Esther Valiente Ochoa and Abdessamad  Lobiyed                      

Valencia will be represented at the ecozOOm congress, which will take place at the VIA University College, Horsens, Dennmark , 25th – 27th of November 2009. UPV Architecture Professor Ester Ochoa reports:

Through presentations, workshops, excursions and network platforms, the conference aims at enabling stakeholders to develop and implement sustainable methods in their professions. They also seek to reveal interdisciplinary potentials in collaborating and innovating across sectors to find even better solutions than they have today.   

'Sustainability in Building' covers a wide range of project types; from urban planning to buildings to installations and materials; from cutting edge research and high technology, to reviewing the simple and often brilliant solutions of historic and indigenous architecture. Some very interesting innovative research is done by bio-mimicry; finding new solutions by studying nature’s creations.

Process is another important aspect. Which ways of planning and which collaborative processes lead to the best results, financially, environmentally and practically?

The historic bonds between Algeria and Spain remind us of the habitat of the people who live with the sun, the heat and desert sand, close to traditional architecture based on stone, mud walls, courtyards, and large structures. Looking at the common principles of our historical architecture, we find a lot of examples of traditional constructions with a logical development based on the preliminary study of the place and its orientation, the concept of space and materials, as an ancient answer to sustainability based on reasonable construction.

The study and analysis of houses layouts and their urban position, give us important information about the first step of sustainability: Where? How?

The answer is to be found in the main types of traditional Arab houses in both countries.

If the live within this geometry, and in large rooms, strategically situated around the courtyard, in the presence of water we can look at and manage the second step of this project.

The wide walls, behind these pieces of stone, will make you feel the refreshing nature of their construction as an example of temperature control, offering us the details of the third and last architectural step: the quality on the materials used as a continuity of nature. 

As new projects of contemporary architecture are developing systems based on technology and the quality of new materials, a look at the past and its way of building, shows us the point of view of sustainability as a way to live, where space and awareness of the area and the availability of materials are the important factors.

If we follow their steps, perhaps we will find an easy methodology based on traditional solutions, as the key for architecture as a natural continuity of life.