Research Institute in Cerdanyola del Vallès
- Sabine Drey
The research institute on the campus of the University of Barcelona (UAB) focuses on environmental sciences and palaeontology. The demands made on the sustainability of the new building complex, in which lecture halls, offices and laboratories are accommodated on five floors, are accordingly high. Car parking areas and storage rooms are organized on two further floors below ground level. The hot, moist summers in Catalonia and the sizable heat loads that arise in the high-tech spaces called for a carefully considered ventilation strategy. The architects grouped insulated wooden cubes around four atriums that serve as buffer zones. An economical industrial greenhouse system encloses the entire block in polycarbonate panels that can be opened. In summer hot air rises in the facade and in the light-wells, which extend the entire height of the building, and escapes at the top through roof vents. At the same time the air that is drawn into the building is pre-cooled in a one metre high hollow space beneath the basement and then directed into the atriums. In the winter the facade vents remain closed and the air behind the synthetic panels warms the courtyards and the office cubes, which are equipped with ventilation flaps. With its thick floor slabs the reinforced concrete structure represents a considerable thermal mass. The hollow tubes at the centre of the slabs distribute air that is conditioned by borehole heat exchangers and also reduce the slabs’ own weight. Pipes carrying water used in thermally activating the floors and the steel reinforcement for the slab run above and below these tubes. The concept is based on three differently air-conditioned areas: zones such as the atrium or the areas used during breaks from work, which are conditioned by passive measures, the offices, which can be additionally heated, and the air-conditioned laboratories. At the very top, on the fifth floor, experimental greenhouses supply the users with home-grown plants, while luxuriant vegetation in the atrium helps improve the indoor climate.
