On Wednesday 8 March, the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona) organised a conference entitled “Shared Success: Joint Innovation between Industry and Universities”, which used success stories to bring architectural innovation closer to industry. The event, which was attended by companies, architects and professionals from the construction and industry sectors, was promoted by the Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrial and Sustainable Construction (LITEIS), part of the UIC Barcelona ESARQ-School of Architecture.
The director of the ESARQ-School of Architecture, Josep Lluís i Ginovart, welcomed the audience and introduced the opening presentation by Doctor of Architecture Ignacio Paricio, who stressed the need for industry and universities to collaborate in creating innovative prototypes.
Next, Dr Vicenç Sarrablo, director of the ASCER-sponsored Barcelona Ceramics Chair, introduced the six members of the LITEIS Group, himself amongst them, and highlighted the fact that the research group – made up of five doctors of architecture and one engineer - includes the directors of the three university-business chairs that the School of Architecture has established thus far since 2004.
THE CASE OF FLEXBRICK
Sarrablo went on to explain the various innovation and research projects carried out over the 13-year history of the Ceramics Chair, the first in what is now a network of Spanish Ceramic Chairs. He then introduced Lluís Pinardel, director of Flexbrick, as an example of an actual product currently on the market. Flexbrick is a ceramic textile, an industrialised construction system that combines technological innovation with traditional materials and makes it possible to use small pieces to create large-scale projects. Pinardel pointed out that “collaboration between industry and universities has been, and continues to be, vital to innovation in this field”.
CLIMATE CONCRETE
The floor was then given to Felipe Pich-Aguilera, director of the Chair in Industrialised Construction and the Environment (CEIM), who underlined that “sustainability is the engine that drives innovation”. The Chair, sponsored by Rockwool, encourages the recycling of construction materials, a necessary step in moving architecture forward, promoting the circular economy and raising environmental awareness. The CEIM Chair, which is supported by CEMEX, a manufacturer and distributor of technological concrete, is responsible for the innovative Climate Concrete system, in which porous concrete is used to capture and store water, helping to improve the energy performance of the building and the quality of the air inside.
Furthermore, Architect Enrique Terrado, Urban Dynamics and Design Manager for the CEMEX Research Group, added that “industrialisation is not enough; we need design”. Lastly, Architect Juan Trías de Bes, director of the hARQware Housing Chair, which was established last year, presented an innovative solution supported by the VOPI 4 Group, specialists in residential construction. The Chair is based on the premise that the future lies in establishing a sustainable and efficient society. Its main goal is to reduce the costs associated with a basic need: housing, and to facilitate access to it, especially for the younger and more vulnerable sectors of the working population who have been deeply affected by the fallout from the crisis. At the same time, it aims to provide appropriate answers to the needs of a society that is constantly evolving.
SCALABLE HOUSING
The Chair is currently focusing its research on collective housing projects: “for the same cost of a 55m² home, we can produce a 75m² home using an evolutionary and scalable process”, explained Juan Trías de Bes, director of the Chair. “Thanks to ICT we can keep tenants permanently updated about how much their homes consume and manage some of the building’s community services. Scalable housing represents a genuine solution thanks to the management of a series of different parameters with a more global focus”, he explained. The innovation of the Chair can be summed up in a new methodology that involves taking a global approach to the question of collective housing and addressing the three issues of Land, Habitat and Consumption in parallel.
The event was closed by Juan Núñez Berruguete, business director at Metrovacesa, who emphasised the need for collaboration between industry, universities and government authorities to develop initiatives that encourage innovation.
