Carolina Mateo (IVE), Miguel Ángel Bengochea (KERABEN GROUP, S.A.), and Gonzalo Silva (ITC-AICE), participants in the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) project of the European Climate–KIC network, explained to almost 100 professionals linked to architecture and building construction the characteristics of the CIES (Centre for Innovation in Energy and Sustainability) building in Castellón city. The CIES building is moreover the first Living Lab or laboratory building that is already working and conducting trials in the European Climate–KIC network, aimed at verifying and upgrading energy efficiency in building construction on a European scale.
The Valencia Institute for Building Construction (IVE), the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC-AICE), and the KERABEN GROUP, S.A., are working in the CIES building to develop a construction solution that will integrate advanced, innovative technologies into building construction, in particular to enhance building energy performance.
The development incorporated into the Castellón CIES building specifically avoids heat build-up and reduces the building’s cooling energy consumption through a ventilated façade containing reflecting ceramic tiles, previously developed in the European project COOLCOVERINGS, coordinated by Miguel Bengochea Angel (KERABEN GROUP, S.A.).
The technical characteristics of this investigation were set out during the technical symposium “Energy refurbishment of the building envelope”, organised by IVE in collaboration with the Regional Government of Valencia and professional associations of architects and building supervisors of the Valencia Region, held in Valencia on 19 and 20 May 2015.
During these two days of work, different products and construction systems that contributed to building envelope energy performance were also displayed, with applications to actual buildings, such as the CIES Living Lab in Castellón city.
About the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA)
The BTA programme is one of the key elements that the European Climate–KIC network is supporting with a view to accelerating its work in regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The programme seeks to speed up the market launch of products, technologies, and services that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation in the field of building construction. To do so, a network of buildings has been created, which includes the Castellón CIES building. In this network the buildings act as Living Labs in which new products, technologies, and services can be evaluated and put into practice and energy management models, environmental quality control, and user management can be provided in real settings. Programme participants include the Valencia Institute for Building Construction (IVE), the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC-AICE), and the Castellón Town Council, which provides its CIES building for Innovation in Energy and Sustainability as one of the Living Labs in which different technologies will be tested.
About Climate–KIC
Climate–KIC is the EU’s major initiative on climate change. It is the largest public–private collaboration in Europe focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate–KIC is made up of companies, academic institutions, and public bodies.
The organisation’s headquarters are located in London. Thanks to its centres across Europe, Climate–KIC provides support for start-ups and brings together partners in innovation projects, in addition to training students with a view to achieving a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas and to obtaining products and services that contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate–KIC is one of the knowledge and innovation communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union charged with creating mechanisms for increasing sustainable growth in Europe, as well as with addressing the great challenges of our time.