On 17 and 18 October 2013 the 5th Passivhaus Spain Congress takes place, a sector meeting point with technical talks, energy retrofit and the news around PHPP 8.
On Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October 2013 the 5th Passivhaus Spain Congress takes place, the event that brings together the different actors in the certified Passivhaus construction sector. Two days of talks, discussion panels and stand visits that serve to take stock of the standard in the country and to share built experiences.
The opening day begins with registration and documentation handover, the institutional inauguration and the opening conference by Nuria Díaz, president of PEP España. From there, the programme is organised into technical blocks that combine the analysis of real projects with methodological reflection.
The first technical block gathers the thermographic study of the Arias del Roncal Passivhaus house in Navarra, presented by Rafael Royo, the application of the standard to the energy retrofit of the E.T.S.I.I. building in Béjar, Salamanca, by Miguel Ángel García Fuentes, and a talk on a near-zero heating consumption building by Jordi Llovera.
The second block digs deeper into how buildings actually behave once they are lived in. Juan María Hidalgo presents the monitoring and energy tracking of a Passivhaus-certified home, Pedro Pablo Zorzano gives the talk "Con piel de hormigón", and Iván Duque and Alicia Zamora explain Casa EntreEncinas, certified Passivhaus with bio-construction criteria.
The afternoon of the first day opens to the general public with an outreach block. Carles A. Labernia i Badia speaks about the health benefits of living in a Passivhaus home, Iker Gómez Iborra addresses the waste of thermal energy in buildings, and Michael Tribus covers the retrofit of buildings to the Passivhaus standard. Carmen Delgado and Adelina Uriarte share the experience of inhabiting a certified home, and Esteban Pardo Calderón presents the urban development of Villamediana de Iregua based on the standard. The day closes with the opening of the exhibition and the announcement of the winner of the 2nd Ibero-American Passivhaus Competition, at the LABORAL Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial.
Friday opens with the Passive House Institute conference dedicated to the news around PHPP 8, delivered by Mari Carmen Rivero. The third technical block adds an international outlook: the adaptation of the Passivhaus concept to Mediterranean climates and the Portuguese case, with Fernanda Rodrigues; low-energy buildings in Sweden, with Gunilla Rommerskirchen; and the evaluation criteria for heat recovery units, with Eberhard Paul. The session continues with a passive single-family home built in Asturias in 2001 with geothermal energy use, presented by Javier Álvarez, Enrique Alzaga's reflection on NZeB architects and developers, and Casa La Sienra, a passive house on a tight budget, by Marcelino Galán.
The congress closes with the talk by the winner of the 2nd Ibero-American Passivhaus Competition and the closing conference by Anne Vogt, international board member of PEP España. Many of the themes it raises, from energy retrofit to the monitoring of how buildings really perform, are part of the everyday work of anyone engaged in construction to the Passivhaus standard.
A congress builds no house, but it sets the shared technical language without which the Passivhaus standard would never have taken root in the country.