EELISA GenAI Experience Lab: Students Shaping the Future of Sustainable Buildings with AI
How can artificial intelligence not only enable more efficient buildings, but also tangibly improve the everyday lives of the people who use them? Around 30 students from various European EELISA partner universities explored this question in the GenAI Experience Lab at ZHAW.
The project is the first to be led by ZHAW and implemented within the framework of the EELISA Joint Call funding. It serves as a microcosm for testing new, innovative, and European approaches to learning, with the aim of further developing such formats in the long term and embedding them as an integral part of the existing curriculum.
Learning with and about AI – collaborative and practice-oriented
The overarching goal of the GenAI Experience Lab was to make AI-supported teaching and learning tangible. The focus was not only on technological aspects, but above all on critical thinking, digital ethics, and creative problem-solving. Under the motto “Let’s be desAIgners of what comes next!”, participants worked in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams on a real-world sustainability challenge from industry.
A “wicked problem” from industry
At the core of the Lab was a so-called wicked problem. These problems are characterised by their complexity and dynamic nature and cannot be solved definitively: solutions are not right or wrong, but rather better or worse, and every attempt to solve the problem changes it.
The Company Eliona, a provider of a smart building platform, presented the students with such a challenge: How can the extensive building data that has so far primarily supported operators and owners in improving efficiency and reducing costs be used to create real added value for building occupants?
The task was to design a compelling end-user application that does not merely “manage” buildings, but actively improves people’s everyday experiences within them.
From design thinking to functional prototypes
Between 21 November and 9 December, students collaborated in a blended format: two days online and two days on site at the Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management in Wädenswil. Methodologically, the Lab was based on design thinking and design research, combined with the targeted use of generative AI tools.
Within a short time, the teams developed functional digital prototypes. The Lab concluded with a pitching and evaluation day, during which the teams presented and reflected on their solutions together. The projects ranged from building management tools for universities to intelligent wayfinding apps for public buildings such as airports and hospitals. A particular focus was placed on the role of AI in intercultural and interdisciplinary design processes. Working across national and disciplinary boundaries highlighted the diversity of needs, expectations, and usage contexts – and demonstrated how GenAI can be used both as a creative sparring partner and as a tool for reflection.
EELISA as a space of opportunity
The GenAI Experience Lab exemplifies how EELISA functions as a European educational space: students, lecturers, and industry partners collaborate on real societal challenges while developing future-oriented competencies across disciplinary and national boundaries.
For ZHAW, the project represents an important milestone. As the first EELISA Joint Call project led by the university, it strengthens ZHAW’s international visibility and underscores its commitment to actively shaping innovative, sustainable, and excellent teaching.