The Swiss are known for exceptional quality goods: Swiss watches, Swiss army knives – even Swiss chocolate has an aura of excellence around it. Our newest Swiss member company Nelson Architech is no exception.

A former marine geologist turned architect, Eric Nelson, the founder of Nelson Architech is now pursuing passive house (or Passivhaus) building. This is a German principle meaning that a building has extremely low energy use for heating and cooling. The label “Passive House” means that the house creates 90 percent less heating demand than a standard building. This can be done in a multitude of ways including: high performance windows that either absorb or block the sun, a tremendously tight building envelope, high insulation levels throughout the home, and other technologies.

Above you can see what the Nelson Architech technology looks like! The Solar Active Façade (SAF) has existed on the European market for more than 15 years and has been installed in more than a hundred high performance buildings. The glass reflects the sun’s rays in the summer and absorbs them in the winter in order to maintain a perfect living environment. Not only does this technology insulate more efficiently to save energy costs, but it also saves the consumer money on housing upkeep since the outside is glass! The glass is shatterproof, so you don’t have to worry about damage to the system, and since it is slick glass that does not corrode, the system is very easy to clean and maintain.

The façade system can even be incorporated with a PV layer, which loses about 10 percent of its thermal efficiency but in turn generates electricity for the home.

Nelson Architech is joining us for three months through the MAtCH program. The program is an exchange of cleantech startups between Switzerland and the United States. It grants Swiss startups with up to three months of membership in Massachusetts incubators and Greentown Labs is proud to participate in the program. With this program, companies like Nelson Architech can break into the US market and get to know the American ecosystem.

Similarly, American companies can also participate in the MAtCH program and take their startups to a Swiss incubator. For Massachusetts startups, MAtCH is a great way to become established in markets across Europe.

To learn more about the MAtCH program check out MassCEC’s website or contact Katie Dobbins at MassCEC or Cayman Somerville at Greentown Labs for more information

To learn more about Nelson Architech, check out their website.