"Achieving low-cost energy savings in the construction and use of a building is possible."

Simos Yannas PHOTO: Manuel Castells

"Achieving energy savings at low cost is possible in architecture, both in construction and in the use of a building," said Simos Yannas, of the Environment and Energy Program at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AASA) in London (UK). This was stated by Simos Yannas, director of the programs of study Program on Environment and Energy at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AASA) in London (UK), during the lecture opening of the Master's Degree in design and management Environmental Buildings (MDGAE) of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. The event was also attended by José Ángel Medina, director of the School, and Ana Sánchez-Ostiz, director of Master's Degree.   

According to Yannas, although architecture has undergone changes in recent decades from a sustainability perspective, they are not enough: "Mostly they have been of a technical nature, coming from the research of physicists and engineers, but there have been no modifications in the way architects and students understand discipline and neither has the way people apply and practice it." However, he underlined "the enormous interest of young architects in encouraging people to be more aware and more respectful of the environment".

"The great challenge is to make cities built without sustainability criteria sustainable," he stated. "The good news about the existence of unsustainable buildings," he continued, "is that by seeing them we can distinguish the problems that exist. If buildings were perfect we could not talk about improving them; in this sense, bad buildings are a source of learning."

Professors from Europe and the U.S.

In addition to being professor and researcher at AASA London, Simos Yannas has worked as an expert in the European Commission's European Intelligent Energy Program and has acted as advisor in numerous national and international research projects. In 2001 and in 2008 he was awarded the international award PLEA.

Professor Yannas is one of the international experts who will give sessions during the second edition of the MDGAE at the University of Navarra. In addition to him, European professors Walter Unterrainer, director of Master's Degree LSAP (laboratory for Sustainable Architectural Production), from School of Architecture in Umea (Sweden); and Georg Reinberg, from the Technical University of Vienna (Austria) will collaborate. The following specialists come from the USA: Mahadav Raman, professor at School of Architecture of Princeton University and director of Arup Group Limited America; John Hannun, professor at New York University and consultant at IBA Building Enveloppe Consultans and Viridian, Energy and Environmental; and Nico Largo, professor at department of Architecture at the University of Oregon and co-founder and director associate of the Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI).