Sustainable roofs in Madrid
Created by Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Design a Sustainable Roof Pack (with different modalities) that home owners associations can easily acquire and install.
Description
Many cities have a lot of underutilized space on the roofs of its buildings. These spaces can provide space for initiatives that increase the sustainability of our cities. The combination of green roofs and solar technology can create vital synergies in areas of high urban density. The vegetation on the roofs increases the efficiency of photovoltaic panels by reducing ambient temperature. Sustainable roofs support water management, improve insulation and air quality, provide cooling and create habitats for biodiversity among others possible benefits. At the same time, associated energy production systems can provide heat and electricity to urban structures, shortening the distance between the source of energy and the place of consumption.
However, these kind of solutions are rare to find in the roofs of Madrid. The reasons are diverse, but there is a key one: the advantages of these types of solutions are little known and there are no standardized products (or are not well known) with associated financing models and easy to install, that home owner associations can acquire.
These solutions may cover different areas: isolation, energy production, recreation, naturalization, etc.
Target
Location: City of Madrid, Spain
Target community: Residential buildings are usually managed directly by communities of owners (home owners associations). These associations hire services such as cleaning, risk prevention, fire prevention, etc. The goal is to design a highly standardized service for the installation and maintenance of sustainable roofs*. This service should be offered directly to the home owners associations or to the property administration company they might had hired to manage the building.
The support of the Madrid City Council will be essential in two ways: designing the solution, because it is essential to design an attached financial model and, later, communicating and disseminating the initiative.
*Sustainable roof is a wider concept than green roofs, they include solutions that help reduce energy consumption, generate sustainable energy, help reduce resource use or provide improvements in the social well-being of the communities.
Competencies
There are already sustainable roof solutions, but it is clear that they have not been embraced by real state owners in the city. One of the reasons that explains this is that they don't offer a win-win partnership between public administration, businesses and end-consumers. The support of the Madrid City Council will be key for the solution to be implemented in the buildings, given its legitimacy and direct access to citizens.
The City Council of Madrid has designed a strategy for the re-naturalization of the city called "Madrid + Natural" that incorporates sustainable roofs as one of the 16 primary measures.
The person that will be supervising and hosting this process is Reyes Montiel, Cabinet director of the Government Area of Environment and Mobility. Reyes is also a journalist and has taken part in open innovation processes such as GoApp Madrid.
Innovation
Madrid City Council's strategy is also to influence the demand. A public communication campaign to offer a standardized modular solution, with service charges, installation deadlines and an attached financing mechanism; that appeals enough to the home owners associations to contract it out is still missing.
The challenge of designing a standardized and modular solution is key and it is not only a technical or technological issue, but an economic and social one as well.
Ideal solution's characteristics:
- Re-naturalization of the building, favouring biodiversity.
- Building insulation to improve thermal comfort and energy savings.
- Production of renewable energies.
- Creation of new recreational areas for better neighbourhood coexistence.
Commitment
The Madrid City Council is the ideal entity to guarantee the applicability of the designed solution, since it is linked to its short and medium term strategy and has direct access to the target population. The applicability of the solution requires a high level of cooperation before, during and after the implementation of the pilot solutions because it requires great coordination between the designers, the City Council, the suppliers, the financial institutions involved and the installers.
The Challenge Owner
Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Madrid City Council, Government Area of Environment and Mobility
