Interviews

Interview. Micheel Wassouf, Director Efibau,

Micheel Wassouf is the director of the energy consulting company, EfiBau and coordinator for Passivhaus, the first international conference in Spain. He has had a long career as an architect in Germany and also in Spain. In Barcelona, where he is one of five partners of EfiBau, he will give the first extensive Passivhaus Course to take place at Sert’s Association of Architects of Catalonia. We find ourselves in midsummer with Micheel Wassouf in the Cafe Laie under a cold blast of air conditioning and with our jackets on ready to discuss the future of construction in this country.

“Micheel, do we all need to be cold in summer?

Yes, in Spain seems part of the country’s culture, such as Sangria, the Sardana Dance, bulls and to mix it all up. In fact efiBau is now attached to ICAEN campaign this year with the name “Aquest estiu el fred no es moda (this summer the cold is not fashionable)”, where we try to break this bad habit.

Are we talking about construction? How do you see the current development of energy efficiency in the construction industry in Spain?

Zapatero said last year, “Spain wants to be a leader in energy efficiency” … We are still far from this goal. What is energy efficiency in the present construction industry, Spain’s far behind other European countries. Building technologies adopted in other European countries for 30 years, such as SATE are even “gobbledygook” for architects here. It’s as if people here were still driving 30 year old cars.

But here we have a climate far less severe than in the rest of Europe, and therefore, energy efficiency should be easier to achieve than for example in Germany.

Yes, strangely this is the excuse I have been hearing here for a long time. So we can continue with hollow bricks and perforated bricks, some may think. In fact, where there is less severe weather, that should be the key argument for improving our building technology, because it involves less effort and extra cost in other countries.

What about summer?

Everyone talks about the severe summer here but nobody realizes that the biggest energy consumption in homes in Spain are made in winter. Eg We live in an 18 year old apartment and we spend 1 EUR per month per  m2 for heating, without achieving the desirable thermal comfort, and we spend the summer without spending hardly anything for refrigeration and without going too hot. When compared to Passivhaus homes, which are being very successful today in the rest of Europe, that would mean a tenfold higher consumption. These homes are no longer billed for theirenergy consumption. They have flat rate contracts with electric utilities and gas companies because it is more expensive to pay the management of the reading of the energy consumed than the actual consumption itself.

The European Parliament wants to impose the zero-energy building from 2019 in Europe, and public buildings from 2015. Do you think it would be possible to reach this goal in Spain?

As things are here now I think it will not be possible. Some people would really need change their mindset on how building should be 180%. The zero energy building is really a difficult goal to achieve today. It means more effort for all who are involved in the designing process. And getting these optimal conditions to achieve this in Spain is very unrealistic, because it means saying goodbye to the very low construction costs we have in this country and really be willing to pay more to get a high quality product. That is something that we take for granted when buying a car. But for buildings it has not yet entered our minds. The Spanish lack the willingness to pay more to get a quality building product. Yes when they learn this they will have already won half the battle.

What role could the Passivhaus play in this scenario?

The Passivhaus is a very mature technology from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It works very well, so well that cities now begin to impose this technology in their buildings. And indeed, the Passivhaus combined with some types of renewable energy generation could become a building with zero consumption, although certainly not always possible. In fact, Spanish climatic conditions would be much achieve this goal because energy demand for housing is much lower than in central Europe.

Are there Passivhaus buildings in the Mediterranean?

Yes, in Italy. They have been working with this standard over the past ten years and now have constructed the first Passivhaus buildings in southern Italy and we are developing the first efiBau Passivhaus buildings in northern Spain. It is a secluded family house in Aragon, and will have a very high climatic comfort level and that is without any radiators, underfloor heating or conventional air conditioning.

Is it also possible to apply this concept for rehabilitation projects?

Yes, there are many examples of rehabilitated Passivhaus housing, although admittedly it is more difficult to achieve, because in an existing home it is not always possible to change the direction of the windows and making improvements can be more complicated when houses are inhabited.Rehabilitation is one of the most important key areas to lowering CO2 emissions in our cities, and it is very probably we will have to account for these emissions with Kyoto-II, the rehabilitation of housing should only be done with high energy efficiency and if needed we need to be willing to pay more to achieve  it.