Buildings renovation and sustainable construction is becoming an economic engine in Andalusia. The Housing and Rehabilitation Agency of Andalusia (AVRA) has launched more than one hundred initiatives in public housing, to improve their energy conditions and for families to save in consumption while improving their comfort level.
These works, which mainly consist of acting on the buildings’ envelope by changing windows and improving insulation systems on roofs and facades, are generating activity in the municipalities where they are being executed, to the extent that the sum of all of them will involve an investment over 27 million, and will generate some 57,000 wages in the construction sector.
In addition, pilot projects are being executed in each of the eight provinces, in which the energy consumption of the buildings chosen for the experiment are being monitored, in order to “validate the effectiveness of these actions at the end of the process “.
Cadiz to invest nearly 4.7 million
The province of Cadiz is already running all actions contracted by the Local Government’s Regional department of Development, under the Sustainable Construction Decree. All of them are being developed in promotions under AVRA ownership and target 835 families. During the execution of these works, in theory 10,554 jobs will be generated, with an investment of almost 4.7 million euro.
The works in the public housing stock dependant of the Local Government shall target in the eight provinces a total of 6,482 families. These works will generate almost 57,200 jobs in the construction sector. These actions include pilot energy rehabilitation projects, one in each province, which will seek to certify that these interventions mainly on facades, roofs and windows reduce the housing energy consumption.
To monitor all these actions, neighborhood assemblies have been held in which AVRA’s technical and social workers have shared all information about each project and subsequently neighbor’s commissions integrated by contributors have been constituted. These commissions will monitor the work during execution and act as interlocutors between resident families and the agency, to find quick solution to any problem that may arise and check that the schedule is properly met.
Energy rehabilitation open days
In addition, a total of 200 experts in energy refurbishment will meet on Thursday December 4 in Seville to discuss aspects of this activity such as management strategy, the development of actions and funding thereof, in a work day organized by the Housing and Rehabilitation Agency of Andalusia (AVRA) dependant of the Local Government’s Regional department of Development and Housing.
The works carried out within the European project Marie, launched to “rethink the construction in the Mediterranean with energy efficiency improvement in mind” will be presented.
The roster of speakers includes experts in the field as Albert Cuchi, architect professor at the Polytechnic School of Catalonia, who will analyze the energy strategy in the building stock, or Xavier Martí, of the Generalitat of Catalonia, project coordinator of Marie, who will explain in detail the development of this project supported by the European Community and the roadmap to be followed in the Mediterranean regions.
Also in the schedule are lectures of Professor of the University of Seville Servando Alvarez, Doctor in Physics Alain Labatut, architect doctor of the Termotecnia Group of the University of Seville Rafael Salmeron, and Immaculada Perianez Forte, from the Joint Research Center, along with other experts analysts and scholars of the subject.
The conference will be held in three blocks. In the first energy rehabilitation will be analyzed from the regional strategy perspective, the second section will be devoted to the technical aspects of energy rehabilitation and the third will analyze the activity from the funding point of view.
