Büro Vatter (Switzerland)

Walk Under the Midnight Sun is a large-scale carpet installation originally designed for the Hungarian Pavilion of the 2023 Venetian Architecture Biennale, part of an exhibition proposal by Fuzzy Earth design studio and BÜRO imaginaire curator collective. The project invites the public to explore the entangled historical, social and architectural relationships within greenhouse cultivation practices. The protagonist of the installation is a regionally unique capsicum cultivar, the Hungarian wax pepper, known in Hungary as the Cecei paprika. The themes of the exhibition were inspired by Fuzzy Earth’s ‘Not Quite a California Wonder’ research project.

The knowledge on species’ habitat preferences at local scales across its range is an essential condition for defining the most appropriate habitat management for the conservation of any species. In this study, we combined field observations from three European countries with breeding experiments under field conditions to identify oviposition and larval preferences of Coenonympha oedippus at the micro-scale level across contrasting habitat types (wet vs. dry). Despite the wide geographical range and the different habitats we found some common features: (1) vegetation structure of the herb layer is an essential factor for oviposition site electivity and successful development of premature stages; (2) high cover of litter and/or dwarf shrubs in the microhabitat (larval 45–70 %, oviposition 40–50 %) creates a herb layer rich in gaps; at their edges eggs are deposited and the caterpillars are adequately sun-exposed; (3) egg-laying females are not selective regarding oviposition substratum; (4) oviposition height is adjusted to positions with direct sunlight or warm substratum; (5) the host-plants coverage in oviposition sites was high: between 45 and 50 % in wet habitats, and between 18 and 41 % in dry habitats (depending on whether only plants observed as hosts in this study are counted, or whether all potential host species are included); (6) the most important host-plant is Carex panicea (wet) and Carex humilis (dry), but Molinia caerulea (wet) and Festuca rupicola (dry) are also used regularly; (7) the availability of winter-green host-plants in the vicinity of hibernated larvae plays a substantial role in their survival. As regular mowing or grazing would remove the litter and destroy the gaps, the management should be restricted to selective reed cutting or manual shrub removal. Only selective mowing during winter (December–February) can be recommended for keeping the habitat open where the reduction of bushes is not sufficient.

In the domain of social security, the Swiss government – the Federal Council – is responsible for preparing governance decisions that have longterm consequences for the living conditions of the total population and are of a high financial relevance. It is thus important that these decisions be taken in a foresightful manner and based on grounded situation analyses and projections of the future development. This article discusses, how the Federal Council and the Federal Administration comply with this responsible task, on what grounds they found their governance decisions, how they perform strategic situation analyses and evaluate future developments, how they identify need for action and draw conclusions for the strategic governance of social security in Switzerland.

Die ehedem aus Artenschutzgründen betriebenen Renaturierungen von Mooren werden in den letzten Jahren zunehmend durch Aktivitäten zur Wiederherstellung aktiver Moore aus Gründen des Klimaschutzes ergänzt. Bei den aktuell aus Klimaschutzgründen betriebenen Projekten zur Wiedervernässung von Mooren wird davon ausgegangen, dass dies gleichzeitig positive Auswirkungen auf den Arten- und Biotopschutz hat. Diese Annahme wird hier genauer hinterfragt. Dazu werden Effekte auf moortypische Arten, die von der Wiedervernässung profitieren sollten, genauso betrachtet, wie die Auswirkungen auf Arten trockener Standorte, die trockengelegte Moore als Ersatzlebensraum besiedelt haben. Bei moortypischen Arten wird die Phase der Veränderung durch Grabenverschluss und Anstau als ein kritischer Zeitraum herausgearbeitet, da während dieser Phase überlebenswichtige Ressourcen und Teillebensräume verloren gehen können, bevor sie an anderer Stelle durch den veränderten Wasserhaushalt neu geschaffen werden. Bei allen Moorrenaturierun gen sollte dieses Gefährdungspotenzial aktiv berücksichtigt werden, zum Beispiel durch räumliche oder zeitliche Staffelung des Anstaus. Trockengelegte Moore können als Ersatzstandorte wertvoll sein. Bei Wiedervernässung sollten solche Lebensräume durch räumliche Differenzierung möglichst erhalten werden. Ergänzend sind im Rahmen der Planungen Ersatzlebensräume zu schaffen. Bereits entstandene Gehölzbestände einzudämmen, ist in trockenen und wieder vernässten Mooren für den Lebensraumschutz oft genauso essenziell, wie den Wasserhaushalt positiv zu entwickeln.

New facades of high-rise buildings often include renewable energy converters to allow “green building” operation. At the same time, numerous tenants value visual transparency. Transparent solar thermal collectors (TSTCs) aim at decreasing the non-renewable primary energy demand and increasing the visual transparency at the same time. On the one hand, this paper presents the main modelling challenges that arise when considering building facades and especially integrated TSTC systems. New transient systems simulation (TRNSYS) [Beckman, W. A., L. Broman, A. Fiksel, S. A. Klein, E. Lindberg, M. Schuler, and J. Thornton. 1994. “TRNSYS The Most Complete Solar Energy System Modelling and Simulation Software.” Renewable Energy 5 (1–4): 486–488] types have been especially developed for this purpose. A simplified model is presented for comparison purposes. On the other hand, the overall performance for a building with facade-integrated TSTC, as measured by its non-renewable primary energy demand, is treated. This is achieved by considering a complete simulation model coupling the TSTC, building and heating, ventilation and air conditioning operation. Possibilities for primary energy savings are investigated using the building mass as additional thermal storage.

This paper analyses the basic influence of the non-linear stress–strain relationship on the cross-sectional capacity of steel sections in fire. A distinct non-linear material behaviour governed by strain hardening is observed for temperatures between 300 and 600°C. For higher temperatures, the stress–strain relationships are almost bi-linear, with short elastic branches followed by nearly horizontal plastic ranges. Design models for cross-sectional capacities with uniform temperature-dependent effective yield strengths are suitable for fire design at high temperatures and with almost bi-linear material behaviour. For distinct non-linear material behaviour, however, these design approaches are not able to accurately describe the cross-sectional behaviour at elevated temperatures.