Recently, the newspaper Ara published a report on the attractiveness of wooden architecture, and highlighted that energy efficiency and the possibility of innovation have boosted this material in the sector. The report was featured with Josep Ferrando, the director of the School of Architecture and Building Engineering La Salle (ETSALS), who defended some of the attributes of wood: "For every 100 square meters of concrete slab, if bundles of wood save 60 tons of carbon dioxide, which is roughly what a car emits in a year. "
The trend in the sector points to sustainability, awareness and protection of environmental responsibility. The article from the newspaper Ara explains that "construction is responsible for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions, and it is an unstoppable and growing phenomenon." In this sense, ETSALS stands up in its programs to make its students - future architects - aware of the importance of thinking of creative solutions that favor the sustainability of buildings. Wood, seen as a rare thing back then, has now become a trend. In fact, as the report points out, many governments are already encouraging construction with wood; in France, for example, from 2022 onwards, 50% of public buildings will have to be built with this material.
La Salle-URL School of Architecture has bet on wood as a construction material for some time now, within the framework of a school model in which sustainability is one of the main academic values. The investiture of the French architect Anne Lacaton as Doctor Honoris Causa by the URL and proposed by ETSALS, last February 2020, is one of the clearest examples. Lacaton, from the Lacaton & Vassal studio, is a reference in the discipline in some values that relate it directly to La Salle School of Architecture: respect for the historical and natural environment, the circular economy, the social component and sustainability.
On the other hand, the director of ETSALS, Josep Ferrando, has introduced a wooden design unit in the studies of the Degree in Architecture in the new school model and also in one of the logics that make up the Master in Integrated Architectural Design (MIAD). He has done so convinced of the importance of teaching the advantages of working with this material, with which he has built - together with the ETSALS professor Pedro García and the architects Mar Puig and Manel Casellas - the Moià Fire Station, the first made of wood in Catalonia. Precisely, the project has been recognized as one of the nominees for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Prize 2022, one of the most important awards in the discipline worldwide and the most important in Europe.
