Project

The project “Waste-based Intelligent Solar-control-devices for Envelope Refurbishment” starts, of “Ecological Transition and Digital Transition Projects” of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) with reference TED2021-130155B-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR.

WiSeR responds to current global sustainability issues, specifically those problems caused by the construction sector, which is responsible for around 40% of the global carbon emissions and energy consumption. This proposal does so in line with current measures and initiatives such as the directives from the European Union (EU), which aim to reduce environmental impacts caused by buildings to achieve the UE 2050 climate-neutral target. In Europe, there are over 220 million buildings of which 85% date before 2001 and are high-energy consumers. To rehabilitate these buildings will require technicians to reuse or recycle at least 70% of their construction and demolition waste, which will reduce the impact of their rehabilitation processes significantly because fewer new materials will be needed while waste matter will be recirculated. 

New methodologies, tools and processes are needed to introduce circular economy principles in the building sector. This does not only require technological solutions and innovative material stream design, but also the need to overcome human resistance to change. These procedures can be supported by understanding, designing, and experimenting with real circular solutions, which after a successful first prototype experience can then be improved, upscaled and designed for market-readiness. This intermediate, experimental, learning-by-doing approach will be developed by designing and implementing an innovative process from waste identification to design, prototyping, improvement, and implementation of waste-based multifunctional facade elements for school buildings. WiSeR explores among others the principles of eco-sufficiency, optimized waste-to-reuse processes, and lifecycle carbon foot printing for building components. 

WiSeR aims to develop new waste-based intelligent facades to then employ to refurbish buildings, which will also contribute to mitigate and adapt to climate change by focusing on openings, whose thermal conductivity and solar thermal gain highly influence interior comfort and related energy efficiency. WiSeR rethinks the role of waste in architecture envelopes by recycling and reusing waste while these facade systems become to recycle at the end of their life. Resulting buildings will improve their own sustainable behaviour, including economic, environmental and social issues. This project will consider the lessons the researchers learned from a previous competitive project which developed workshops for children to build their own solar control devices. WiSeR aims to overcome the weaknesses discovered in those alternatives while introducing new materials. To minimize its environmental impact, this proposal will focus on digital modelling, simulation, characterization and monitoring. A holistic user-centered development is expected, not only for the material but the whole systems. These new systems will be first validated in a school center receiving feedback from our future citizens. Multiple participatory processes, from seminars to workshops, should contribute to move towards more sustainable, better self-operated, wiser solar-control devices for the future. 

In this project the schools ETSAB, ETSAV and EPSEB participate with the following professors: Faezeh Bagheri, Montserrat Bosch, Lucrecia Calderon, Eva Crespo, Inmaculada Fortea, Saeid Habibi, Maria Gabriela Ledesma, Torsten Masseck, Carlos Muñoz, Adrian Muros, Jelena Nikolic, Oriol París, Oriol Pons y Alberto Sánchez, from the Architectural Technology, Representación Arquitectónica y Physics.