ECODESIGN

Our professional experience has been marked by two major crises: economic and environmental, but it is guided by the firm belief that beyond abstraction and form, architecture is of use when it has a positive effect on the users’ reality. This is why we decided to restructure how we do architecture using what we were taught and change our project strategy:
We constructed an eco-efficient building as a pleasant and comfortable public facility.
Leed Platinum at €950/m2*
(*town planning costs included)

The project reacts in a positive and friendly way to an urbanistically hostile environment, a neighbourhood surrounded by large-scale infrastructure, which forms a visual blockade to accessing the city and nature. Faced with the initial demand of a city wall-building with an interior garden, we responded turning the project inside out like a sock:
A garden that encloses a building.

That is why we focused our creativity on reducing economies, to allow us to do something that should not be an exception: save on energy and invest in comfort. The project pushes forward research into unnoticed sustainability without sacrificing lifestyle.
Working to a fixed budget, we proposed a compact construction that optimizes load reduction, constructed with low-tech pre-industrialized systems to save on resources.
Advanced energy modelling enabled us to give optimal dimensions to the different systems to be able to invest in passive measures (within the budget) that allow the energy demand to decrease dramatically while gaining quality outdoor spaces.
The saving generated allows us to reinvest in active measures to optimize the flow of water, the use of eco-efficient energy and domotic control and monitoring systems.

Applying these criteria we were able to construct a highly sustainable building without exceeding the budget. That aim, however, can only be achieved through a partnership that includes the different agents involved (developer, architect, construction company) and an adhoc flexible-strategy.
Each project requires a multidisciplinary team to be able to meet the complexity of the demands and challenges that arise.
The BARÓ VIVER CIVIC CENTRE AND DAY CENTRE FOR THE ELDLERY is a small building of around 1,700 m2.
The project accommodates offices, workshops and various multipurpose rooms.

LEED certification has been attained by a team formed by Territori 24, CABA Sostenibilitat, and BIMSA.(Barcelona Municipal Infrastructures)

The project gives a 41% energy saving with respect to the estimated reference baseline. This saving has increased during the construction phase with the incorporation of a photovoltaic energy supply, which will cover 9% of the building’s power needs.

Adopting the certification as a goal right from the start of the preliminary designs, as well as managing the project with a focus on LEED, has been of crucial importance: In the design phase alone we had reached 56 points (already equivalent to the LEED Silver rating).

This was possible by setting the project criteria necessary for achieving a good passive response for the building.
Not only were these criteria implemented at a conceptual level, but they were also computer-simulated, thereby allowing accurate decisions to be taken right from the start.
The proposal put forward at the competition phase was aimed at building a high-performance civic facility without elevated costs.
The Project, Energy Certification and Budget have developed in synergy with one another throughout the process.

However, we are reaching much further than our initially proposed target.
Right from the start we established which were the required credits, which were most profitable and the safety credits. These were all studied by surveying and analysing opportunities.

An integrated vision of the project as a whole allowed us to take the measures needed to obtain the credits without increasing the initial budget for the project’s implementation.
Through the close supervision and integrated management of the project’s implementation we have been able to extend our aim to LEED Platinum.

Finally the goal has been achieved.

This has been made possible through the collaboration of all parties involved: from Eulàlia Aran’s site management, the construction company, UTE Serom-Sogesa’s thorough work on the documentation and Greenliving projects as LEED consultancy.