Urban regeneration through retrofitting social housing: the AURA 3.1 prototype

As a large proportion of housing stock does not meet the current demands for energy and comfort (leading to high levels of obsolescence and vulnerability), the annual rate of energy upgrades for the existing stock must be increased. The AURA Strategy is an intervention methodology which focuses on the regeneration of neighbourhoods or obsolete urban fabrics which suffer from high levels of architectural, urban and socio-economic vulnerability. Within this context, the AURA 3.1 prototype was developed for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 Competition. The project was based around a sustainable construction strategy for the urban regeneration of obsolete residential neighbourhoods, through the reuse of existing buildings considering Mediterranean climate and energy. The Poligono San Pablo neighbourhood was chosen as the case study. This article presents the main retrofit action: the juxtaposition on the existing building of a structural-architectural system which provides new technological and spatial features. Quantitative data regarding the validity and effectiveness of the AURA Strategy could be collected from the monitoring of the Pavilion prototype during the competition. Two first prizes were won in contests with on-site measurements: Comfort conditions and House Functioning. Third place was also obtained in the Sustainability contest, thus confirming the enormous possibilities the AURA Strategy has for sustainable urban regeneration in retrofitting social housing, within the limitations of the competition.