The challenge of promoting eco-efficient housing. The case of Kosta Zabala building in Bilbao

• José Manuel Baraibar ^[1]
  1. [1] VIUDA DE SAINZ, S.A.
• Localización: Renovation wave: 12º Congreso Europeo sobre Eficiencia Energética y Sostenibilidad en Arquitectura y Urbanismo – 5º Congreso Internacional de Construcción Avanzada: Bilbao, 29-30 Septiembre 2021 / Rufino Javier Hernández Minguillón (ed. lit.), 2021, ISBN 978-84-1319-374-8, págs. 179-188
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El reto de promocionar Vivienda ecoeficiente. El caso del edificio Kosta Zabala en Bilbao
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • In recent years, the average annual number of new housing units in a community like the Basque Country accounts for 40% of the new housing units before the 2008 global crisis. In this context, which adds to the distortion caused by the COVID19 pandemic, it is a genuine challenge to attract the market and offer the maximum value to the future homeowners. In addition to traditional parameters connected to buying decisions in real estate markets (location, surface, price, proximity to public services, ), a culture shift is taking place in our society, as the consideration of sustainable criteria in the buying of everyone’s own home is becoming more and more common. The housing promotion of Kosta Zabala, in Mauricio Zabala street, Bilbao, has pioneered the obtention of the HQE certificate for a sustainable building in Spain. This project has been built by VIUDA DE SAINZ, S.A. The objective of this certification is to support its global performance. The HQE certification is a comprehensive, multi-criteria approach. It puts energy efficiency, respect for the environment, health and confort of occupiers first. It strives to improve the build environment, by assessing the building’s impact on the surrounding environment and on the users’ health and confort, and taking suitable measures to reduce the building impact. It also supports UN sustainable development goals. Some of the sustainable measures that have been proposed in the project have been the use of structural elements and façades with certified materials with a EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). Besides, the project has replaced thermal solar energy with aerothermal energy, which is also a renewal energy taking advantage of the outside temperature, very appropriate in Bilbao, giving also more performance in this climatic zone. An A energy rating has also been obtained for the whole building. Sustainable transport has also been considered in the project, as the building has a bicycle parking in the ground floor. In addition, all the parking places have recharge point for electric cars. On another front, during the construction phase, we have been participating, together with IHOBE (the public society of environmental management of the Basque Government), in a pilot project in order to asses the circularity of gypsum boards in the construction of new buildings. Finally, in this Project another new pilot experience has been built, in order to digitize the sector and promote collaborative work among stakeholders. In the Kosta Zabala building construction, a Last Planner System (LPS) methodology has been implemented, supplementing it with BIM tools. Although these methodologies do not fully resolve all the issues during the execution of the building project, they help solve most of them.