved-over surface area has increased and that of outdoor spaces and vegetation has decreased. These changes have intensified the heat island effect.

Our aim is to reverse this trend by hiring a team to improve our outdoor spaces and green areas, as well as by launching the Campus Piéton project.

Our goals

  • Increase the amount of vegetation and water bodies on our campuses, in order to reduce heat islands and promote biodiversity
  • Convert roads into pedestrian-friendly areas and make our public spaces more attractive
  • Support campus community projects in areas like landscaping, gardening, biodiversity, street furniture and physical fitness