The consolidated LITEIS (Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrialised and Sustainable Construction) Research Group recently licensed the patent “Método perfeccionado para la construcción de muros prefabricados” [Revised method for the construction of prefabricated walls] to the company Prefabricaciones y Contratas, S.A.U. (PRECON, a subsidiary of Grup Ciments Molins). The patent was developed by engineer and vice-rector for Academic Organisation and International Relations at UIC Barcelona Jaume Armengou, who filed the patent with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office in 2008.

This prefabricated system presents a series of improvements for containment walls or walls used to reinforce embankments or slopes. The planters arranged along the exposed side are connected to an interior drainage system that keeps water from filtering through the joints of the prefabricated walls, steering it towards strategic watering points.

The new system uses rainwater to irrigate the surrounding vegetation, improving on the aesthetic and functional properties of the walls commonly used in public works and urbanisation. At the same time, redirecting water towards selected drainage points makes the building more durable, avoiding problems caused by corrosion and hydrostatic pressure. 

In recent years, the LITEIS (Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrialised and Sustainable Construction) Research Group has undertaken a great deal of scientific and technological activity, focusing on the development of new construction systems capable of meeting the sector’s current needs. Developments stemming from the group’s three Business Chairs (the Barcelona Ceramics Chair, CEIM Chair and hARQware Chair) include ceramic textiles, porous cement façade panels and new models of collective housing with built-in ICTs.

In this regard, one of the LITEIS Group’s main values is the transfer of technology to industry. Several of the group’s patents have already been purchased by building sector companies, including Flexbrick ceramic textiles and Rosa Gres, the company with which LITEIS recently entered into an agreement to develop new ceramic products with architectural applications.