Business Region Göteborg

BRF Viva – Housing with Minimum Climate Footprint

Brf Viva was Sweden’s most sustainable and innovative housing project when it was built. Its many smart solutions in energy efficiency and building materials, as well as pioneering trialling of new ideas, make Viva an instructive and inspirational sustainable-living housing development.

Solar-power systems, energy storage, heat recovery from ventilation (FTX), car and electric bike pools, remote workplaces and resource-efficient construction using low-carbon concrete. These are some of aspects leading the way to sustainable living at Viva, a cutting-edge housing project inaugurated in September 2019.

Housing solutions for the future

What makes Brf Viva unique are the socially, economically and environmentally sustainable housing solutions for the future that are being implement at full scale. These include ideas previously untested in Swedish housing projects. The project has resulted in increased sustainability, with the insights and lessons learned being put into practice at the Viva housing association. It comprises 132 apartments in Guldheden, next to the Chalmers University of Technology campus area in Gothenburg.

Reusing bus batteries for energy storage

The energy storage system in the Viva housing association is part of housing company Riksbyggen’s Positive Footprint Housing research project. The project is also linked to a testbed for electrically powered public transport (ElectriCity, supported by the EU’s IRIS Smart Cities project), which includes repurposing used bus batteries to store solar energy.

Other Brf Viva innovations include social and environmental initiatives such as:
• New housing association studio flats for young people for only SEK 95,000 (€9 340)
• Innovative mobility solutions that make it easier to not own a car, such as large, secure bicycle parking areas.
• Mobility as a service, an app that makes it easier for people to plan, use and combine different modes of transport, such as bike, carpool and public transport.
• Ecosystem Service Analysis, a tool to retain and incorporate ecosystem services in new housing projects.
• New, more durable concrete produced with 30% less CO2 emissions.
• Environmental Gold building certification.

Collaboration between science, housing and energy

The project was initiated by Riksbyggen in collaboration with organisations such as Johanneberg Science Park, Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Gothenburg, Göteborg Energi, the City of Gothenburg and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden). Thanks to its holistic approach to sustainable housing, Brf Viva was named Environmental Building of the Year at the Sweden Green Building Awards 2019.

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