Leveraging mass timber for sustainable social housing
Barcelona Social Housing Tower, Spain
The Barcelona social housing tower breakthrough initiative is a competition winning building, supported by the City of Barcelona. The project provides an opportunity to rethink social housing with an emphasis on creating a climate-smart, high quality living environment. There is demand for increased social housing in Barcelona and demand for social housing is growing across almost all European countries. The CSFEP is working with architect Daniel Ibanez to support the development of this innovative timber social housing tower in Barcelona and ensure it meets the required standards to be a blueprint for other cities to follow.
BARCELONA SOCIAL HOUSING TOWER INTERVENTIONS ACROSS THE 3S FRAMEWORK
SINK
The maximum amount of carbon to be extracted from forests for this construction project is 504 tCO2. After 50 years (the building’s lifespan) forests can accumulate 414 to 828 tCO2.
STORAGE
Carbon stored in the wood will capture ~252 tCO2 over 50 years, with an opportunity to almost double impact from the re-use / minimization of scrap wood.
SUBSTITUTION
Carbon emissions from the timber tower are between 1.4 and 2.1 times less than conventional housing options in Barcelona.
CSFEP's ROLE
Analysing the carbon impact across the 3S (sequestration, storage, and substitution)
Assessing the safeguards and sourcing value chains to help inform what needs to be in place this and other projects of a similar nature
Communicating the benefits to inspire other cities to commission sustainable timber buildings
THE BARCELONA STORY
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORK THAT BARCELONA IS DOING
Barcelona Case Study