Coinciding with World Energy Saving Day, which is celebrated today, 21 October, Manca said that the projects, “from the very beginning must be created so that they have a three-fold impact: social, environmental and economic. Architects committed to sustainability have seen that a sustainable building can be achieved without extra costs, if we plan it this way from the very beginning,” he said.
The expert has committed to energy-saving houses, such as passive houses, to optimise the available natural resources, since these houses “are designed with environmental climate conditions and their location in mind.” In this regard, he added that “orientation of the house, the use of natural materials, proper ventilation, good thermal insulation or integration with the environment are some of the criteria considered when designing a passive house.”
The lecturer on Sustainability at UIC Barcelona believes that buildings in the future will be aligned with the European taxonomy, “despite the fact that these criteria are not yet part of the regulations at this time.” He went on to say “These buildings will have an energy passport: the life cycle will have been studied and the entire life cycle and its environmental impact on CO2 emissions will be limited,” In his opinion, the goal is that “all new builds be sustainable and with zero net or positive energy consumption, and have an energy renovation rate between 3 and 6% every year, in order to counteract climate change.”
Manca insisted on the importance of building renovations, especially in terms of energy, and made it clear that renovation is “an opportunity to make an investment with a very interesting return and that it is activating the whole economic and subsidy world.” However, he insisted that “we must do it well, be consistent and make sure that buildings really reduce their energy consumption and achieve measured and proven impact reduction results.”
The UIC Barcelona lecturer pointed out that despite the fact that renewable energies can be useful in some cases, “not everything can be solved with this kind of energy” because “they require materials that are scarce.” “We have to work from the concept of the building as a machine for climate control and user comfort. Buildings will increasingly be material banks with components that will be used as borrowed items and will be reused in future builds to minimise the impact of material destruction,” he added.
Manca insisted on the importance of users being informed when renting or buying a home on “how much will they save every year,” and explaining to them that choosing more sustainable housing is equal to “reducing the impact of thousands of round trips by plane around the world.”
