Valladolid. November/2009. The development of the first edition of the Congress of Sustainable Architecture, held at the Valladolid Fair on November 12 and 13, has been described as a success by those who have participated in some of the activities that made up the program of this meeting.
The Japanese Shigeru Ban delivered the inaugural conference and Enric Ruiz-Geli closed this forum, in which more than 300 congressmen participated
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The number of congressmen finally exceeded 300 and among them are architects of international prestige who addressed in their interventions issues of transcendental importance in the field of sustainability. Valladolid brought together architects from Argentina, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, France, Denmark, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Japan, among others.
The organization of the congress was in charge of the Valladolid Fair in collaboration with the Junta de Castilla y León, through the Ministries of Development and Environment, and the two Official Colleges of Architects of the region.
At the closing of this meeting, the director of Institutional Relations of the Valladolid Fair, Juan Useros, after thanking the participants for their presence, announced that "we will continue working in the line started with this Congress, improving those aspects that are necessary, to make the second edition even better".
As a general objective of the congress, the reflection and proposal of sustainable urban and architectural models with a minimum ecological footprint had been proposed, in such a way that they allow achieving the sustainability of the building in the XXI century, through the formulation of proposals for cities and buildings with zeroCO2 emissions, in a first phase, and zero environmental impact as an inalienable objective for the future.
Nineteen international speakers participated in the plenary sessions and thematic blocks in which the content of the meeting was structured, showing the different facets related to sustainable architecture. The number of papers received was around one hundred – between oral and written communications.
Important companies dedicated to the manufacture of materials used in sustainable architecture sponsored this first edition of the congress, in which institutions such as the Construction Labor Foundation, the Construction Institute of Castilla y León, the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Valladolid, the aforementioned professional associations of architects and the architects for Sustainability collective (AxS) also collaborated.
The sponsoring companies were Actiu, Zener Elevators, Rockwool, Junkers, Isover and Knauf Insolation. In addition, 17 other companies attended as exhibitors at this Sustainable Architecture Congress.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban delivered the inaugural lecture, in which he spoke about "Humanitarian Projects and Activities". Throughout his professional career Shigeru Ban has developed projects such as the paper houses he built in the Japanese city of Kobe after the 1995 earthquake that destroyed the city, the Takatori temple or the Japanese pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, in which materials were used that allowed the building to be recycled after the exhibition (wood, cardboard, paper, etc.).
Niclas Svenningsen, head of the "Sustainable United Nations - SUN" (UNEP) programme, then spoke, specifically on the "Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative". SUN is a project launched to "transform the entire United Nations system towards climate neutrality in the coming years".
Salvador Rueda
The director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, Salvador Rueda, focused his conference on the "Instruments of ecological intervention in the city". Rueda, born in Lleida in 1953, has a degree in Biological Sciences and Psychology, a diploma in Environmental Engineering and Energy Engineering and author of scientific-technical and dissemination articles on the urban environment.
Summary note of the presentations of the I Congress of Sustainable Architecture of Valladolid
There is no time to waste. Sustainability concerns us all from our social commitment and towards it we must converge. A change of criteria is urgently needed in order to make what is necessary possible. The common reflection of all the speakers of the congress guides us in this direction. From Shigeru Ban, whose light, clean and beautiful architecture responds to social, privileged and non-privileged demands, to spontaneous presentations, and the technological suggestion of Ruiz-Gelí, all interventions have pointed towards sustainability as part of the new paradigm of human life.
Fernando Prats, under the forecast that the next 10 years will be decisive, provided an ambitious and complete slogan: We want to live well without limiting the assets of the biosphere. For this, it is obvious that the problems on sustainability cannot be solved with the same logic that they were created, so the change towards a new paradigm is necessary. Juan María González, from the Al Gore Foundation, abounded in this positive message to understand sustainability as an opportunity to move forward, to create a better situation for all, which can be achievable and even timely for the development of new businesses, as have already been other objectives that seemed uncertain at the time.
This change of rules affects the different disciplines of our way of life and, of course, architecture. Innovation, from its position of anticipation, has come to question the rules that begin to be non-functional: the word sustainability needs a clear, diaphanous study that distinguishes and makes concrete many ideas that are now dispersed and any initiative that uses it should make explicit the terms that justify it. Niclas Svenningsen, from the United Nations proposes a sustainability metric. He reminded us that the response to the scientific warning on climate change is the responsibility of citizens and the administration: it must propose tax incentives to show real involvement. Again, the fact that 40% of environmental impacts are due to construction is recalled.
Niclas Svenningsen
Salvador Rueda proposes the logic of sustainability as a change of strategy, in which we must imitate nature with an architecture of knowledge. We have to parameterize, use indicators that guarantee that the relationship between demand for resources and adoption of solutions is, at least, equivalent to achieve a good balance without prejudice to the environment. This rigor in the architectural study from the technical support of knowledge, is also adopted by César Ruiz-Larrea, applying it to the industrialization of solutions, in order to reduce costs and achieve living buildings.
There is no possibility of a solution for the territory without the adoption of a transition strategy towards a new economic and social model, involving different disciplines; modifying the concept and use of the city that are at the origin of the serious problems we face. Lucien Kroll contributed his knowledge and practice in promoting the participation of users in architectural and urban processes as an essential step to face these problems, Ekhart Hahn participated in the idea of the necessary understanding of ecology applied to practice and how this practice and through the constitution of management units at the neighborhood level can modify the metabolism of cities. In the idea of Manuel Saravia the city has to be understood in a complete and collective way, and a situation in which sustainability is used as an emblem but in which strategic, political and investment decisions are made with a logic in which mobility, security, health, and the human rights of citizens are relegated.
The understanding between urbanism and architecture requires coordination between construction, urban space and mobility, with objectives of efficiency and excellence. In this environment, the rehabilitation in terms of sustainability of the existing asset of our cities, our neighborhoods, our buildings becomes a very important part. No new homes are needed, but a comprehensive and energetic rehabilitation, which the current regulations do not favor. Pablo Lazo makes a requirement to the multidisciplinary Architecture, complete, that analyzes before the action the consequences of the proposal. There is much to be done, and technique and study will allow us to delve into knowledge.
Both Susanne Theumer, who developed how with the analysis of simple solutions it is possible to reach the construction of passive and energy-efficient homes, and Carlos Expósito, on the evaluation of bioclimatic and technologically efficient architectural solutions, exposed the possibilities of coordinated technology and design to obtain the best solutions. The path to an architecture committed to the environment requires more means and more knowledge in the study of materials and systems that allow discerning and selecting the optimal: we must avoid that the concept of sustainability becomes the obligatory advertising slogan, undoing the aesthetics of the topic with rigorous experience and knowledge.
Finally, as Fernando Prats points out, since we have the knowledge and conviction, everyone, the collective of the population, and not only the architects, must have the courage to act coherently. There is no time to waste.
Thank you to all the participants.
Authors: TECNOSOSTENIBLE - Engineering of comfort and energy efficiency
