The hARQware Home Chair was set up on 17 March 2016 at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya during an event which included participation from the Rector Dr Xavier Gil Mur. The Director of the hARQware Home Chair Dr Juan Trías de Bes also participated in the event, as well as the Managing Director of VOPI 4 Mr José M. Barnés, the Department Director Mr Ricard Sabaté, and the Director of New Business Areas, Ms Cristina Martín. The Chair forms part of the Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrialised and Sustainable Construction (LITEIS) research group at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture.

The hARQware Home Chair was set up due to demand expressed by the international community on various occasions in relation to architecture’s commitment to and involvement in the development of the quality of the constructed environment in a world undergoing rapid transformation. For that reason, architectural disciplines must contribute to social balance and tackle needs when constructing cities and the urban habitat, as well as have the ability to provide affordable housing that offers a dignified and healthy lifestyle.

Dr Juan Trias de Bes, Director of the hARQware Home Chair pointed out that “Due to technological development, the use of new media in the field of architecture has an impact on design tools, construction processes and use of space. This phenomenon promotes transformation since it introduces new challenges to the relationship between the construction of housing, the city and the territory.” For that reason, the three different areas of the hARQware Home Chair will be developed within the field of systems of representation, production processes and organisation and housing management systems.

The Managing Director of the VOPI 4 Group, Mr Josep M. Barnés, declared the following: “In the VOPI 4 Group, based on the entrepreneurial spirit and constant innovation that characterises the group, we are very happy to be able to cooperate with an institution like UIC Barcelona in order to set up the hARQware Home Chair. We are convinced that the future lies in establishing a sustainable and efficient society. For that reason we require a great deal of field work and research in order to achieve evolutionary home construction which generates optimised energy consumption using cutting-edge IT applications. In the VOPI 4 Group we have spent the last 25 years in the construction and energy sectors, we think we can contribute our know-how from both sectors and evolve in order to promote the aforementioned new models for collective housing”.