The primary objective of Valldaura Labs, as a centre of research on the Self-Sufficient Habitat, is to provide itself with the necessary structures to produce in situ most of the resources its students and researchers need to live. Our aim is to generate all of our energy through renewable systems, to produce the greater part of the food we consume, and to fabricate objects using traditional techniques and high-tech processes with resources obtained from our immediate environment.
The research is organized on the basis of Laboratories and Programmes.
The FOOD LAB is geared to producing food with ecological processes and developing a high-level bio-gastronomic culture using age-old techniques and processes.
The ENERGY LAB aims to develop a new model for the distributed management of a building’s energy from renewable sources (biomass, solar, wind and other) based on the Energrid model developed for Endesa. It also runs the HydroGrid water management project and the Global Traceability of Matter project.
The GREEN FABLAB is centred on fabricating objects from materials drawn from the immediate environment, especially wood and clay. The carpentry makes furniture and structural elements from the wood provided by the sustainable management of the forest, and the kilns produce ceramics in the tradition of the estate’s own bòvila brickyard.
The centre also runs the following programmes.
• Forest Management Programme (approved as sustainable forest management by the Generalitat de Catalunya)
• Environment Programme, providing an integral understanding of the natural cycles that take place in the forests of Valldaura and the surrounding Serra de Collserola range
• Archaeology Programme, centred on excavations in the historic site of the royal palace of Valldaura and the recovery of historic agricultural structures
• Global Traceability of Matter Programme
