The HARQware Platform Chair

The HARQware Platform Chair is part of the activities undertaken at the Laboratory of Technological Innovation for Industrialised and Sustainable Building (LITIS) at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, and is supported by Simon, a multinational company committed to the environment, quality design and comfort, and TDB Architecture, an architecture studio that focuses on the integration between architecture and humanism, at all scales of the project. The research work of the Chair is directed by Dr Juan Trias de Bes, a senior lecturer at UIC Barcelona.

The HARQware Platform aims to create a digital platform to promote the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) belonging to the building industry and the urban habitat as a tool with two main objectives:

1. To ensure shared access to multiple services for users.
2. To provide information for the improvement and optimisation of energy consumption.

The HARQware Platform Chair aims to promote the humanisation of digital technologies, placing them at the service of communities, with the aim of improving the quality of life and well-being for people, while reducing the environmental impact of construction.

The Chair is constituted in the form of an “business ecosystem”, a conceptual and organisational structure that provides the ideal technological environment for research work. In this context, the participating companies and the research team collaborate through the HARQware Platform with the aim of providing the best possible service for users and generating knowledge that brings an overall benefit to society.

Among the activities to be carried out is the development of an intelligent monitoring and management system, whose capabilities offer users the opportunity to optimise compliance and the satisfaction of basic requirements, such as supplies, daily tasks, urban travel, and work.

The vocation of this Chair is to undertake research through practice, so it will make an impact on results in both pilot projects and real cases.