Requalification of the river park: eco-houses in Elche

Abstract

The city of Elche, the second most important town of Alicante’s province, thanks to its 230,000 inhabitants, has a lot of heritage values such as the Misteri and the Palmeral. In its urban structure, the relation between the original urban plot and the modern one is made from the location of the river Vinalopò. Its canal is dry most of the year and its slopes are residual spaces that are not integrated with the modern and the ancient existing urban plot. The city of Elche relationship with the Palmeral does not give added value to the numerous urban parks that are in many parts of the city. This research could organize a new building typology of flats. It has tried to build a relationship with the environment that would bring benefits for the relationship between the urban plot and the river. In this way it would encourage a revitalization of the existing river park in support of architectural proposals such as an equipped park. In addition, these houses have bioclimatic technology of cooling evaporating using the natural airstream produced in the park which is induced through the building’s structural system. Introduced by the chimney effect, the air is cooled by vegetal masses. The orientation to the West of glazing, that looks at the river park, causes a lot of energy problems. This research analyses a wrapped and protective solar system based on a vertical rotating panel formed by low thickness and large format ceramic tiles in various sceneries. With modelling and the simulation through the software Design Builder, energetic demands for different sceneries are obtained which allow us to draw conclusions about the most efficient system in terms of energy consumption.