El estándar Passivhaus es un estándar de construcción que permite lograr un elevado confort interior y, al mismo tiempo, un consumo de energía muy bajo y un precio asequible, gracias al máximo cuidado de la envolvente del edificio y a un sistema de ventilación controlada.

En media, los edificios Passivhaus permiten reducir en un 75% las necesidades de calefacción y refrigeración.

Este estándar se basa en la optimización de los recursos existentes a través de técnicas pasivas, como por ejemplo el factor de forma, que reduzca la superficie en contacto con el exterior para disminuir las necesidades de climatización, la…

Educational buildings in Europe account for around 20% of the entire non-residential floor space where good indoor comfort and air quality are essential for correct educational development. Directive2010/31/UE upholds that the public administration should promote the transformation of its buildings towards Net Zero Energy Buildings. In Spain, it is particularly important to act on the existing building stock since the construction of new buildings has been considerably reduced as a result of the bursting of the property bubble following the frenzied building activity over the last few decades.

This article proposes a method to define and assess strategies to achieve…

The tourism industry, and particularly the hotel sector, is becoming increasingly competitive and dynamic, motivated by the pressures of globalized supply and demand (Oliveira et al. 2013). In fact, over the past six decades, despite occasional shocks, tourism has experienced almost uninterrupted growth and diversification, becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world.

This pattern has continued in recent years, despite the global financial and economic crisis, with tourism having the potential to be one of the main engines of recovery in the EU.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, in 2012 — for…

The EKIHOUSE is an industrialized solar house prototype, designed and developed by the University of the Basque Country for the SOLAR DECATHLON EUROPE 2012 Madrid.

Despite its intentionally small surface area (54.6m2 ), the house can be adapted to suit a wide range of lifestyles thanks to its flexible, multifunctional open plan design that can be visually and physically expanded outdoors by removing the northern and southern glazed façades.

For ease of transportation and assembly, the EKIHOUSE consists of a modular CLT structure system (two 12.60m x 3m modules) that supports the photovoltaic roof (10kWp) which functions as a canopy…

The use of air conditioning in the building sector is increasing rapidly. In almost the 46% of the houses in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) it has been rising by 7% each year. It is reasonable to think that in the case of office buildings this figure is even higher.

Since 1990, the energy consumption in office buildings has increased by 300%. Office buildings are responsible for the 50% of the energy consumption in the building the sector and 8.6% of the total energy consumption in Spain (IDAE 2011). The 26.2% of the energy consumption in office…

The predictions of population growth, published by the UN in 2014, indicate that in 2050 about 66 % of the world population will live in urban areas. The massive migration of rural population to the cities recorded in recent decades is caused mainly by expectations of a better life and greater opportunities due to economic development and industrialization.

However, the increase in urban population often carries serious problems of territorial extension and dispersion, and modifies consumption patterns of its inhabitants. Although cities occupy only 0.5 % of the earth’s surface, they consume about 75 % of global resources. In most…