Three Builttech alumni win Reinventing Cities competition, part of the C40 Cities network, with a co-living and co-working project

The project was developed by three students of the Builtech program: José Aguilar (Architect Director of Agvar Arquitectos), Jacinto Seguí (Technical Director of FINSA) and David Huerga (BIM Architect). "Technology helps us to simplify and visualize the design and construction processes.  It helps us to be faster and more precise, but above all it helps us to have more data to make better decisions. The Builttech experience has helped us think about the project in a global way Design + Construction + Sustainability + Technology. It is a project developed in the BIM Revit system," explains José Aguilar.

The Reinventing Cities competition is an initiative to develop exemplary projects to meet the challenge of decarbonization, looking to 2050.  The C40 network encompasses 96 cities that account for 25% of the world's GDP, with a combined population of more than 700 million inhabitants. The aim of this competition is to promote innovative projects that develop the most ambitious climate solutions, serving as an international benchmark in the fight against climate change. In this second edition, Madrid is participating along with eleven other major cities - Cape Town, Chicago, Dubai, Houston, Milan, Montreal, Reykjavik, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Francisco and Singapore – to transform and revive underutilized sites, three Madrid, all of them vacant spaces owned by City Hall: the former CLESA dairy plant in Fuencarral, two industrial plots in the La Atalayuela business park and a plot for subsidized housing in the Spanish capital’s Airport district, putting Madrid at the forefront of cities in combatting the climate emergency.

Petit Village responds to the key challenges of a carbon-free project

Of the 20 proposals initially registered, Agvar Arquitectos together with property developer Locare and management company Tectum, won the Low-rent housing section in Madrid’s Airport District, close to the Eisenhower junction, an area that has been undergoing a thorough rehabilitation process for several years.

The project is called Petit Village and it is integrated into the neighborhood via a new green ring that connects with the environment to create an attractive ecosystem. A disruptive project that will have a pull effect and drive change: co-living + co-working, with private and communal spaces: streets in the air,  vegetable gardens in the sky and vertical green spaces. The project, which aims to provide long-term and temporary housing, is broken up into 73 low-rent units, 25 tourist apartments and a co-working space with a cafeteria, proximity store, nursery, laundry, yoga and other services. All constructions will be near-zero energy consumption and a zero energy balance, with a carbon-free construction through a wood structure, passive architecture and efficient facilities. Air conditioning is provided via a thermal ring supported by open geothermal energy, photovoltaic solar panels and CO2 heat pump for DHW production.