What will the city of the future look like? tells the architect Joseph Bohigas that the question is recurring by visitors to Barcelona Regional, the ‘think-tank’ that he directs and is dedicated to rethinking urban futures, and the answer they offer is always the same: take the questioning character to the window and answer that possibly It will be the same as what you see but better, since the idea of a perfect city designed from scratch does not even reach the degree of utopia. An improved means to work on existing to make it more efficient. Barcelona, like most European capitals, is already built, there is little left to build again, and more so in these parts, where empty space is almost non-existent.
Rehabilitate the built
So his thing is to take what has already been built and rehabilitate it following the parameters of maximum sustainability and minimum ecological footprint. The future, then, both urban and planetary, involves curbing the climatic emergency from architecture as well. what was said It is valid for all scales of urbanism, dwellings included or, better, especially for homes. The data supports the statement: the energy needed for the construction, maintenance and use of buildings, whether public or private, schools, hospitals, offices or floors account for 40% of the energy consumption of the European Union and the buildings are also between the main emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2): Specifically, the domestic sector is responsible for 20.4% of the total, well ahead of industry (7%) and only slightly below transport (27.41%).
Aged housing stock
More figures, these centered on Barcelona, a city with a very old and very inefficient housing stock, which implores a commitment to rehabilitation: 1947 is the average year of construction of farms and 80% of these are outside the energy regulations (the one that requires thermal insulation), in fact the energy classification of most of the houses in Barcelona is terrible (category E). All this leads to a average monthly energy bill of 200 euros in the homes of Barcelonans. An economic and ecological expense that is as unsustainable as it can be improved. And that plunge many households into energy poverty.
Between 80% and 90% savings
All this and much more was discussed last Wednesday at the presentation of ShowPass, the first renovated house in Barcelona with the Passivhaus seal that accredits it as a passive house. There are more homes that use this denomination, but the one that concerns us, and last week occupied a good number of architects, is the only one that has been audited and has the stamp created in Germany in the 90s to alleviate energy poverty. In this case, ecological and social sustainability go hand in hand, but to understand it, it seems necessary to explain the concept of passive house, which is none other than the house that is adapts to the climatic conditions of its environment and that through different architectural strategies maintain an optimal level of comfort (cool in summer and warm in winter) with hardly any energy input (heating or cooling). The result is a drastic reduction of the energy bill, between 80 and 90%, and CO2 emissions.
look to the past
The result is also a look into the past, when the passive concept was a natural part of the construction. So the architect Michel Wassouf, author and owner of the ShowPass, remembered how Socrates (V BC) redesigned the megaron (the great main hall of the buildings of classical Greece) giving it a trapezoidal shape to capture more solar energy in winter and in summer to keep the sun at bay and comfort thanks to the overhangs of the porch. Although it is not necessary to go back to antiquity to verify that not long ago architecture was still passive. he remembered it Sandra Bestraten, president of the Barcelona demarcation of the Col·legi d’Arquitectes: “It is traditional Mediterranean architecture: sun protection, thick walls, cross ventilation and open windows when the sun is out and closed when it hits hard. Comfort without the need for machines”. And the architect remembered it too Beth Galí: “Previous generations unknowingly built passive houses. So orientation studies, cross ventilation and solar protection were as or more important in the construction of a house than the shape of the house itself.”
in Poblenou
The thing started to go crooked when the natural materials were left (hence the brutal chapter dedicated to condensations in the Technical Code), buildings were made waterproof and aesthetics prevailed above all else. “Perhaps the most innovative thing is to go to the past and recover the things that were done with the advantage that now they can be quantified and measured, they can be certified and tested to see what works best”, according to the architect Miquel Angel Julia. And this is, neither more nor less, what Wassouf has done in ShowPass, the house centennial of Poblenou, which has not only made it passive and habitable (he lives there with his family) but has also transformed it into a laboratory (it is fully monitored to check what works and what doesn’t) and in a open showroom to all those interested in seeing how to change a home to make it sustainable.
for all income
What has been done is summed up in a good thermal insulation, total absence of infiltrations of air, a large Solar protection, the placement of efficient windows and a controlled ventilationbecause they manage to maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the year, which only needs additional cooling or ventilation at specific times, which is achieved with heat pumps that work with photovoltaic panels. Y all with low ecological impact materials and proximity (lime, wood, earth, cork, sheep’s wool…), so that the house is not only efficient from an energy point of view but also it is considered a C02 neutral building.
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The extra cost of so much sustainability is 7%, that Wassouf assures pays for itself quickly with the savings on the energy bill. The challenge is to control the costs to make it affordable to all incomes (In Navarra, officially protected housing is already being built with passive house standards). Y the challenge it is also rehabilitation in a country where the horizontal property. Gaining efficiency in a single house on a farm is possible, but there are things that have to be done in an integral way and here the neighboring communities have to agree. Not an easy task that the Col·legi d’Arquitectes softens with the figure of the mediating architect.
The opportunity of the Next Generation
“Energetic Rehabilitation alleviates pollution, reduces energy poverty and improves health, and in the long run it saves money for the private sector and the public administration & rdquor ;, maintains Bestraten, while recalling that the EU Next Generation funds are a great opportunity to subsidize all these changes. And mitigate the energy poverty experienced by 10% of the citizens of Barcelona.