The new residential neighbourhood of Sant Muç in the town of Rubí (Barcelona) is the result of the Ressò project, which was awarded first prize at the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 competition in Versailles.
The relocation of the hall in the neighbourhood of Sant Muç aims to provide residents with a free, comfortable space in which to strengthen their ties and consolidate the identity of a neighbourhood of sprawling single-family houses.
The Ressò hall is energy-efficient and virtually self-sustained thanks to the use of passive bioclimatic strategies; high thermal insulation, energy-capture façades, natural cross-ventilation and the high thermal inertia of the Escofet UHPC-Slimconcrete paving slabs which, apart from adding gravitational stability to the hall, collaborate actively and passively in the thermal conditioning of the hall interior.
The slabs, which have great thermal inertia, act in a conventional way by absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night, when the temperature falls. In colder weather conditions, the water coil pipes immersed in the concrete mass act as radiant floors with the heat captured by the evacuated solar tube collectors.