The II ITE+3R Congress, from the Technical Inspection of Buildings to Rehabilitation, Regeneration, and Urban Renewal, which is held at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de León on March 26 and 27, will feature the participation of French architect Dominique Perrault, who will give the keynote address ‘Architecture Made with and for the People’ on Wednesday the 27th. Perrault is the creator of the space in which it is held. “We had never before created a photovoltaic roof of such magnitude and with such production capacity. It is the future, and in that sense, Spain is a privileged country. The truth is that the photovoltaic roof was one of the founding ideas of the project thirteen years ago, and it has had to be defended. It is not something that has been added because this or that regulation requires it; on the contrary, it is a fundamental element in the design idea of the complex. Right now, we are developing a project for the Olympic and Paralympic village of Paris 2024, which after the Games will be a new neighborhood with a zero-carbon footprint. Many of these principles of sustainability and energy saving stem from the idea of organizing the entire Olympic village,” explained Dominique Perrault.
The event in León, which will bring together more than 400 professionals from architecture and engineering, among others, and representatives of administrations from all over Spain, will present the technological and social advances that the rehabilitation of buildings brings to the people who inhabit them, the social transformations that they generate in the regenerated neighborhoods, as well as the dynamizing role that the ITE has in the modernization of cities. “Urban regeneration is a trend and a necessity to the extent that it is a strategy that involves economizing available resources. The interesting thing is that there are many ways to approach it. For example, in recent years and through my professional and academic activity at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, I have become interested in the role of underground architecture in that regeneration of the city. Instead of seeking growth in height, or a superficial expansion of the city that seems to have no limit and devours the territory, why not look down, to the subsoil? Why not make use of a space that is already occupied, but whose uses have been limited only to infrastructures?” proposes the French architect.
Organized by the Construction Institute of Castilla y León – ICCL and promoted by the Junta de Castilla y León, the congress will also address energy efficiency, the improvement of building accessibility, and the new sources of qualified employment in rehabilitation. “I believe that it is essential that public authorities promote this type of initiative, but what is truly important will be that this discourse permeates the philosophy of agents, promoters, and private developers, so that rehabilitation is not a regulatory imposition, but a design initiative in itself because it generates values. Values of all kinds, material, environmental, social…” Dominique Perrault said about the congress.
