"The house that no one dared build until now". This is how developers invite you to visit YZ HUB, a collaborative project in which more than 30 leading companies apply innovation, sustainability, design and digitalisation to a 240 m2 industrialised passive house in Camarma de Esteruelas, Madrid.
This initiative stems from a real need to dynamise the construction sector and influence change, including new-generation interests and trends, through joint efforts and collaboration.
According to Jorge Consuegra, a Metapolis architect, "the same key terms –industrialisation, sustainability, digitalisation – are repeated in all the sector's forums, but they are not always closely connected, or the process for doing so is not always shown. Therefore, YZ HUB aims to provide a real and up-to-date response to the sector's needs".
Although it seems that this is just another project, in line with other laboratory housing, such as Casa Sophia or Lilu's House, in this case, the main difference perhaps lies in the ecosystem of partners' collaborative and innovative approach, who are using this initiative as a construction laboratory to test (and teach) from the construction stage to the subsequent use stage.
"That is why we provide technical visits to the site at each construction milestone and invite all the agents in the sector (developers, architects, builders, engineers, installers, students, end clients) to learn about and talk about each project stage. As our motto says, 'we don't just tell you, we show you', explains Consuegra.
Since its conception, YZ HUB was designed to be certified as a Passivhaus project, the sector's most demanding energy efficiency standard. A project monitoring platform has been developed whose data will help improve end-user comfort and well-being and obtain reliable data to support the design criteria.
On the collaborative side, YZ HUB has more than 30 partners (including Knauf Insulation, Kömmerling, BMI, Plan Radar, ChovA, etc.), providing a 360º vision of the construction process.
According to Jorge Consuegra, "Each one contributes their best and most innovative solutions (some of them market pioneers), whether in the form of technical work, cutting-edge construction systems or on-site digitisation tools (enriched BIM digital twin, virtual or augmented reality, online management platforms, etc.)".
This house, custom-built by the PAEE construction company, will show how the advantages of passive houses in terms of savings, efficiency and comfort can be further enhanced by industrialisation
