Young students come to explore the LOW3 solar house and learn about more sustainable architecture and lifestyle

[eng] ETSAV has received a new educational visit by Isabel de Villena School from Barcelona. 25 students and their teachers spent half a day at our campus visiting and exploring the experimental installations in the field of sustainable architecture and renewable energies of Living Lab LOW3.

Students split up into four groups, exploring the solar house and its installations. Energy control and management, bioclimatic concepts and mechanisms, photovoltaic energy generation and the solar thermal installation have been centre of the explorations and measurements.

Young students used the equipments of Living Lab LOW3 for monitoring the temperature of different zones of the prototype and for measuring the incident solar radiation on different oriented façades as well as the effectivness of the screens as shading devices.

A second group measured the energy consumption of different appliances like the oven, a hairdryer or the kitchenlights in order to get a feeling for magnitudes of energy use in households and the related CO2 emissions and economic costs per service unit.

Introductory Course ETSAV 2017: nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB)

[eng] A transition of our society towards a new collective and individual way of living with less environmental impact is one of the main challenges of our times.

Within the Introductory Course for new students of architecture at ETSAV, Living Lab LOW3 offers two classes in the field of Architectural Technology based on the specific knowledge generated through the LOW3 solar house prototype and the R4E-Roadmaps for Energy Research project.

The first class, titeled "Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs)" introduced into basic notions and parameters of sustainability, the environmental impact of housing and the definition of new energetic standards, before exploring the habitational, contructive and energetic concept of LOW3 at the campus.

Classes consist in the combination of two innovative ways of learning: MOOC self-learning units and other online resources; together with the exploration of the real prototype LOW3, an energy self-sufficient solar house, discovering, questioning and discussing solutions which are different to standard buildings of today.

A second class will be held in two weeks, focusing on Renewable Energies and the holistic energy transition of society.

Smart buildings and cities – R4E project meeting at Forlì

[eng] Within the Roadmap for Energy (R4E) – Horizon 2020 project representatives of all 8 participating cities and the two knowledge partners TU/e and UPC met at Forlì, Italy, for a 4 days workshop on new European project proposals regarding smart buildings and cities.

Under the lead of the city of Murcia, all partners developed a specific project portfolio for future projects in fields like Energy Efficiency in Existing and Historic Buildings, Urban Resilience to Climate Change, Urban Domotic, Smart Energy Storage and Open Data Infrastructures amongst others.

The assistance of the EU project officer of the project and presentations of the project manager from Eindhoven Brainport allowed identifying at the same time funding opportunities within the new Horizon 2020 work program 2018-2020. UPC as knowledge partner to the cities plays an active role in the project development resulting in new opportunities for collaboration in the field.

New project proposal for “Sustainable Lifestyle Accelerator"

[eng] Under the lead of the Wuppertal Institute (WI), UPC participates as project partner in a new proposal for accelerating lifestyle changes in society through online tools, Living Lab approaches and the up scaling of experiences. 

The development and use of an online Footprint Calculator and international collaboration of 7 countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain and Switzerland) shall help to create momentum in society to adopt more sustainable lifestyles, reducing resource consumption and climate impact through behavioural change.

Tracking and spreading the results of a total of 4000 participating households will foster innovative solutions and allow that individual changes go mainstream.

INNOENERGY MSc RENE INNOVATION SEMINAR 2017

[eng] Living Lab LOW3 welcomed for the fourt year students of the InnoEnergy MSc Program "Renewable Energies" (RENE) from 8 different countries for a 2-day innovation seminar under the title “Holistic Sustainability Approach for Innovations”.

This year 46 students, divided into two groups worked again on the ambitious goal to develop "Sustainable Lifestyle Scenarios 2050" including technological, environmental and socioeconomic forcasting as a result of the presented projects and generated discusions.

Students got known to the innovative concepts of UPC's nearly zero energy buildings, exploring and analysing the technological concepts of the LOW3 prototype house in the fields of solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, HVAC, bioclimatic building management and energy monitoring systems.

A second focus has been to get known to a holistic approach to sustainability through the visit of the neighbourhood project PASaPAS at Les Planes, related to energy efficiency and energy poverty, focusing on lifecycle and system thinking at city level.

Roadmaps for Energy (R4E) - HORIZON 2020

En el marc del projecte Europeu Roadmaps for Energy s’han portat a terme en els últims mesos des de la UPC importants estudis referents al futur dels “Smart Buildings” i dels “Smart Urban Spaces”.

Per una banda, s’ han elaborat estudis sobre l’ estat actual de les tecnologies relacionades amb totes dues àrees, obtenint com a resultat uns “Desk Studies” tecnològics amb visió al futur.

Per un altre costat, s’ han portat a terme una sèrie d’ entrevistes personals amb experts de tota Europa creant, a base de les seves experiències i previsions, uns “Generic Roadmaps” pels àmbit en qüestió, que dibuixen escenaris de transformació energètica amb horitzó en el 2050.

Entre els experts consultats hi ha hagut arquitectes reconeguts, com a Georg W. Reinberg (Viena), Bill Dunster der ZED Factory (Londres) o el cap de sostenibilitat de Foster and Partners (London), experts de l àmbit industrial, com per exemple Siemens i Schneider Electric, i experts del mon acadèmic i polític-social.