New ESIC Business School in Pozuelo de Alarcón

Just a few days ago, the new headquarters of the ESIC BUSINESS SCHOOL Marketing and Business School in Pozuelo de Alarcón opened its doors, which has expanded its facilities to accommodate more than 4,000 students.

The new ESIC Business School has 23,600 square metres of educational space and a further 9,500 square metres of landscaped and recreational areas. It hosts 40 classrooms, an auditorium, work and meeting rooms and parking for cars and bicycles.

The project has been a joint work between the Gómez-Díaz-Granados architecture studio, formed by architects Eduardo Gómez García, Inmaculada Díaz Hernández and José Manuel Granados Baño, along with the engineering firm Atei Consultores, who have worked hand in hand to provide this innovative educational centre with sustainability and energy efficiency.

The building aspires to GOLD in the rigorous LEED certification, as energy efficiency has been the main objective pursued throughout the project, from its conception to its execution. For Laudelino Javier Sánchez de León, Engineer at Atei Consultores, many measures have been taken to maximize the energy savings and the good environmental performance of the building, "among the active measures" it is worth highlighting that the ventilation in many areas exceeds the LEED requirements, with high efficiency air conditioning with energy recovery and geothermal system".

To these must be added the "passive measures" which, such as insulation, will facilitate very low consumption of the air conditioning systems installed, LED lighting and own energy production sources with photovoltaic solar energy.

The team of architects also made a distinction between the actions on the installations (renewable energies, geothermal energy for DHW production, ventilation with high energy recovery heat recuperators, intelligent control systems and photovoltaic panels, among others), and those carried out on the envelopes. "Our second objective was to reduce the building's energy demand as much as possible by acting on the envelopes, which meant making a special effort to choose the right materials for each and every one of them (carpentry with thermal break, glass suitable for each orientation, etc.), as well as the use of construction systems that would guarantee the greatest possible airtightness to eliminate the dreaded thermal bridges," says Inmaculada Díaz, a member of the team.

To achieve this, the choice of insulation was very important, "we were looking for high performance, such as that offered by URSA's mineral glass wool and extruded polystyrene. These materials were ideal for the LEED certification to which we aspired, as their composition contains a percentage of between 35%-85% recycled material and long useful life that makes them more sustainable," said the team of architects.

URSA is very involved in the project, both in the insulation systems installed for which materials such as URSA TERRA, and in the construction and insulation of the air-conditioning ducts, in which more than 13,500 meters of URSA AIR HVAC panels are used, as well as in the construction and insulation of HVAC ducts, in which more than 13,500 metres of URSA AIR.

URSA materials supplied and installed by Tolebrick and Durplei, in the case of the mineral wool, and supplied by Fanair and installed by HT Hispanotérmica in the case of the URSA AIR HVAC ducts, have been highlighted by those responsible for this project. For Laudelino Sánchez de León, "the advantage we see in URSA's insulating materials is their low thermal conductivity, including mineral wool, with conductivities of around 0.032 W/mK for a large number of them".

For the engineer, in addition to good thermal performance, the acoustic performance of the materials and other aspects such as the information provided on the solutions, their certificates, technical data sheets and calculation tools were also highly valued. "Finally, the most important thing, although we are quite self-taught, whenever we consult URSA they are always there, for anchoring their wool, for widths between supports, to see the availability of materials at the time of execution, to resolve any doubts, their people are exceptional in everything, if we add to this that every so often new material are incorporated, i.e. innovation, it makes us bet on the brand in everything we do," he concluded.

In the same way, the team of architects have been using URSA materials since 2014, when they undertook the complete refurbishment of the office building at Calle Zurbarán 10, which achieved one of the first "A" energy certifications in Madrid for refurbished office buildings.

Construcciones San Martín has carried out this extension work. Its site manager, Roberto Carchenilla, stated that LEED ORO certification "is based on the implementation of aspects that improve energy efficiency, care for the environment in buildings and a totally sustainable development, even in the selection of construction materials".

Carchenilla believes that this concern for sustainability is not a fad, "more and more clients are asking us to make an extra effort in sustainability. This concern is here to stay and to build in the most efficient way and with the least amount of waste".

In short, this project is committed to ensuring that its conception, construction and use comply with requirements to minimize environmental impact. This commitment to sustainability is part of ESIC's commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals that have led it to implement all the systems and solutions that, like URSA's materials, will make the building's energy performance exceptional.