Towards zero emissions target.
An analysis of vernacular architecture produced throughout history shows us its configuration as the logical result of using available materials, the adaptation to developed technology and the prevailing economy. But we must realize that these architectures are also a direct response to the characteristics of the climate and the territory in which they are located. And they were always so, no matter the place nor the time to which they belong. A good example of this is the architecture of the sun (or shade), of the wind, of the water or of the land.
Architecture and urbanism today must respond to multiple cultural, functional, technical and regulatory demands, typical of a complex and global society. And among them, the attention to environmental sustainability is primordial. This complex and global society, it becomes aware of the limited resources available and the environment fragility.
Reflecting contemporary society, the language of the proposals made by OSA responds formaly and materiality to cultural, functional, technical and regulatory current requirements, but also, and above all, to environmental requirement of the site. An architecture that takes on a commitment to:
- The reduction of energy demand through passive strategies incorporated by bioclimatic design,
- Reducing consumption through proven energy efficiency facilities,
- Rationalization of consumption through energy management approaches, and finally, for energy demanded,
- The emissions elimination through the incorporation in the design of active strategies of renewable energy consumption.
Therefore, It is essential a thorough preliminary study of climate and passive measures likely to be taken on it to achieve comfort conditions without energy consumption.
A study that draw conclusions on orientations, forms, envelopes, spaces or the most appropriate materials to adopt.
From now on deployed design criteria become part of an iterative process in which the validity of the functional, technical or regulatory solutions of spaces and facilities are confirmed through energy simulations.
But the concern has not to be reduced only to the life of the building. The production, transportation, construction and waste management previous processes, as well as reuse, processing and recycling subsequent are also part of the energy balance and emissions to meet. Therefore OSA advocates the incorporation of precast in the design process. It is reduced so the consumption of materials, of energy, of transport and application through reducing time and waste, and increased quality control and security conditions.
Sustainable implementation, energy, water and waste management, use of materials and systems and the environmental quality of the spaces are taken into account by OSA from the origin of the decision.
The challenge of environmental sustainability become the logic and essential source of inspiration for the origin of the forms and the materialization of architecture and urbanism of our time.
An architecture and a urbanism for which OSA fixing its horizon in achieving zero emissions.