What can you do in Ibiza? That’s what people who haven’t been there ask. “Experience”, respond fans of the island.

Of course, there’s an Ibizan way of life. For some it’s the white clothing, a warm breeze moving the curtains, chill out music while you watch the sunset on the seashore with an Aperol Spritz in your hand…

For others it’s spending the night among friends, staying up til dawn.

For others Ibiza is, quite simply, a dream. Imagine waking up every day every summer in Villa Harmony. What can you do there that you haven’t daydreamed about?

Well, that dream exists. And it’s so special that its exterior flooring, the façade and the interior are all in ACCOYA®, also one of the most special woods in the world.

A natural, sustainable and resistant material, with a 50-year written guarantee

ACCOYA ® is a wood that is modified naturally to improve its resistance, durability and stability. We’ll tell you all about it here, but basically this treatment causes insects to fail to recognise it as food and prevents moulds attacking it.

In short, ACCOYA® is an unbeatable wood for exteriors. This is why architects and construction companies have been using it more and more. For this reason and because it holds the most highly regarded sustainability certification, from the FHS.

Also because the manufacturer provides a fifty-year written guarantee.

Façade, flooring and interior fit for a dream

And if Villa Harmony is a dream house, ACCOYA® wood has done its part. On the exterior it has been used for the flooring and the façade. For the latter in the form of slats, that combine with the decorative stone and control the light entering the house.

Inside, the architects from Candel Arquitectura have also opted for ACCOYA®. In the end, with the doors and windows open, the walls will remain the same despite the inevitable dose of salt residue that gets in.

The finish, the icing on the cake

ACCOYA® is a wood that is also appreciated for the options it provides when choosing the finish. A lot of people like its natural ageing, in which the wood takes on a greyish tone over time.

In the case of Villa Harmony the owners had various options for the finish, for both flooring and façade, and even in the interior, which has an oak varnish finish.

To enjoy all the images of this project,click on this link.

La entrada Somewhere in the Mediterranean se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

Health and architecture have always been connected: inefficient building design and construction with polluting raw materials are surefire routes to poor health for inhabitants. At the same time, responsible, smart design and the use of sustainable raw materials are decisions that result in successes such as sustainability, energy efficiency and self-supply.

This is the case in today’s project, with sustainable achievements that are the healthy culmination of the work carried out inside. We are referring to the expansion of the offices of Roche Diagnostics in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona. A project signed by Battleiroig Arquitectura.

A façade that protects our health

The architects of this new building confirm that their design was based on the concept of a shade house. In other words, a traditional structure made to provide shade.

The ACCOYA® slats of each façade are adapted to the direction of the sun, and protect the staff inside from the strong sunlight and heat, where research into diagnostic solutions for doctors and pharmaceutical laboratories takes place.

Sustainability and beauty, resistance and durability

ACCOYA® is acetylated wood, in other words, wood modified using a completely natural treatment. The result is a building material with excellent behaviour in exteriors, where it is possible to apply treatments or leave it natural. In both cases it has a powerfully attractive aesthetic appearance.

Acetylation makes ACCOYA® a wood that is exceptionally resistant and durable, to the point that the manufacturer provides a written 50-year guarantee for projects above ground level (use classes 1, 2 and 3) and 25 below ground or in fresh water (use class 4).

Like other types of wood, such as oak, ACCOYA® is a magnificent option for sustainable façades such as that of Roche Diagnostics.

From the grey of cement to the green of a garden

The project for this extension was to reinterpret the space from a sustainable concept. The staff workspaces (offices and laboratories) have been refurbished with two buildings, and efforts were made to give the plot, almost 40,000 m², a green side to its personality.

For this purpose a garden was created where the main parking area had been previously. This green space takes centre stage, and acts as connecting space for the different parts of the campus.

You can see the complete project file by clicking on this link.

La entrada Protective shading se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

In 1991 an atrocity struck Vic in the form of a terrorist attack. Ten people died. Today, at the same site the new city library has been built, as a symbol that knowledge is one of the best pathways to understanding others.

As we already know, architecture also helps to build values. The studio BCQ Architecture wanted the new Pilarin Bayés library in Vic to be a monument to knowledge and to life, tolerance and culture, to remembrance and to the future. Also to sustainability, as one of the simplest ways to face that future.

To meet this sustainable goal, the creators have used ACCOYA@, one of the most resistant and sturdy timbers on the market.

Exterior wooden curtain wall

ACCOYA® makes it possible to build a sustainable façade with curtain wall where wood is used on the exterior. This possible thanks to acetylated wood, in other words, wood subject to a 100% natural treatment that makes the material extraordinarily resistant.

The wood obtained after this method takes on a superior dimensional stability, with good strength in the cycles of expansion and contraction. Its weather resistance also improves, as the molecular alteration of the wood after this process means that moulds and insects no longer recognise it as a source of food.

In virtue of this robustness, ACCOYA® has a written guarantee of 50 years in use classes 1, 2 and 3 (at ground level), and 25 in use class 4 (underground or submerged in fresh water).

Natural light, vegetation and remembrance

The authors proposed that all the building’s reading spaces be oriented toward the garden. The design of the façade lets in plenty of natural light. At the same time, the interior provides a perfect view of the exterior vegetation and, in particular, the trees, ten in total: one for each victim of the attack.

Each of the lights that illuminate the rooms at night have an inscription in different alphabets: knowledge illuminates life. A phrase with a metaphoric power that is transmitted every night, when the light emanating from the library bathes the surrounding streets with the design of its façade with wooden curtain wall.

(To see all the images, consult the project file.)

La entrada Knowledge illuminates life se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

Architecture and construction are two of the pillars that are moving the world towards sustainability and common sense. This can be seen in the multiple concepts that are springing up as a response to a society that is ever more committed to the environment: buildings with almost no energy consumption (ECCN), bioconstruction, zero-energy buildings, sustainable architecture, green architecture, bioclimatic architecture, organic architecture…

One of these concepts is the Passivhaus standard. Emerging in 1988 in Germany (Passivhaus means “passive house” in German), it has been moving from theory to practice as society’s awareness and science and technology have smoothed its way. In essence, the purpose of this building model is to obtain comfort in the home by monitoring certain basic principles.

In terms of figures, Passivhaus seeks to reduce the energy consumption of buildings by around 70% with respect to those constructed with conventional building standards.

Passive House

What is Passivhaus in 5 key points?

The Passivhaus housing building standard has five fundamental aspects, that have to work together:

1. High level of insulation in walls and roofs
2. Absence of heat bridging
3. Hermetic enclosure
4. High performance windows
5. Efficient ventilation systems

Taking this into account, and although in the Passivhaus concept does not prioritise any material, it is logical that one of the most requested construction materials in this standard, and with the best prospects for the future, is that which has been contributing to energy efficiency and sustainable construction for centuries even when these two concepts were still light years away: wood.

Wood reduces energy consumption from minute zero

If the objective of Passivhaus is to reduce the high energy consumption of conventional construction, what better contribution than doing so from the start. Wood is a material that barely generates CO2 emissions during its production. Nothing like the environmental impact that other construction materials generate such as steel, concrete, lime or mortar.

In addition to constituting a sustainable solution from the start, wood suits practically every single one of the key points of Passivhaus: it is an excellent natural thermal insulator that helps eliminate heat bridging.

At the same time, wood is hygroscopic, which enables it to regulate the air quality and temperature: it absorbs the environmental humidity in winter and distributes it in summer. Comfort is assured naturally.

Detached residence, Trentino  |Carpentry: Damiani-Holz&KO S.P.A./AG. | Product: Oak glulam

And the best is still to come: wood certified for structural use

At GRUPO GÁMIZ we are the designer and manufacturer of VIGAM, the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use. This means that we are not just talking about decoration and interior design, but also resistance, function and structural use. 

And, of course, we are talking about beauty, quality, warmth, sensations of being at one with nature. Design, creativity and sustainability. Thanks to VIGAM, architects do not have to renounce anything in their projects: if they want wood, now beautiful, sustainable and functional solutions are possible.

For example, with VIGAM it is possible to build wooden curtain walling without using non-sustainable or cold materials such as steel or aluminium.

Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Arch: Herzog & de Meuron | Product: Application of curtain wall – Oak glulam

ACCOYA@: sustainable wood, without toxins, with a 50-year written guarantee

Passivhaus is not immune to the wood of the future. ACCOYA® acetylated wood is a sustainable wonder. Made from conifers and modified in a process that does not involve any toxic substances, the result is a wood that as elegant as it is powerful, ideal for exteriors and perfectly valid for interiors thanks to its quality and elegance.

Residence in Luis Manzaneque | Arch: By More Arquitectos | Product: Cladding of the exterior façade – Accoya® horizontal scantlings and oak glulams

Suitable for all types of finishes, its strength is inscribed in its written 50-year guarantee.

Passivhaus yet another example that the progress of sustainable architecture is unstoppable. Society demands this and, little by little, so do the institutions. The good news is that architects, weaving dreams of comfort and habitability, have wood products of certified quality, which, in addition to transmitting beauty, care for the planet.

La entrada Passivhaus and certified wood: common sense brings them together, the environment wins se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.