Domolab, inventing tomorrow's habitat

WHERE RESEARCH AND MARKETING WORK HAND IN HAND

DomoLab complies with the Group’s strategy: innovate to address new markets. It is in the form of an interactive and cross-business center, a tool for creative and forward-thinking dialogue between the Group’s various companies involved in habitat and the construction industry’s key stakeholders (architects, engineering firms, construction companies, property promoters, etc.). 

Its role is to improve its knowledge of customers’ needs and to convert this knowledge into innovative projects. DomoLab also enables Saint-Gobain to showcase its global offer of products and services, promote the complementarity between its companies and their ability to work together. A working tool, DomoLab aims to gain a better understanding of the market’s needs and anticipate trends to generate a permanent innovation dynamic.

Since its official opening in 2011, DomoLab has welcomed more than 5,000 visitors. 

• The meeting between Saint-Gobain and a jewelry company, for example, resulted in a joint discussion that may lead to the refurbishment of the jeweler’s stores. 
• Co-development actions have been identified with a hotel chain to invent the “hotel of the future.”
• The federation of French state housing organizations has established a working method with Saint-Gobain to encourage innovation and the use of renewable energies in social housing.

These are just some of the actions demonstrating DomoLab’s potential as a source of creative meetings.

THREE-STEP VISITOR PATHWAY

Providing a crossroads between experience, expertise and visionaries, DomoLab is a working space for constant innovation. It offers a three-step visitor pathway, each corresponding to crucial stages in the approach to creative innovation:

SENSE: three sensorial modules to question, surprise and engage.

THERMAL MIRROR to experience thermal comfort and discomfort 

• Experience: an interactive game between what the visitor touches and sees. Handling materials and observing the heat they transmit via an infrared camera capturing their thermal reflection.

LIGHT IGLOO to experience visual comfort and discomfort 

• Experience: installation of different types of glazing in various light scenarios. 

SOUND FOREST to experience acoustic comfort and discomfort 

• Experience: pathway through a labyrinth or materials (glass, plaster and mineral wool) to experience noise, its correction and comfortable silence. 

UNDERSTAND: informative tools to help open up to new possibilities, and to learn and work together.

INSPIRATION WALL 

presenting across a surface area of almost 100 square meters, Saint-Gobain companies’ expertise and innovations, past and future 

THREE-DIMENSIONAL CINEMA 

(with surround sound) to screen videos and high-definition digital models 

MODELS OF CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS 

to understand better how they are used 

VIRTUAL REALITY INTERFACES 

for a virtual experience of reality (acoustic and thermal tests, and self-training) 

These tools invite the visitor to think about new solutions that are increasingly aligned on the market’s needs.

INNOVATE: cooperative working spaces to discuss, swap ideas and co-innovate.

SOLUTHEQUE

presenting the diversity of materials supplied and distributed by Saint-Gobain companies

TWO MEETING ROOMS 

are available, alternating between openness and privacy 

DomoLab is a tool for creative dialogue to find solutions to the challenges facing tomorrow’s habitat.

Key figures

• 24 Saint-Gobain companies present their innovations
• 1,152 square meters total surface area and three levels open to the public
• 60 kWh/m²/year energy consumption 

Find out more (in French only): http://www.construireavecsaint-gobain.fr/inventer/centre-dinnovation-de-saint-gobain/