Architecture is an art, but it also has its dark side. Construction accounts for 40% of carbon gas emissions. The blame lies with the materials used to build, mainly concrete, brick and steel, whose production is responsible for 50% of the carbon footprint recorded on the planet.
But there is a solution. “You can go from concrete to wood, which is much more sustainable, because not only does it not pollute, it also absorbs carbon,” explains architect Daniel Ibáñez, general director of the Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is well aware that only with a change in the way buildings and cities are constructed, the environment could improve considerably across the continent. For this reason, she launched a proposal, to create the New European Bauhaus Academy whose task will be to teach professionals in the sector, architects, engineers or assemblers to build sustainably.
The idea went out to competition and has been awarded to a consortium, which includes 14 countries, including Spain through the Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya. “We implemented the project through Valldaura Labs, a research center specialized in construction with wood and ecological buildings,” adds Ibáñez, who in addition to being an architect has a doctorate in design from Harvard University.
Ibáñez and his team will now immerse themselves in the first phase of activity of the New European Bauhaus Academy to train professionals in the sector in the use of industrialized solid wood, the material that can decontaminate the world. “There are other components that can perform the same function, such as bamboo, but they are not used in Europe, where the fundamental material in the future will be wood,” adds the architect in a conversation with La Vanguardia.
And not only from the future. Wood is already the present of construction. The Laborda buildings, in Montjuïc, and Pisa, in Cornellà, are built entirely with solid industrialized wood. The same happens with one of the star works of the Catalan capital, the García Márquez Library, in La Verneda, which recently won the 2023 Fad Architecture Prize. Ibáñez, together with Vicente Guallar, is now working with this technique in the reconversion of the former Coca-Cola factory in the Terrazas para la vida building, sustainable social housing.
