New MOOC course LOW3: ZERO LIVING! started

A new edition of our MOOC course LOW3:ZERO LIVING! has started with 10 student which decided to train themselves through our new mixed online and in-person format about sustainable architecture and lifestyles. A first meeting at the Living Lab and the immediate start of the first online Learning Module about “Sustainable Lifestyle” situated them into the thematic fields this course wants to cover: Sustainable Architecture and Renewable Energies as essential drivers for the development of more sustainable lifestyles in our society.

Furthermore, the collaboration of  MOOC students in the international Sustainable Lifestyles Accelerator (SLA) Project (www.suslife.info; www.suslifespain.blogspot.com) will allow them to get into contact with international research in the field. Collaboration with Prof. Dani Calatayud will allow this semester including a special focus on the urban metabolism and refurbishment projects under the RELS methodology.

First year ETSAV students get introduced into sustainability and LOW3 in their technology classes

First year ETSAV students of the subject “Basics of Technology” (Bases per la Tècnica, Prof. Enrique Corbat, Prof. Isabel Vega) got first time into contact with the prototype-based learning about building technologies and sustainability at ETSAV. 

After a general introduction about sustainability in architecture and technology by Torsten Masseck and a general explanation about the Solar Decathlon competitions and the related project-based learning approach at ETSAV, students visited the LOW3 prototype house at the campus, the first in a row of so far 4 Solar Decathlon projects of UPC. Students could see, explore and touch an example of sustainable architecture, discuss about its materials, its structural system, its energy management and its overall bioclimatic “house in a house” concept. 

It showed once again, that the visit to a Solar Decathlon prototype building, experiencing its spaces, materials and technologies is a powerful method to raise awareness of students about sustainable architecture and the related societal and professional challenges behind. Living Lab LOW3 intensifies currently its collaborations with different core subjects at ETSAV, spreading the generated knowledge about sustainable architecture and technologies.