MOOC "LOW3: LIVING ZERO!" - NEW EDITION

A new edition of our MOOC course LOW3:ZERO LIVING! has started with 17 student which decided to train themselves through our mixed online and in-person format in the fields of sustainable architecture and lifestyles. A first meeting at the Living Lab and the immediate start of the first online Learning Module about “Sustainable Lifestyles” situated them into the thematic fields this course wants to cover: Sustainable Architecture and Renewable Energies within an increasingly circular economy as essential drivers for the development of more sustainable lifestyles in our society.

Furthermore, MOOC students got introduced into first results of the international Sustainable Lifestyles Accelerator (SLA) Project (www.suslife.info; www.suslifespain.blogspot.com), for discussion about their personal carbon footprint in the context of climate change and so-called 1.5 degree lifestyles. How can technology, housing, mobility and lifestyle changes in general contribute to societal transition towards a more sustainable way of living?

An exploration of the LOW3 solar house and its technological and constructive solutions on material and system level rounded up this first in-person meeting. With exchange students from Brasil, Portugal and Switzerland participating, this course will again contribute to a cross-cultural exchange of students about sustainability at all levels.

EDUCATIONAL VISIT OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

Once again 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. 

Due to the high number of participants (over 90 first year students) students circulated in groups through the prototype discussing its basic concepts form outside as well as from inside.
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.