ECD Head of Sustainability to present at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona
May 3, 2016
Loreana Padron, ECD Head of Sustainability, will be presenting Wilmcote House – an EnerPHit project – at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona on Friday 6th May 2016. This international conference will focus on how to improve existing construction and development practices.
The idea of unlimited growth in a city has been strongly criticised and consequently, new visions are emerging. Such new visions include approaches reflected by Wilmcote House: energy efficiency and building improvement leading to improving neighbourhoods and the quality of life for the community by revitalising an existing construction. Following a series of community consultation events with the residents and neighbours, this project has benefited from the continuous support and feedback of the community throughout the design and construction phases.
Loreana Padron is an Associate Architect, Head of Sustainability and a Certified Passivhaus Designer at ECD Architects. With an architecture degree from the Architectural Association and the Central University of Venezuela in addition to a Masters in Sustainable Architecture from UEL, she is an advocate of low-energy building design and the use of collaborative BIM workflows to support a more effective integration of environmental design in the construction and design process.
Currently under construction, Wilmcote House are three 11-storey high-rise linked residential blocks which provide 107 affordable homes in Portsmouth, England. Its 1968 prefabricated structure was failing, resulting in high maintenance costs for Portsmouth City Council and causing many of its residents to live in fuel poverty. ECD’s deep retrofit solution fundamentally addressed the social and economic needs of the residents and the maintenance and budgetary needs of the council, with residents remaining in their homes.
Wilmcote House is the only UK retrofit in the EuroPHit project, led by the Passivhaus Institute, which aims to capture the knowledge on deep energy retrofits (EnerPHit standard) to develop step-by-step refurbishments. ECD architects are pleased to be able to contribute – and share with delegats at the Caixa Forum – their knowledge and understanding of sustainable approaches for regeneration as well as assisting the development of industry best practice for retrofit.
Loreana said: “I am delighted to have been invited to speak about our innovative approach to high-rise retrofit at Wilmcote House in England and to share our expertise in this area. I hope to inspire others while also being inspired by work from colleagues elsewhere in Europe and take this back to my team in London. I look forward to discussing different solutions to common goals: the urge to maximise what we have and work with the existing and to provide a quality solution which supports residents, is beautiful, cost effective and energy efficient – and resilient – for years to come.”
Visit the ‘Jornada International: La Ciudad Tanto por Hacer’ website for information on attending the conference in Barcelona: http://www.eventbrite.es/e/entradas-jornada-internacional-la-ciudad-tanto-por-hacer-22230512060