The ZEB Laboratory, situated within the NTNU Gløshaugen campus in Trondheim, is a dynamic four-
story office space spanning 2000 square metres. This facility, jointly owned by NTNU and SINTEF, is a hub for innovative research and development. IAT is one of the three departments at NTNU that manages the ZEB Laboratory. The laboratory accommodates staff from both institutions, functioning as a workspace and an educational venue. Continuous data collection endeavours are underway to assess and enhance building performance meticulously. This research includes detailed experiments on energy systems and indoor environmental quality conducted concurrently with regular operations. The versatility of the infrastructure allows for seamless integration of experimentation with day-to-day activities, fostering a collaborative environment for exploration and optimisation.

Contact: Francesco Goia

The ZEB Living Lab, a versatile experimental facility designed as a single-family house spanning 100 square meters, serves as a platform for various research endeavours. Situated within the NTNU Gløshaugen campus in Trondheim, this facility is jointly owned by NTNU and SINTEF, with management overseen by IAT. The ZEB Living Lab investigates user-technology interaction within authentic settings, assesses building performance under realistic usage scenarios, and custom systems and strategies for comprehensive monitoring. It offers a unique opportunity to scrutinize both the physical behaviour of the building and its installations, as well as the influence of users on these systems.

Contact: Francesco Goia

The ZEB Test Cell is a research infrastructure jointly owned by NTNU and SINTEF, and operated by SINTEF. IAT has been heavily involved in developing and using this facility, which is used for testing low-energy, integrated building systems under realistic operational conditions. The ZEB Test Cell is made of two chambers with the size of a regular office room, where one wall faces the outdoor environment, while the boundary conditions of all the other surfaces are controlled.
The system can be used to carry out both absolute testing and comparative testing procedures, aiming to analyse and optimise the performance of building envelope systems, integrated energy and environmental installations, and their control systems.

Contact: Arild Gustavsen

The NTNU AD Microhouse is a 100% Circular microhouse co-created, developed and built as part of the H2020 Dialogues project as well as student effort. The microhouse is mobile and allows for 1/3 of the house to be changed via modules. This allows for 2 research variables of location and altered functions such as examining the difference between having access to a social winter garden versus a gaming rig for online games as part of the living space. Participants can use the space from a few hours up to 14 days and it includes all necessities (bed, shower, toilet, kitchen, etc) within 12 square meters. The space is prepared for sensory monitoring that can be included as determined in the experiment design, including the use of the NTNU Mobile Sensory Lab.

Contact: Pasi Aalto

The NTNU AD Experimentbox is a 2 x 1,6m spaHice to rapidly develop and verify experiment designs that focus on how participants perceive and act on sensory stimuli, such as materials, spaces or environments. The experiment box has a fully accessible framework of environmental and biosensors that can be utilized with short notice. The space is ideal to develop and pilot experiments that investigate how people react to different materials both consciously, physiologically, and cognitively.

Contact: Pasi Aalto

The NTNU Mobile Sensory Lab is a collection of environmental and biosensors that allows us to record the exact location (GPS + UWB), body posture (Mocap, UWB), Environmental surroundings (IEQ), received stimuli (Eye-tracking, sound), Physical response (Heart rate, HRV, GSR) and Cognitive Response (fNIRS, EEG) of a single participant while free-roaming in-situ. This allows us to examine the biophysical and cognitive responses of a person that enters, wanders through, and inhabits a building in experiments. The Lab is a collaboration between 8 departments: IAT (Lead), IAP, MTP, IBM, IPS, INB, KIT and PD.

Contact: Pasi Aalto

Circular City is a NTNU SUSRES project to develop a research infrastructure that speeds up the systemic research of existing buildings in Trondheim. By organising existing data, registrations and building models, the aim is to build knowledge to transition towards a more circular built environment. Check out sustainability circularcity or get in touch with project coordinator Pasi Aalto.

The Climate HubLAB is a didactic laboratory exploring the pedagogical potential of equipping conventional design studios with machines that are commonly placed in more specialised research laboratories. At the lab, environmental design theory is explained through hands-on activities where digital tools enhance learning potential rather than just mere computational tools. The laboratory is based on three pillars: accessibility, user-friendliness and colocation of machines for model-making and testing. Besides a series of machines for environmental analyses (heliodons and streamline visualisation tools), the laboratory includes equipment for transferring information from the analogue to the digital environment, enabling students to creatively customise innovative design processes for rapid prototyping and testing models.

Contact: Luca Finocchiaro

Traditional Building Crafts Laboratory

The Laboratory is a dedicated quiet workshop space specifically designed to enable teaching and research into
artisan crafts. The space is traditionally fitted with carpenters benches and handtools. Located in a listed warehouse from 1826, the spaces are uninsulated and unheated to follow the fluctuations of outdoor
temperature and humidity. This helps stabilize the wood materials as well as the tools in the workshop. The
laboratory can explore the multitude of Norways traditional crafts techniques and traditions, which is also
reflected in the assortment of carpenters benches and tools available – most of which are faithful replications
made in the lab itself, based on historical originals found in Norway.

Contact: Thor Aage Kaminka Heiberg

FORMLAB

FormLab was established as an accessible learning workspace for all staff, students and courses. It is an initiative to enable pedagogical methods to be explored and tested. While the lab is physically located at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, its methodology is tested in different locations, workshops and ‘real-world’ situations. It is important to emphasize that all the methods and exercises in the following examples address challenges in the initial phase of an architectural design process. Hence, they are methods and exercises that aim to trigger and enhance open-ended processes that will challenge the students to explore and embrace risk. In these initial phases, divergent thinking is essential, whereas convergent thinking is required when it is time to wrap up and make decisions.

Contact: FORM group, Bjørn Otto Braaten, Gro Rødne

TEKSTILlab is established with the aim to develop teaching, research and artistic work based on the rich Nordic tradition of textile arts and crafts as well as emerging digital technologies. In a time of increasing need to understand complex relational contexts in the face of societal, environmental and climate-related challenges, the interest in textile materials and technologies is linked to the expectation that this will become a core area in future sustainable design. This relates not least to the need for increased material knowledge in the built environment, if the sustainability goals are to be met, and textile materials with their particular properties open significant new perspectives in this regard. Through development of our physical facilities and competencies in this area, we seek to Formatted: English (United States) contribute through design innovation to the international construction, research and learning environments currently exploring this potential.

Contact: FORM group, Nina Holtan, Edith Lundebrekke, Nina Haarsaker, Tordis Berstrand

Lucas Workshop

The Lucas Workshop is a dedicated space for model-making and larger scale constructions (including small 1:1
buildings and prototypes). The lab is primarily equipped for manual woodworking and digital fabrication in wood and organic materials, although there is a possibility for light metalworking. The facility has a comprehensive set of machines and equipment that allows exploring traditional woodworking, fine woodworking, cabinetry, architectural model-making and full scale prototypes in both education and research. The digital fabrication equipment includes laser cutters, full sheet CNC router and 8-axis robotic milling with a 4 meter build envelope. 
The shop staff of professional cabinet-makers provide a safe and secure environment for students to explore the way things are made and put together. All new incoming students are given an orientation into lab use, access and guidance whenever needed. The lab contributes to research projects, exhibitions and artistic work by staff.

Contact: Pete Roze/ Jörg Schauer