BAU LÜTZ
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THE BAU LÜTZ APPROACH
Architecture for tomorrow’s climate
Bau Lütz designs and upgrades buildings through its own approach to climatic comfort and adaptation to the future climate.
From new construction to the transformation of an existing building, we consider form, material, light, air, water, energy, technology, landscape and ways of living as parts of the same design reality.
It is not only about consuming less. It is about building or evolving a place so that it continues to work well, remain habitable and retain value over time.
BUILDING AND EVERYDAY LIFE
A house is not the sum of its parts
A house protects, welcomes, breathes, retains heat, seeks shade, receives light, uses water and energy, and changes with the people who live in it.
It is simultaneously a private space and part of a larger system: building, street, neighbourhood, landscape, energy and water networks. This is why an apparently isolated decision can affect many others.
Changing a window also means considering ventilation, sun, acoustics, humidity and the envelope. Working on insulation means thinking simultaneously about winter, summer, construction details and the existing fabric.
Bau Lütz first looks at the whole. Then it moves into the detail. And from the detail, it returns to the whole.
Building and everyday life
From the whole to the detail. From the detail to the whole.
TRANSFORMING EXISTING BUILDINGS
Renovation means enabling evolution
An existing building is not a blank page. It has a structure, materials, orientations, proportions, qualities, vulnerabilities and a history of use. Before replacing, we need to understand.
Upgrading does not mean adding modern components indiscriminately to an older building. It means recognising what can continue to live, what needs to be improved and what genuinely needs to change.
Where technically appropriate, preserving, repairing and integrating can create more value than wholesale replacement.
We do not begin with demolition. We begin with understanding.
Improving without erasing
A period house, a home with large openings, a distinctive façade or an interior with artistic features does not necessarily have to lose its identity in order to meet new climatic and technological needs.
Every case requires a specific assessment. Where architectural value and technical conditions allow, the aim is to improve comfort, climatic performance, systems and everyday use while respecting the building’s proportions, materiality, openings, details and character.
Interventions on protected buildings, historic elements, frescoes and features of value are always subject to specialist expertise, permits and applicable requirements.
NEW CONSTRUCTION
Building today means thinking about tomorrow
When a project begins with a site and a new building, many decisions that require corrective measures in a renovation can be addressed from the outset.
Orientation, form, layout, envelope, openings, shade, thermal mass, materials, systems, vegetation and outdoor spaces can be conceived together. A new building must meet today’s needs without quickly becoming unsuited to tomorrow’s conditions.
Bau Lütz develops projects for new homes and residential buildings and can apply the same integrated principle, according to the commission and required expertise, to professional, educational, healthcare and collective buildings.
These are fields in which the method can be applied, not a list of claimed completed works.
FUTURE CLIMATE
What climate are we designing for?
A building transformed today may still be in use in 2040, 2050 and beyond. The question therefore cannot be limited to how much it will consume next winter.
We must also ask how it will respond during hotter periods, how it will manage sun, shade, ventilation and water, how flexible it will be, and which interventions may be needed over its lifetime.
Why this question matters
The buildings and construction sector is central to the climate challenge and the use of materials. In Switzerland, design must also respond to changing conditions: more intense heat, drier summers, more frequent heavy precipitation and less snow are among the signals described by the Climate CH2025 scenarios.
Efficiency and adaptation are not the same thing. A building may use little energy in winter and still overheat in summer. Every response requires data and assessments relating to the individual building.
Verified institutional sources: UNEP/GlobalABC, Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025–2026; MeteoSwiss, Climate CH2025; Federal Office for the Environment, Climate Risk Analysis 2025.
PERFORMANCE AND DURABILITY
Comfort begins before the systems
Comfort does not necessarily come from adding technological power. Before deciding how to heat or cool a building, we observe what architecture can do through orientation, envelope, shading, openings, thermal mass, ventilation, materials and the relationship with outdoor space.
Technology follows and works alongside architecture: wherever it provides a real benefit.
Materials that continue to work
Materials are not interchangeable. They have thermal behaviour, a response to moisture, durability, maintenance needs, provenance, repair potential and a specific relationship with the existing building.
A material choice is assessed for how it will perform and how it can be maintained, repaired, replaced or recovered over time.
Technology in service of living
Innovation does not mean installing everything that is new. A technology is useful when it genuinely improves the building’s performance without making it unnecessarily fragile, incomprehensible or difficult to maintain.
Energy generation, storage, regulation, ventilation, shading, sensors and control systems are assessed in relation to the building as a whole, its service life and the people who will use them.
EXPERIENCE, LANDSCAPE, COMMUNITY
Protection means more than shelter from the cold
A contemporary home must provide protection in different conditions. Heat, cold, humidity, wind, heavy rainfall, noise, air quality, system vulnerability, maintenance and safety all contribute to continuity of living.
The quality of an intervention is also measured by its ability to maintain acceptable living conditions as the context changes. Every performance depends on the characteristics of the individual building and must be technically verified.
Light, air and perception
A building is experienced with the whole body. Temperature and humidity matter, but they do not exhaust the meaning of comfort. Natural light, shade, air, acoustics, materials, colours, proportions and the ability to look outside all contribute to the everyday quality of a space.
Climate does not end at the façade
Garden, ground, trees, vegetation, shade, water, permeable surfaces, courtyards, loggias and terraces participate in the building’s microclimate. Where the context allows, Bau Lütz considers the house and its outdoor space as parts of the same inhabited environment.
The aim is not to decorate the building with greenery, but to understand how landscape and architecture can jointly contribute to comfort, biodiversity, water management and spatial quality.
The home is both individual and collective
A home protects intimacy, but it does not exist in isolation. An apartment building includes entrances, stairs, landings, courtyards, roofs, shared rooms and circulation spaces; every building is connected to networks of energy, water, mobility, services and neighbourhood life.
An upgrade can also affect the way people enter, meet, separate, share and care for common spaces.
Editorial images and concept visualisations. They do not represent completed buildings, commissions or project references.
THE 2030 AGENDA AS A TOOL FOR QUESTIONS
Seventeen goals, a framework of questions
The Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda are not a collection of badges to be applied automatically to a building. Bau Lütz uses them as a framework that broadens the questions asked by a project.
Some goals are directly engaged by the act of building or upgrading. Others are relevant only in certain contexts. Others still draw attention to indirect effects, supply chains, responsibilities and relationships that must not be forced artificially.
The question is not: how many symbols can we associate with this house? The question is: which consequences of the project might we fail to see if we looked only at energy and costs?
Explore the 17 goals
Open each item to read the project question. References 02 and 14 are explicitly context-dependent and are not assumed to be relevant to every intervention.
Do the choices reduce or increase energy costs and the future cost of living?
Does the project affect fertile land, productive landscapes or spaces for food production?
How do air, temperature, humidity, light, noise, materials and safety affect the project?
Does the building support suitable learning environments and make its use easy to understand?
Do access, safety and the organisation of space respond to different needs without discrimination?
How are drinking water and rainwater used, distributed and managed?
How can demand be reduced and energy used more efficiently and appropriately?
What conditions, skills, safety and professional quality are required throughout the supply chain?
Does the technology introduced provide a real, durable and interoperable benefit?
Is the space accessible and adaptable to different people and stages of life?
Does the intervention preserve heritage, reduce vulnerability and improve the relationship with its context?
How much can we preserve, repair, reuse and design for a long service life?
Does the project reduce impacts while preparing the building for different climatic conditions?
Could materials, construction work and water management create avoidable impacts on water systems?
What happens to soil, vegetation, trees, permeability and biodiversity?
Is the process transparent, compliant, understandable and respectful of each party’s responsibilities?
Are the necessary skills genuinely working together, or are they operating as separate compartments?
The relevance of each goal changes from project to project.
THE MOVEMENT OF THE PROJECT
From the detail to the whole. And back again.
A window is assessed within the building. The building is observed in relation to its exposure and site. The exposure is read in relation to climate. Climate is compared with actual use. Actual use leads back to the detail.
It is through this continuous movement between part and whole that decisions can become coherent.
A house is also a garment
A good garment protects without preventing the body from breathing and moving; it responds to the season, lasts and can be cared for. A house performs an infinitely more complex task, yet the question is similar: how well does it support the life within it?
AN INITIAL CONVERSATION
When to talk to Bau Lütz
A
You have land and want to build
If you are considering a new house or building, we can address orientation, form, comfort, materials, energy, shade, landscape and the potential for future adaptation from the outset.
TELL US ABOUT THE SITE →B
The house becomes too hot in summer
If some rooms become difficult to use during the warmer months, the issue should not necessarily be understood as a simple lack of air conditioning. Sun, glazing, envelope, roof, ventilation, shade, materials and outdoor space can all affect the building’s performance.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR HOUSE →C
A house to preserve and adapt
If you want to update a house without erasing its proportions, openings, materials or character, we can begin by understanding the existing building before defining the transformation.
TELL US ABOUT THE BUILDING →D
House and garden need to work together
When the outdoor space and the building are studied separately, part of their climatic and residential potential may be lost.
TELL US ABOUT THE HOUSE AND GARDEN →E
An apartment building to be upgraded
A multi-family building requires the envelope, systems, shared spaces, costs, maintenance, comfort and collective decisions to be considered together.
TELL US ABOUT THE PROPERTY →F
Spaces for care, learning and work
Schools, outpatient facilities, clinics, offices and other collective buildings require a specific balance between comfort, health, use, maintenance, technology and durability.
TELL US ABOUT THE USE →These are areas for discussion, not references or claims of completed work.
A QUESTION TO BEGIN WITH
How do we want this building to live thirty years from now?
Every intervention has consequences that last far longer than the construction site that produced it. This is why we try to ask two questions at the same time: what does this building need today? And what will enable it to remain sensible, habitable and maintainable tomorrow?
A transformation can begin here.
Editorial content in Italian. Concept images and visualisations have been selected to explain design principles; they do not constitute a portfolio of completed work.
2030 AGENDA AND SWISS REFERENCES
A framework, not a label
The Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda help connect local decisions with broader issues. They are not a building certification and do not replace standards, permits or technical assessments.
Tools to be used only when relevant
SNBS, Minergie, Minergie-ECO, GEAK Plus and other Swiss references can guide criteria, questions and further studies. Bau Lütz does not claim certifications without supporting documentation.
Our perspective
Reduce new land consumption, regenerate underused buildings, create durable housing systems, and integrate landscape, local economies, quality of living and management.
La Farfalla: applies this perspective as a model in development; every site requires its own assessments.