Foundation Naturgy and him College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) They have organized the day «Energy decarbonization and rehabilitation. Innovation and social impact», which has had the participation of national experts who have presented success cases and addressed the challenges and opportunities offered by energy rehabilitation and sustainable innovation. The objective is to achieve climate neutrality in 2050 through an architecture committed to paradigm shift. The day encompassed in the program «Decarbonizing the architecture», organized by the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC).
The event, opened by the dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), Guim Costa Calsamigliaand the chief architect of the City of Barcelona, Maria Baragashas had the participation of the renowned architect Enric Ruiz-Geli; THE DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS#NextGeneration of the Housing Agency of Catalonia, Marta Martínez; the head of the Energy Savings and Efficiency Area of the Institut Català d’En energy (Icaen), Lluís Morer and the Emeritus Professor of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Margarita de Luxán.
In the session, experts have reflected on the decarbonization of the built Park, the innovative solutions for energy rehabilitation, energy rehabilitation in homes in vulnerability, as well as professionalizing training in the field of energy rehabilitation to improve the employability of professionals in the sector, providing them with the knowledge and competences required by the energy transition.
The dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), Guim Costa Calsamiglia, has assured that «COAC assumes a firm commitment in the fight against climatic emergency, since transforming the building sector is essential to achieve climatic neutrality in 2050». On the other hand, Enric Ruiz-Geli, an architect, has assured that «sustainability does not imply that the constructions require a greater budget, but that the challenge is to build neutral emissions buildings with the same market cost, as is the case of the pioneer Media Building of Barcelona.»
Lluís MorerHead of the Energy Savings and Efficiency Area of the Institut Català d’E Energy (ICAEN), has assured that “30% energy consumption in Europe comes from consumption in homes, with high use of fossil fuels. But it is complex to decarbonize the sector when 62% of the buildings were built before 1980, at which time the energy efficiency regulations and isolation of buildings were introduced”.
During the debate, challenges in building rehabilitation have been identified, such as according to communities of owners, the economic challenge for families since subsidies do not cover the entire rehabilitation or bureaucratic complexity in the request for aid. And, above all, how the user moves the need to rehabilitate.
In the session the problem of the lack of professionals in the sector has been addressed. «In 5 years there will be 160,000 employment opportunities in building and civil works, but only 0.66% of those enrolled in FP currently do so in this sector,» he said Eva BuchDirector of Education and Dissemination of Naturgy Foundation. «The Foundation puts the focus on promoting training in this area to increase employability to meet this demand. We want to help form the entire value chain in sustainability to walk towards a fair, equitable and diverse transition, favoring the collection of talent and universal access to new green jobs.»
The meeting has been closed by the general director of Fundación Naturgy, María Eugenia Coronadowhich has highlighted the importance of promoting days that allow disseminating the advances that are being carried out in the energy rehabilitation sector of buildings, which contemplates aspects of relevance such as innovation, attention to vulnerability and professionalizing training. And he has addressed the importance of the Solidarity Fund for Energy Rehabilitation of the Naturgy Foundation, which has allowed rehabilitating more than 5,000 homes. «The energy transition is generating new opportunities in the field of efficient rehabilitation of housing and, therefore, it is key to share good practices that contribute to the improvement of the current housing park, without leaving anyone behind.» In addition, he added, «Naturgy Foundation has a long career of collaboration with the COAC carrying out joint projects that contribute to the decarbonization of architecture.»
COAC and «decarbonizing architecture»
In 2022, COAC launched the pioneer project ‘Decarbonizing the architecture’, in whose framework the homonymous day is developed annually. In addition, the COAC has organized sessions on specialized topics and has created a web space dedicated to decarbonization with resources and information for the collective: https://www.arquitectes.cat/es/descarbonizando-arquitectura.