7th Healthy Housing Awards 2012/2013

This publication is a compilation of the results of the work developed by the students that participated in the 7th edition of the Healthy Housing Awards.Fundación Marjal, Cátedra Internacional Marjal Healthy, Universidad de Alicante, Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin y Hogeschool van Amsterdam

6th Healthy Housing Awards 2011/2012

This publication is a compilation of the results of the work developed by the students that participated in the 6th edition of the Healthy Housing Awards.Fundación Marjal, Cátedra Internacional Marjal Healthy, Universidad de Alicante, Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin y Hogeschool van Amsterdam

9th Healthy Housing Awards 2014/2015

This publication is a compilation of the results of the work developed by the students that participated in the 9th edition of the Healthy Housing Awards.Fundación Marjal, Cátedra Internacional Marjal Healthy, Universidad de Alicante, Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin, Hogeschool van Amsterdam y KEA - Copenhagen School of Design and Technology

8th Healthy Housing Awards 2013/2014

This publication is a compilation of the results of the work developed by the students that participated in the 8th edition of the Healthy Housing Awards.Fundación Marjal, Cátedra Internacional Marjal Healthy, Universidad de Alicante, Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin y Hogeschool van Amsterdam

Analysis of the quality of public urban space through a graphical analysis method

The southeast coast of Spain has been one of the examples of the construction bubble that affected this country in the last years. Everything was under construction and any piece of land may be built up. The results of this crazy process are chaotic urban structures and cities with a very low level of activity where a lack of quality at urban space conditions citizens’ life. Orihuela is a very complex municipality where up to 25 urban settlements can be found. All of them received some kind of urban development during these years but, in particular, the city of Orihuela and the Coast, 7 km of gated communities with no city structure. The city urban master plan is under revision at the moment and a different approach was demanded by the city council. A public participating process was opened where a graphical analysis method was applied. The RGBG Strategic Method gathers and classifies the different uses at public space in layers. The result of the process shows quantitative and qualitative data, objective and subjective information that allows the urban designer to get conclusions about the quality of public space and by evaluating the level of activity provide solutions to the conflicts found on the urban frame

Influence of the methodology for evaluating energy performance of buildings over the energy needed for cooling

The need to reduce energy bills and the need for protection for the user has made the government of Spain develop new regulations that reinforce thermal isolation requirements. The adopted methodology for evaluating energy performance in buildings is based on informatics tools, where it is difficult to check the measures for improving energy efficiency work. The objective of this paper is to compare the current methodology for evaluating energy needed for cooling in Spain with the methodologies of some European countries. The research is based on applying those methodologies over a case study conducted on the Mediterranean coast of Spain (warm conditions), applying different U-limits and evaluating the obtained energy needed for cooling from each method. The results show that improving constructive solutions and increasing thermal isolation thickness in some cases do not offer the expected results as the energy needed for cooling raises especially in methodologies belonging to cold countries

The controversies between Jacobo Fratín and Vespasian Gonzaga on the project of the citadel of Pamplona in the late sixteenth century

The design and construction of the citadel of Pamplona required the delineation of numerous drawings by the most prestigious military engineers of the time. After the initial draft, prepared by Jacobo Palear Fratín in 1571, numerous disputes about technical aspects of the design of citadels happened between the different schools and family sagas. The search for the perfect machine of defence and the solution of the conflict between the different design opinions, forced to develop an increasingly accurate maps. Through this graphic documentation, the Council of War could take appropriate decisions in the distance, always under the paradigm of the citadel of Antwerp. The existing intimate relationship between written discourse and the image discourse in each project makes possible to reconstruct the history of the building

New Self-Sufficient Shelter Solutions for Big Cities’ Collapsed Rental Markets

Nowadays, there is a wide variety of problems in the big cities related to the urban frame and to housing. Architects have to provide solutions that not only improve people’s well-being but also have to be efficient during the building’s entire life cycle. Within the European context, big cities like Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam have a huge demand for housing coming mainly from two different groups: people looking for temporary shelter and people looking for a more stable situation. In both cases, the need for new housing have resulted in inefficient urban developments, collapsed city centres and developed satellite cities where low and medium class people have tried to find somewhere to live, running away from infra-housing. In Paris, urban regulations set the minimum area for a rented apartment as 10m2. The research described in this paper analyzes the current situation in big cities from two points of view: apartment sizes and medium fees for temporary shelter. It defines the average architectural conditions of the “affordable” shelter and with this data; an experimental approach for a new completely self-sufficient housing module is provided, placed in a worthless space of existing buildings (roofs). This new module is defined by its sustainability and self-sufficiency and it gives the rental market an opportunity to increase the offer of shelter to rent in the big cities. At the end of the research, the development of an analysis of life cost cycle of the new module shows it as an alternative to the existing examples of infra housing with very short periods for recovering the investment

Public Participation in the Process of Improving Quality of the Urban Frame

The different tools for analysing the quality of public space are coincident when showing that a healthy urban space is conditioned by a proper urban structure. It is needed a balance between urban uses and a proper connectivity among the different parts of the city. At the same time, the users of the public space must have an adequate perception of the urban space it occupies; a good sense of identification of the user over the urban frame allows a proper use of the public space. The development of urban analysis in the city of Orihuela, using tools as RGBG Strategic Model, showed junk urban spaces around the Mount St. Michael. The application of the RGBG allowed the identification of social conflictive areas that had a limited connectivity with the rest of the city and inhabitants with a low feeling of identification with the closest urban area. The municipality of Orihuela used the knowledge acquired with these analysis tools for developing interventions over the public urban space focused on the detected social conflictive areas. With them, the municipality tried to improve the perception that inhabitants had over their closest urban environment. Public employment initiatives were developed with the participation of local inhabitants in order to integrate them in the process of recovering the conflictive urban areas. This paper describes the process developed and shows that once these interventions were finished, it is possible to validate the data obtained with the urban simulation tools. It is confirmed that the perception of the quality of public space is improved when the inhabitants are involved in the process of its recovery and when urban factors as connectivity are improved

Energy Efficiency of Flooded Roofs: The University of Alicante Museum

Inverted flat roofs were adopted as a common construction solution throughout the Modern Movement. They require greater protection of the waterproofing layer and sufficient thermal insulation. Depending on the climate conditions, a thicker or thinner thermal layer is installed and energy saving in keeping with the climatic conditions, regulations or national or regional energy policies is obtained. However, the common construction systems tend to be focused on minimising the construction costs of each project, using thermal insulation layers of extruded polystyrene, a modified bitumen waterproofing layer and a finishing layer of 5 cm of gravel. In the case of trafficable roofs, this layer is substituted with ceramic or hydraulic concrete paving. These solutions have given rise to an enormous reduction in the thermal mass of the roof layers located above the isolation layer and consequently, a lack of thermal inertia with which to cushion the effect of the thermal wave of the outdoor environment produced in the indoor climate of the building. Roofs flooded with water in climatologies which allow their application generate significant thermal inertia depending on the depth of the water. They reduce the amplitude of the thermal wave produced in the inside temperature of the buildings by the external thermal variations, generating a considerable increase in comfort and a reduction in energy consumption. This paper outlines the research carried out in the Alicante University Museum. The whole building and its flooded roof have been monitored over a full year cycle and data has been obtained regarding the dry interior temperatures of each layer of the walls, outdoor temperatures and solar radiation, relative humidities, etc. Through the use of simulation tools, comparative results of this roof with respect to inverted flat roofs have been obtained, such as the decrement factor and the heat wave