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Four students from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) are taking part in the world's most relevant forum on the future climate, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which will be held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) from 30 November to 12 December. The UPV team will be presenting its innovative passive climate control system, "Xaloc. Bioclimatic, fair and inclusive housing adaptation, " from 1 to 7 December.

Participation in COP28 is a unique opportunity to give them access to outstanding activities and meetings. Eva Tortajada, a PhD Student at UPV, will participate in the round table Development of resilient and liveable cities, representing Xaloc, on 2 December. "I will have three minutes to present who we are and what we do, and then the round of questions will start".

What the team is most excited about is establishing contacts with international cooperation organisations that can implement Xaloc in developing countries to facilitate the adaptation of housing to the climate crisis, as Batiste Vidal, a student of the Master in Industrial Engineering who will attend the COP28, explains: "We would love to be part of these projects".

The advantages of the Xaloc system are many: it is easy to build by non-specialists; it can be made with available materials; it is inexpensive; it does not consume energy.

Dissemintion and meetings

The UPV team will share their experience at COP28 through their social networks, as encouraged by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge: "We will be recording videos, showing the COP from the inside, the interesting conversations we have, interviews...".

"In this way, we will bring the COP closer to the citizens and introduce a youth point of view. We will be able to explain our project, talk about the UPV, what we do...".

The fruit of UPV Design Factory

Xaloc was born in the UPV Design Factory programme, within the Azalea Team, which builds a sustainable house designed by students to participate in the Solar Decathlon Europe university competition. They won the first prize for innovation.

"The Vice-Rectorate for Sustainable Development of Campus of the UPV saw much potential in the prototype and encouraged us to enter the competition", explains Batiste Vidal. Ultimately, they were one of the winning teams of Climate Generation COP 28

Multidisciplinary group

Batiste Vidal, a Master's Degree student in Industrial Engineering; Eva Tortajada, a PhD student in Architecture, Building, Urban Planning and Landscape; José Antonio Gil, a Bachelor's Degree student in Energy Engineering; and Nuria Ochogavia, a Master's Degree student in Industrial Constructions and Installations, make up the Xaloc team.

Professor Tomás Gómez Navarro, director of the Energy Engineering Research Institute at the Universitat Politècnica de València, is the project tutor.

They believe that being a multidisciplinary group is one of the keys to the success of Xaloc, a system that takes advantage of knowledge widely used in traditional architecture.

"Unfortunately, we have stopped working as a team. The architect designs the building, and then the engineers do their installations. If we worked together, we could introduce these systems directly when considering passive architecture buildings. We would be much more efficient," says Eva Tortajada.

Future projects

Xaloc will continue after COP28. "Now, we would like to get funding to continue our research and carry out more industrial tests in extreme conditions, which we have been unable to do. We have tested the system in a context of limited resources, in a student project," explains Professor Tomás Gómez Navarro.

"We are confident that winning this call will have a knock-on effect so that bioclimatic architecture or construction companies working with traditional materials will be interested in us".

Houses against climate change

Sustainable building, regulated by technical codes in developed countries, is here to stay for economy, comfort and ecology, "although most of the current construction predates these new codes", they explain.

On the other hand, these issues are gradually being introduced into university syllabi "although there is still a long way to go," says Tomás Gómez.

The interest among students and graduates is growing. The Azalea project, for example, has given rise to Eclekte, a cooperative dedicated to promoting energy communities and developing innovative technical solutions for economic savings in energy supply.

According to a UN study, the building sector accounted for 40% of Europe's energy demand by 2022, 80% of which come from fossil fuels. This makes the sector a priority for investment and for policies to promote energy security.

News UPV TV
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