The main objective of the Spanish Passivhaus Conference, organised by PEP annually, is to provide a meeting forum for the whole construction sector, technicians, administration, manufacturers and in general all the agents involved in the whole process of design, promotion, construction and use of buildings.

The authors’ paper was presented. Beatriz Rodríguez Soria and Miguel Ángel García García from CUD and Carlos Navarro Gutiérrez from BHAUS, all of them members of our consortium. The work presented detected the need to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels as well as CO2 emissions in the military Bases and Barracks of the European Armed Forces (BAEs) and shows how the ZERO ENERGYMOD project of the LIFE funding programme is an optimal solution.

As a result of applying the design conditions, a design has been developed based on 20-foot containers with a rigid stackable chassis structure, modified with respect to those currently available in order to avoid thermal bridges. The HIGH CUBE model has been selected to have a false ceiling.

It has a base insulation in the removable panels of the chassis of 10 cm of high density wool and double tongue and groove. On the inside, another layer of the same panels has been installed and on the outside, 30 cm thick skins of high density wool with an exterior stainless steel finish.

You can read more about their work here.

On Friday 12th November, the Zaragoza Conference Centre hosted the second edition of the Aragonese Building Gala, organised by the Official Association of Quantity Surveyors and Technical Architects of the Aragonese capital and the rest of the building industry. At the event, the awards for this important sector were presented. The awards were based on three main themes: sustainability, innovation and refurbishment as the major needs of our cities. The award for the best innovation project applied to building went to LIFE ZERO ENERGYMOD, our project financed by the European LIFE programme.

This award is a great satisfaction for the consortium and especially for BHAUS as it recognises the effort made in the design of this living space with minimum energy consumption in any location and climate. The fact that all the entities participating in the consortium are Aragonese also shows the region’s capacity to carry out innovative projects that combine energy management and habitability. The germ of the project idea arose from the collaboration that CUD and FHa were carrying out to improve habitability and energy management at the Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic base. This idea was developed by BHAUS applying PassivHaus standards to achieve minimum energy consumption, and finally ARPA contributed its proven experience in the construction of mobile equipment, as well as its capacity for deployment in any location.
The president of the Zaragoza Association of Technical Architects, Rafael Gracia, highlighted during the gala: “the building sector is at a very exciting time, as users are beginning to be aware of the great benefits that new homes have and it is also expected that the aid from European funds will greatly boost the rehabilitation of buildings”.
If you want to know more about this project, we encourage you to visit their website