“Today, construction is carried out with the concern of reducing the carbon footprint. How? Through the incorporation of recycled and recyclable materials, but also through the use of materials that can be found or produced within circles of 100, 200, or 300 kilometers from the construction site, with the aim of avoiding the energy costs of transport.”
The restoration of buildings is a fundamental way to protect existing heritage, to keep architectural legacies standing that are capable of reaching different generations. The city is, in my view, humanity’s most valuable asset.
Given the urgency to preserve it, it is necessary to consider that, increasingly, the carbon footprint is a fundamental factor in the practice of producing the city itself. And, at the construction level, we are finally on this path.
Rehabilitation is a priority over new construction, as it reduces the carbon footprint. Today, the exterior shell of buildings is rehabilitated in a modular way, with new insulation and proper waterproofing. The exterior layer, in many cases, is a solar collector.
Gone are the days when solar panels were only installed on roofs as additional elements on support structures, which almost always resulted in a visually questionable aesthetic.
Today, we have tiles that incorporate solar collectors in clay or metal, among other materials. Solutions that were developed with aesthetic concerns or with the goal of mimicking the roof – structures often unrecognizable to anyone who is not a specialist interested in this type of technology.
For vertical cladding, the trend is towards the production of panels. Vertical panels today can have all types of colors and metallic finishes, finishes similar to paint, or stone serigraphy, identical to what we find in large ceramic tiles. Of course, the efficiency of these panels is lower than that of “pure and hard solar panels,” but with each passing year, this efficiency improves.
Today, construction is carried out with the concern of reducing the carbon footprint. How? Through the incorporation of recycled and recyclable materials, but also through the use of materials that can be found or produced within circles of 100, 200, or 300 kilometers from the construction site, with the aim of avoiding the energy costs of transport.
We live in a reality where the care in producing buildings with very high LEED or BREEAM certification objectives is real. Buildings whose energy consumption is zero or even positive at the end of the year, with any surplus production always able to be used to charge electric cars and, ultimately, sold to the grid.
In summary: facades and roofs exposed to the sun should be solar collectors or covered by vegetation. Buildings should be properly insulated, thermally and acoustically, as well as waterproofed.
Considering the current cost of solar panel solutions for a house, for example, this is an investment that pays for itself in six years, and produces wealth for at least 20 years – making this one of the best investments in 2025.
It is good for us, and good for the planet.