Recycled and Natural Materials and Products to develop nearly zero energy buildings with low carbon footprint (LIFE17-ENV/ES/000329)
This Project aims to identify natural and recycled construction materials and related technologies to develop and popularize the NZEB with low carbon footprint in Spain and Portugal.
There will be built 11 demonstrators to check hypothesis and results either in residential, industrial and public buildings. Furthermore, labelling criteria, recommendations and regulations needed to introduce the low carbon construction as a new compulsory requirement in the development of architecture in the regions participant in the project will be develop.
General objectives
- Development of a construction model of nearly zero energy building with low carbon footprint and low cost using green and circular economy criteria. The decreased embedded energy and CO2 emissions will be more than 60% and the reduction of weight of more than 20% both compared to actual construction standards. This new model is only 25% more expensive than the nowadays building average costs.
- Introduction of sustainable construction materials and technologies «close to the market» such as kenaf insulation, rice husk composite materials and biomass ash in concrete structure.
- Promotion of sustainable construction technologies with low market rate in Spain and Portugal such as wood structure, windows and finishes, compressed earth block structure, cork insulation, olive kernel biomass, clay wall panels and sustainable green roof/façade.
- Building 10 prototypes (2,000 m²), in existing and new constructions, with the natural and recycled technologies selected in the project. They have different typologies, sizes and uses to test the viability of those technologies in different scenarios.
- Decreasing the energy demand in buildings using envelopes made with recycled and natural materials. The energy demand of the building will be 10% of the current average in Portugal and Spain building stock. This construction model building demand will be lower than the recommendations published by EU in 2016/1318 (29th of July 2016) for Mediterranean countries: 0-15 kWh/m² year for dwellings and 20-30 kWh/m² year for offices.
- Dissemination of proposed technologies. Hosting workshops, courses, technical talks and ads in media highlighting the long term environmental and economic advantages compared with the current construction standards.
- Promotion and dissemination of nearly zero energy buildings in Portugal and Spain. Visiting the prototypes, promoting their replication and the use of the technologies with low carbon footprint and circular economy.
- Development of technical documentation, regulations, recommendations and urban regulations to reduce embodied energy in construction and promote the use of construction technologies based on recycled and materials.
Role of the University of Cordoba
- Promotion of sustainable construction technologies with low market rate in Spain and Portugal such as wood structure, windows and finishes, compressed earth block structure, cork insulation, olive kernel biomass, clay wall panels and sustainable green roof/façade.
- Develop technical documentation, regulations, recommendations and urban regulations to reduce embodied energy in construction and promote the use of construction technologies based on recycled and materials.
Investigador Principal: Marta Conde García
Correo electrónico de contacto: marta.conde@uco.es