At La Uni we want to know a little more closely what our universities are like, what buildings they are part of and what those facilities are like where all kinds of educational and research activities are carried out. There are so many facilities that make up the university system that we want to get to know them to know what they contribute to the academic community. Therefore, today we want to begin this tour by approaching the ICTA-ICP building.
For ten years now, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has had one of the most characteristic buildings in Catalonia. This is the ICTA-ICP, a piece of equipment designed from its origins to reduce environmental impact on many fronts.
It was inaugurated in 2014 and its main features were designed – even then – to reduce energy consumption by 62% and cut water consumption by 90% compared to a conventional building. It has 9,400 square meters distributed over six floors, four of them with offices, laboratories and common spaces, one for parking, one for several warehouses, such as the fossil warehouse, and a covered floor used as a greenhouse.
Its cost was around eight million euros and was co-financed by an operational program of the European Regional Development Fund of Catalonia 2007-2013 and by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. His investment was recognized as one of the best and is still remembered today as one of the most profitable investments.
In this sense, Xavier Gabarrell, vice-rector of Campus and Sustainability of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ??“this building broke the myth that what is sustainable is expensive, because in our case what is sustainable is profitable due to the savings it has entailed in spending on services. and contribution to the environment.” Who was also director of the ICTA at the time, Gabarrell laments that “unfortunately the building continues to be a reference, because everything that was designed fourteen years ago continues to be a current necessity.”
The headquarters of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont (ICP) was designed by two teams of architects: dataAE and H Arquitectos, who were commissioned to develop a design that would save energy, consumption of water and in terms of the materials used for its construction.
Although no new buildings have been built at the university, the vice-rector recognizes that many resource-saving policies applied in the ICTA building are now contemplated in many new projects that will be developed at the university. “Therefore, I think yes, that the building that we opened ten years ago marked a before and after in the conception we have of sustainability in architecture,” concludes Gabarrell.
Building features
The building mainly houses offices and laboratories that, due to their activity, tend to generate heat. The design aims to take advantage of this heat in winter and dissipate it in summer through natural ventilation. Four interior patios make up a large central atrium that guarantees optimal quality of natural light on all floors. A concrete structure with a lot of thermal inertia collaborates directly with the passive comfort of the building.
One of the most notable assets of the property is the exterior façade, which has a “bioclimatic skin.” A system comparable to that of an agricultural greenhouse that regulates, through automatic openings and closures, the capture of solar radiation and ventilation. The outer skin adapts by opening and closing, depending on the temperature, humidity, wind and external solar radiation, to achieve the best bioclimatic conditions inside at all times. This creates an intermediate space between 16 and 30 degrees, which acts as a thermal cushion and helps maintain a comfortable temperature in the work spaces and living spaces, reducing energy demand and improving the temperature inside in a completely natural way.
The interior spaces of the building are landscaped with species appropriate to each location, so that they encourage the entry of nature into the interior of the property and at the same time help regulate humidity.
The building takes advantage of all the contact with the ground of its two underground floors to condition the building’s air renewals, it has geometry systems that take advantage of the underground temperature, and, to support the passive systems at peak times, it has a high-efficiency magnetic levitation compressor refrigeration machine. Thanks to these elements, the building has achieved energy certification with a label A rating, which corresponds to a saving of up to 62% of the consumption that would be common in a similar conventional building.
Regarding water consumption, the property takes into account the entire water cycle to optimize demand and consumption through the reuse of rainwater, gray, yellow and black water. Thus, it manages to save up to 90% in drinking water consumption compared to any other similar, more conventional building.
The building collects rainwater from the roof, the paved space and the neighboring equipment to use it: part for irrigation and the rest, after going through an ultrafiltration and disinfection process, for the dishwasher and sinks. Gray water is regenerated and used as toilet flush water. The wastewater is treated with phytopurification and the solid fraction is used for composting.
