Suurstoffi Rotkreuz

What we think we achieve with avocado toast and mindfulness, Suurstoffi has accomplished with innovation and state-of-the-art technology. The site is sustainable, green, self-sufficient – and has been the home of the Mobility Cooperative since 2018.

The 100’000 square metre area directly next to Rotkreuz Station hosts a variety of different establishments: schools, residential buildings, restaurants, offices – including the Mobility Cooperative headquarters. It wants for nothing: the site produces all the heat, cold and electricity it uses itself and does no harm to the environment in the process, as the hot and cold supply system is carbon neutral. As a result, the “zero emission” mission is fulfilled. Suurstoffi can accommodate 1’500 residents, 2’600 students and 2’500 workers – including the Mobility Cooperative and its approximately 240 employees.

The zero emission target is achieved as follows: the entire area uses large underground stores for heating and cooling; the stores distribute the heat via an anergy network. Anergy is not a typo, but a method by which heat is transported at low temperatures. Suurstoffi's is the world’s largest heat store of this kind. The electricity is produced via solar power systems.

The sustainable site serves the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as a living laboratory. As part of a long-term study for the work package “New work, mobility and energy”, a research team is investigating, over seven years until 2028, how a sustainable and efficient way of living can be achieved whilst, at the same time, improving the quality of life in certain areas and settlements.

High-rise with a spruce scent

The buildings on the site are all equally sustainable; however, they were conceived by different architects, which is apparent. Nevertheless, they all coalesce to form a whole. One example is Switzerland’s first wooden high-rise. Designed by the architecture firm Burkard Meyer, it serves as an office building, and some say it smells of spruce. In creating the greenery of the Aglaya garden high-rise, 142 specimen trees, 839 bushes, 1’352 climbing plants and 13’500 perennials were planted. This is not to mention the few thousand flower bulbs.

Just next door, at Suurstoffi 16, is the Mobility Cooperative's home since 2018 – an office over two floors, complete with a canteen. The building, comprising apartments and offices, was designed by the Zurich-based architecture firm Bob Gysin + Partner. “For us it’s the perfect location, as the transport connections to the commuter routes from Lucerne and Zurich are ideal”, explains Mobility’s Head of HR, Peter Affentranger, adding: “not only this, but it's fun to work together in our flexible office spaces.”

The traffic-free site is home to companies from the financial and services sector as well as insurance firms and day care centres, whilst it also boasts places to eat and enjoy beauty treatments. As well as this, currently around 4’500 square metres of office space at Suurstoffi 6 is being developed for the Kantonsschule Zug (Zug Cantonal School) – school starts for the 16 classes in autumn 2025.

Area with a long history

The vision for a site designed in accordance with the latest environmental standards came about in 2010 through the developers Zug Estates. The name comes from residents living near a company that was based there at the time, “Sauerstoff- & Wasserstoff-Werk Luzern AG” (today Linde Gas), which was founded in 1909. The more practical name “Suurstoffi” became established amongst the locals. The building still stands today, in amongst the new constructions. Painstakingly renovated, it is now a preschool and canteen.

The Suurstoffi site has one urban park and one outdoor living space. The fact that the nature-oriented building project involved planting many indigenous plants has even seen the site receive recognition from the Stiftung Natur und Wirtschaft (Nature and Economy Foundation). So no avocados to see here.