Dominic Büttiker

Research area

Dominic Büttiker is a researcher at the Spatial Development and Urban Policy Research group at ETH Zürich. His main research topic focuses on sustainable urban densification within existing housing settlements (soft densification), studying the socioeconomic impacts of vertical extensions (“Aufstockungen”) on local tenants and identifying aspects that facilitate densification strategies with less displaced residents, and which are environmentally more sustainable. This research is part of the interdisciplinary Innosuisse Project “SynEnergie - Verdichtung im Bestand.” Furthermore, he is involved in a project on housing construction activity and displacement in urban Switzerland, quantitatively investigating the socioeconomic impacts of Switzerland’s densification strategy.

Dominic holds an MSc in Integrated Building Systems and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zürich. In his master's thesis, he investigated the environmental impact (total GHG emissions) of different densification strategies, using a parametric life cycle assessment (LCA). Specifically, he compared different designs within three scenarios: replacement constructions, adding storeys to existing buildings (soft densification), and renovations, as well as benchmarking them from multiple perspectives.