{"id":20306,"date":"2022-03-28T08:04:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T06:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/sustainable-architecture-spain\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T02:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:54:50","slug":"sustainable-architecture-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/en\/sustainable-architecture-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Architecture: What It Really Means in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sustainable architecture<\/strong> means making the most of what a site already offers \u2014 sun, wind, ground, local materials \u2014 while doing as little damage to it as possible. The technical term is minimising environmental impact. In practice it comes down to a handful of decisions taken at the drawing-board stage, while they are still cheap to make. If you are weighing up a project on the Costa del Sol, it is worth raising the subject early with your architecture practice in M\u00e1laga<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The European Union has been pushing sustainable buildings hard, and it puts real weight on building sustainability certificates. The reason is blunt: construction consumes 40% of all the energy we use.<\/p>\n

It also produces 35% of greenhouse gas emissions, which makes it one of the biggest contributors to climate change. That is why decarbonisation protocols take the sector so seriously. Cut energy use, bring renewables into construction, and Europe meets its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.<\/p>\n

In Spain, the national and European frameworks have already made this compulsory rather than aspirational. Since 31 December 2020, every new building must be a nearly zero-energy building (NZEB \u2014 in Spanish, edificio de consumo de energ\u00eda casi nulo<\/em>). The public sector got there first: the requirement applied from 31 December 2018 to new buildings owned or occupied by the public administration. Worth knowing if you are arriving from the UK: this sits in the C\u00f3digo T\u00e9cnico de la Edificaci\u00f3n<\/em>, Spain’s building regulations. The architect is the one who signs to say the project complies. It is not guidance you can politely ignore.<\/p>\n

Sustainable architecture: basic principles and examples<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It helps to start with what actually makes a building sustainable, rather than with what makes it look sustainable in a brochure.<\/p>\n

The basic principles of sustainable building<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To deserve the name, a sustainable building has to meet a short list of essential principles:<\/p>\n