A centre dedicated to showcasing the latest innovations in sustainable building solutions has opened its doors in France.
Holcim’s new Innovation Hub not only intends to showcase the latest solutions, but also serve as a “co-creation lab” to accelerate low-carbon, circular and energy efficient building worldwide.
Spread across three floors, the hub offers working spaces to host start-ups, and think tanks to accelerate innovation together.
The company says it will also serve as an “urban dialogue platform” to explore the future of sustainable cities and their construction via interactive exhibits and events.
Nollaig Forrest, Holcim’s chief sustainability officer, said: “It’s a very exciting time for the building sector, with so much momentum in innovation to advance sustainable solutions.
“At Holcim we want to partner with the best and brightest innovators to accelerate the transition to low carbon, circular and energy-efficient building.
“Our Innovation Hub, within our global R&D centre, is designed to host partners from start-ups to architects to explore new solutions together.”
Miljan Gutovic, Holcim’s region head for Europe, added: “Holcim’s Global Innovation Hub is at the core of our decarbonisation journey.
“Our R&D teams here are focused on driving low carbon formulation to scale up solutions like ECOPact, the world’s broadest range of low carbon concrete, all the way to ECOCycle, our circular technology platform recycling concrete into new materials to build cities from cities.
“Our Innovation hub is a great platform to put our expertise to work with our partners to scale up our impact.”
The Innovation Hub is located in Holcim’s Global R&D centre in Lyon, France, where it says more than 200 researchers are dedicated to developing sustainable building solutions.
The range of expertise is said to cut across all fields of building, from masons and engineers, to material scientists and experts in artificial intelligence.
The centre is focused on leading research, from low-carbon formulation and circular construction all the way to green retrofitting for energy-efficient buildings in use.
The Holcim Innovation Hub opened earlier this week; professionals from the construction industry can visit it upon request, the company says.
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