R3project

The R3project has come to an end

2011-05-17T17:22:00.000+02:00

Hi! You reached the R3project web site, a blog about how to adapt urban housing to a green lifestyle. It is the diary of an ecological renovation of an old apartment in the heart of Barcelona, and a guide to a more responsible way of living.

This blog had been growing with our flat, ripening with the experience and evolving with the participation of our readers. Between 2006 and 2010 we published our step by step eco-renovation. The work is now finished, and so is the blog but we hope you can still get inspired by the result and find useful information for your home.

Feel free to scroll through the 5 Rs of ecodesign or visit each room by reading the round-ups in the left sidebar. We also appreciate any comments and hope you share your knowledge and thoughts about eco-friendly urban living.

For current projects by eco designer Petz Scholtus, please visit Pöko Design.

*faircompanies visited the R3project

2011-05-17T11:10:00.002+02:00

Thanks Kirsten for a wonderful report!

Open R3project - Oct 29 2010

2010-02-23T18:08:00.001+01:00

As part of the Barcelona Design Week, we are participating in the Design Circuit, and opening the R3project (which houses the Pöko Design Studio) to show and sell eco-friendly products and interior design. Together with Matteria (good design + smart materials) and Evohé organic wine, we would like to show you around, so come and visit us on october 22nd, between 16h-20h.

Flyer designed by Ernest Vidal.

R3project round-up 7: the Balcony

2010-01-27T16:57:00.005+01:00

Although we don’t have much of it, living in the Centre of Barcelona, we love our outdoor space. Our apartment has 3 small Barcelona-style balconies, that just about fir some flowerpots, a compost bin and a washing line.

No matter how little space you have, you can always grow some of your own herbs and spices, and even vegetables on windowsills, balconies or terraces if you don’t have a garden. We really like the Leopoldo Urban Vegetable Garden for it’s slick and practical design. Used indoors and outdoors, with wheels and available in different sizes, the Leopoldo is the perfect alternative to your standard ceramic pots and fits even into small spaces. We have managed to grow anything from parsley to basil, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, chillies and strawberries.

One of the most important features of the R3project is the Can-O-Worms compost bin. We can’t get over the fact that thousands of worms on our balcony turn all our organic scraps from the kitchen and our plants into nutritious compost that we then use as fertiliser for the plants.

We had this worm composter for over a year and half now, and had had no bad surprises. Worms and homeowners are happy. And you would be surprised how much organic waste we recycle, since we ordered the organic vegetable box by Recapte. Every 3 to 4 months we get to collect some 8 kilos of fresh compost. Read here about how to install a Can-O-Worms (with video) and here about our first compost harvest.

Quite common in Barcelona, although not so in the United States where in some places they have even been banned, drying lines are the most eco-friendly way to dry your clothes. No energy is needed, no machinery, and the clothes end up smelling fresh.

Then, on sunny days, we take out our solar oven we made in a workshop by Fundació Terra, and cook some delicious biscuits or hot bananas with melted chocolate…

R3project round-up 6: the Bathroom

2010-01-20T19:08:00.001+01:00

As you can guess, in the bathroom it is most of all about water, and using as less as possible of it. Our showerhead and the tap of the sink have low-flow faucet aerators that mix the water with air. That way less water is used but you still get the effect of a full shower. The aerators are easy to install, and only cost around 3€, while saving up to 50% water! We believe it’s a must for all taps.

Toilets are also using quite a lot of water. We find it easiest to reduce the water consumption at this end by regulating manually how much water we need each time to flush. Our Stop Flush system by Roca, let’s you decide how much water you need each time; the first flush starts letting water down the toilet bowl and the second flush stops it. If you happen to forget or your guests don’t know this system, it simply stops after a full flush of 12 litres. Read about other options for water-saving flushing devices here.

The next things to keep in mind are the materials you use in the bathroom. Because of the contact with water and a higher humidity level in the air, natural materials are not always recommended for bathrooms. We decided to use the same locally produced tiles as in the kitchen, only in red instead of white and green. The walls around the bathtub and the sink are covered with recycled plastic slate tiles, also a Spanish product. You can read about this experiment here and here.

The bathtub was actually in the apartment when we started the renovation, and despite a few scratched that could easily be fixed, it was in perfect shape. It was however not easy to convince the workmen to use this old tub instead of buying a brand new one, even if they are cheap. Bathtubs and sinks create a lot of waste when they are thrown out, often only because of a change in fashion, and not becasue they are broken. That is why we decided to get the sink Kalahari by Roca, a locally produced sink, made of much less material than most other designs.

We are also avoiding the use of PVC, so the alternative to a shower curtain was a simple glass sheet: long lasting and easily recyclable. Mirrors are not especially eco-friendly objects, so the best thing you can do is get a second hand one. Last but not least, we keep our bathroom clean with some eco-cleaning action. Click here for some recipes for eco-friendly cleaning products you can make your self- and that work!

If you want to know more about the R3project, you can read the round-ups of kitchen, living-room, office, bedroom and general installations.

R3project round-up 5: the Office

2010-01-09T13:54:00.000+01:00

The next room in our tour around the R3project is the studio, or office. Here we were able to restore the original floor tiles as they were in a much better shape as those in the rest of the flat, where we put down a cork floor and locally produced tiles. The proudest piece of furniture in the studio is no doubt the Steelcase Think chair, a masterpiece of Cradle to Cradle design, fully recyclable and very comfortable. We constructed the desk from a big piece of plastic and trestles we salvaged from the trash after a trade fair. The built-in cupboard is made from chipboard and has a wooden Venetian blind to close it. The ceiling lamp is a variation of our Bidon Lamp, made from a used jerry can. To not loose the overview, we use strips of natural cork to pin whatever projects we are working on.

Of the smaller gadgets we like the Voltaic solar bag which we use to charge our mobile phones and other small electronic objects. Of course we only use 100% recycled paper in our printer, and go to Cartridge World to have the cartridges refilled instead of buying new ones. This saves us money and waste. The stapless stapler is also a cool thing that every eco-conscious office should have. It staples sheets of paper together without staplers; watch a video of how it works here. This eliminates the metal staples that don’t do well in the paper recycling process.

For more ideas, check out the Planet Green Guide "How to be Green at Work".

Also check out the R3project round-ups for kitchen, bedroom, living room and general installations around the apartment.

R3project round-up 4: the Bedroom

2009-12-08T10:21:00.001+01:00

We listed everything we did in order to live a more sustainable lifestyle around the house, the kitchen and the living room, so this week we concentrate on the bedroom.

Because it is the place we probably spend most hours in, a third of your life they say, it is important for us to keep it free of toxins. Like for all the walls in the apartment, we used non-toxic, eco-friendly paints in the bedroom too. The floor is also the same as in the rest of the home; natural cork by Wicanders.

When it comes to furniture, all we have in the bedroom is the bed and a wardrobe. The bed is one we still had from previous places we lived in, so no need to throw it out. If you need to get a new bed though, look for FSC-certified wood for the frame and a non-toxic mattress.

The same goes for pillows. A lot of pillows are made from synthetic materials and often derive from petroleum, a non-renewable resource that is also extremely flammable; not exactly what you want to sleep on. In order for pillows not to be flammable, they are treated with brominated fire retardants, that have been proven to cause liver, thyroid, and neurodevelopmental toxicity. Another thing to watch out for with pillows is the allergies they might cause due to the house mites they can accommodate. We opted for natural latex pillows, but check out Planet Green’s guide to pillows for other eco-friendly and healthy options.

The wardrobe our carpenter Rodrigo crafted is made from OSB, an engineered wood that contains very little resin. You should still watch out that the resin it contains, generally under 5%, is not formaldehyde. If you are wondering what the humps on the outside of the wardrobe are; they are StuffBumps. The StuffBump, designed by Petz Scholtus and Graham Hill, is an eco-friendly storage solution, made in the prison of Barcelona. More information on Pöko Design / StuffBump.

As far as textiles are concerned, bed linen, curtains, etc., organic cotton is probably the most eco-friendly and also the best available option. TreeHugger explains:

Organic cotton is the version of its conventional counterpart grown without pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers or any other chemicals, and that makes it hugely different, especially considering that cotton (organic or otherwise) provides about half of all the world's fiber needs. Conventional cotton is one of the most chemically-dependent crops, sucking up 10 percent of all agricultural chemicals and 25 percent of insecticides on 3 percent of our arable land; that's more than any other crop per unit. […] 20,000 deaths occur each year from pesticide poisoning in developing countries, many of these from cotton farming, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Last but not least, use low energy light bulbs for your bedside table lamp and ceiling light. If you are interested in other products for the bedroom, check out Matteria’s good+smart textile section. To know more about how to detox your bedroom, go to Planet Green’s Detox Your Home: Bedroom.

R3project round-up 3: the Living Room

2009-11-05T10:47:00.001+01:00

After the general eco installations around the home, and, how to green your kitchen, this week we will concentrate on our living room, a place for resting, eating, and sharing with guests.

Walk on it
The first thing most people notice when stepping into our living room is the rather unusual cork floor. We have had it now for almost 3 years and are still very pleased with it. The first meter in front of the entrance door is a coconut fibre carpet to wipe shoes of when entering. It’s fully biodegradable and made from a renewable material. Shoes go into the TRONES shoe cupboard units by IKEA, made from Polypropylene, a 100% easily recyclable and very durable plastic. In winter, we then slip into some snugly felt slippers made from 100% wool, available at Matteria. Our feet also like the Nani Marquina rug in front of the sofa, made from 100% renewable and biodegradable materials. These beautiful rugs are ethically produced in Nepal, Pakistan or India.

Have a seat
For the R3project, we like to use reclaimed objects, as long as they look good, and we like it recycled as long as the quality is up for it. So in our living room you can have a seat in one of the second hand armchairs, or get really comfortable in the WASTE pouf, made from recycled textile from the car industry. The latter is also locally produced, giving work to women in social reintegration centres.

Second time around
Seats are not the only objects that had another life before entering the R3project. From our glass dinner table, to mirrors and ceiling lamps, we managed to hunt down quite a few cool second hand products. There is also an old car tire mould that had been transformed into a curious looking flowerpot, and not to forget the Bidon Lamp, made from a used jerry can (and easy to make yourself).

Better storage is more space
To make use of a space right in front of the kitchen, we built the ‘Never-Empty Shelf’ out of FSC-certified MDF (although later we got hold of some OSB which we prefer to MDF because it contains less resin).

All in all, we like objects made from few and easily identifiable materials, to ensure that they can either be industrially recycled or returned to the earth at the end of their lives. We also care about choosing products that last longer, both technically and emotionally, and it is important to us to know where they come from and who made them. Last but not least, we love stuff made from a recycled material, as long as the design, the quality or the cost have not been compromised.

R3project round-up 2: the Kitchen

2009-10-12T10:25:00.001+02:00

Our kitchen is an open one, and forms part of the living room, because we like to cook with our friends around.

KITCHEN FLOOR
The kitchen area is defined by a change of flooring. The cork floor of the rest of the apartment gives way to funky green and white tiles. We tried hard to find some local tiles made from recycled TV screens, but because the company went bust, we decided on some local colourful tiles by TAU Ceramics, whose effort towards sustainability we appreciate.

FURNITURE & STORAGE
The kitchen cupboards are made from recycled wooden wine boxes, carefully assembled by our amazing carpenter Rodrigo Diaz. The countertop is solid FSC-certified, untreated wood from IKEA. The same goes for the central piece of furniture called FÖRHÖJA that serves as storage and extra work surface. As a storage solution for the upper parts, we chose GRUNDTAL, fully recyclable stainless steel shelves from which you can also hang things like pots and pans. We prefer this system to cupboards for both aesthetic and practical reason, plus they are made from a minimum amount of materials.

WATER USAGE
As far as saving water is concerned, we installed a very special low-flow tab by Tehsa. We are still trying to fit in a dishwasher, as “the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap, to boot”, according to one study at the University of Bonn in Germany. However, as you can read in 'dishwasher versus hand washing' on TreeHugger, the situation is not as black and white. We are also looking for a water filter to drink the currently not very nice tasting water from the tab and stop buying plastic bottles. This has turned out to be a difficult mission, any tips are appreciated!

ELECTRICITY USAGE
We also try to use as less energy as possible. CFL lights illuminate our kitchen, and all the necessary electric appliances such as the fridge, oven and cooking surface, are A+ energy efficient.

THE FOOD
Of course you can’t have a kitchen without the food. Our fresh produce comes in a box every 2 weeks: 10 kg of locally grown, non-chemically treated vegetables and fruit from Recapte. All leftovers are fed to the worms in our compost bin on the balcony. To serve ourselves meals, we use fully recyclable glass plates.

CLEANING PRODUCTS
Last but not least, we like to clean green. Most of our eco cleaning products are mixed together in the kitchen, or at least stored under the sink.

More:
R3project round-up 1: General Installations at Home
R3project round-up 2: the Kitchen

R3project round-up 1: General Installations Around the House.

2009-09-29T16:07:00.001+02:00

The R3project is almost complete; the renovation of the apartment is finished and we are living in it with our worms on the balcony, recycling and saving on energy and water wherever we can, without loosing comfort or style. In the following months we will finish this blog with a few round-up posts to give a better overview of the sustainable design solutions we applied to our apartment. This article is about the general installations around the house. The next ones will include the kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, office and balcony. We hope you enjoy it.

MOVING HOUSE
The general stuff around the house are mostly things you cannot see any more, but that play an important role when it comes to sustainable living. We started the R3project off with an eco-move, where we brought our stuff into the new apartment without emitting CO2. How? With a bicycle and a little help from our friends, watch the video here.

GETTING AN ETHICAL MORTGAGE
The month before the move, we were shopping for mortgages, and managed to get a loan with the ethical banc Triodos Bank. They guarantee that they only give money to ecological, social or ethical projects. We like that!

RECYCLING DEBRIS
Next we had to get rid of a few sacks of debris, and found out that Sacos Marones recycle the debris. It’s a great service widely available in Spain.

WATER INSTALLATION
In order to avoid PVC in our home, we had to look harder to find recyclable plastic pipes for the grey water installation. In the end we used the tubing system by AquaTherm, which is easy to install with ordinary tools, and, copper pipes for the fresh water and heating installation. The Jaga radiators we chose are ‘low H2O’, which means they also need less energy to run (because there is less water to heat). To heat our water we use a condensation gas boiler. What we really recommend, even without undergoing a full renovation, are low-flow faucet aerator. They cost around 3€ and save you up to 50% water. Depending on what flushing system your toilet has, you can also save a lot of water. We opted for a ‘Stop Flush system’.

ELECTRIC INSTALLATION
Just like for the water pipes, we managed to find PVC-free plastic tubes for the electricity. We used recyclable corrugated polypropylene tubes that are also organochloride and halogen free. Connected to the end of those are of course CLF lightbulbs and A-efficient electric appliances. We even managed to find eco-friendly plugs made form recyclable plastic, and light switches, made in Spain from certified wood.

PAINTS AND WOOD FINISHES
Our walls are painted with zero-VOC paint, and the wooden beams and balcony doors are treated with ecological and natural oils.

INSULATION
In order to keep heating costs down and keep the apartment cool without installing air conditioning, we made sure the place is completely insulated. Double-glazing was a must, and the cork floor an extra bonus to both thermally and acoustically insulate the apartment.

More:
R3project round-up 1: General Installations at Home
R3project round-up 2: the Kitchen

Green Cleaning for a Healthier Home and Planet

2009-08-27T13:05:00.001+02:00

We don’t like cleaning, but we like it when it’s clean; healthy clean that is. So at the R3project, we clean with as little toxins as possible. Here is how and what with:

Floor Cleaning

We vacuum the rug and hard floor if necessary, and then swipe the cork floor with a slightly moist mop. If you have serious stains, add some vinegar or eucalyptus oil, which disinfects and leaves a nice smell behind.

To get the smell out of a carpet, sprinkle it with baking soda, let sit 30 minutes and vacuum.

Windows and Mirrors

Vinegar does the trick! Fill half a spray bottle with distilled white vinegar and fill up with water. Spray onto the glass and mirrors and wipe off with old newspaper; it works!

All-Purpose-Cleaner

A good all-purpose-cleaner is 45 ml of baking soda and 1 litre of warm water mixed in a spray bottle or bucket.

Alternatively, if you prefer to buy green cleaning products, there are more and more brands on the markets, although not many are available in Spain yet. However, Veritas sells a few brands amongst which Ecover.

For greasy surfaces, try the local product, KH-7, the first grease remover in Europe to bear the European Union Eco-label. It is available in most mainstream supermarkets. Check out the EU eco-label web site to find more products near you.

To wipe surfaces, use old cloth rags instead of kitchen paper; it saves trees and money! Servei Estació has a whole range of eco cleaning products (mops, wiping rags, etc.) with microfibres so you don’t need to add any soap to get the dirt of the surfaces.

Washing Dishes

Due to lack of space we don’t have a dishwasher, which would save us plenty of work, energy, water and soap. The University of Bonn in Germany compared dishwashing with handwashing:

“The Bonn study proves that the dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too. Even the most sparing and careful washers could not beat the modern dishwasher.” [via TreeHugger]

So until we figure out where to put a dishwasher, we try to use as less water as possible when washing-up, filling the sink rather than washing under the running tap, and we use a biodegradable soap available at Veritas.

Clothes Washing

Our A+ efficient washing machine already saves on water, and until recently we used Ecover washing powder to clean our clothes. A few weeks ago though, we bought an Robby Wash Laundry Ball at Veritas (25€), an alternative to using washing powder. The ball, which you simply place with the clothes in the washing machine, contains activated macromolecules that are gradually released through the wash, dissolving dried-in stains by generating ions, which activate the water molecules.

Drying is done on a washing line of course, a right people in Spain still have, unlike in the US! Watch the video Drying for Freedom.

Indoor air

We don’t really like fragrant air, but instead prefer to ventilate the house well. For those of you who like friendly aromas in your home, try boiling cinnamon, cloves, lavender or any other herbs you like, instead of air fresheners. Indoor plants (such as Peace Lilies or any other green leaved plants) also help to purify the air, without giving off a smell.

If you are confused about ingredients of the detergents available in your supermarket, use Green Generation’s Label Reading Guide, which you can download onto your computer or iPhone. Simply type in an ingredient and it helps you to understand its potential risk to the environment if there is one.

For more recipes about how to mix your own cleaners, visit Planet Green, Assemble a Green Cleaning Kit.

Recyclable Glass Dinner Plates

2009-07-31T12:03:00.005+02:00

We needed new dinner plates and asked ourselves which ones are the most eco-friendly; Ceramic long-lasting ones? Bamboo ones? Biodegradable throw-away ones that need no water or detergent during their use? Edible plates? Recyclable metal ones? Organic fibre ones? Second hand plates? Of course the aesthetics also play an important role at the R3project, and so in the end we decided to look for glass plates: practical, easy to clean, durable, aesthetically pleasing, and fully recyclable.

Or are they? In theory yes, but as the Catalan Government’s Recycling Agency explained to us, the only glass that is properly recycled through the green glass containers are bottles and jars, in order to make new ones. Because at the moment the quality of glass coming from plates or drinking glasses cannot be guaranteed to be perfect for recycling, the government recommends giving broken glass objects to the special recycling facilities around town, where it can be recycled correctly.

La Mediterranea, a local glass and ceramic factory, even do recycled glass objects under the brand VIDRECO. We preferred however the more simple design, and lower prices of IKEA’s glass plates. MOTTO GLASS plates are 24cm in diameter, made form 100% recyclable virgin glass and microwave as well as dishwasher-safe, and only cost 0,60€ each. They come in different colours and with an extra benefit: For those of us who like working and eating at our desk, you can read your notes through the plates as you work on the next article!

Also see glass in the shower.

No to PVC, Yes to Glass in the Bath

2009-06-25T16:20:00.007+02:00

We recycled an old bathtub, but since we normally take showers (less water needed), we needed something to avoid splashbacks. Most shower curtains are made from PVC, a plastic we try to avoid wherever possible due to its negative impact on human health and the environment throughout its entire life cycle, at the factory, in our homes, and in the trash. You can visit this PVC-free campaign for more details, or simply read what it is really all about on Catalan designer Martí Guixé’s PVC (!) shower curtain (bottom image).

There are of course PVC-free shower curtains on the market (non-vinyl, recyclable plastics, natural fibres treated with bees wax…), but we decided to opt for a healthier (some plastics emit an healthy chemicals when heated by the water of the shower, which are then breathed in) and more durable (both fibres and plastics get mouldy) option, a simple glass sheet. Glass is easily recyclable and is even available as already recycled. It is also easy to maintain (spray with vinegar and water and dry with newspaper), doesn’t become mouldy, lasts for a long time and many different designs are available (framed and frame-less). The initial cost might be a little higher than that of a shower curtain, but we believe it is worth it and pays off in the long run.

Other eco-friendly solutions in the R3project bathroom are recycled plastic slate tiles, the stop-flush toilet and aerators in the tab, the second hand mirror, the Kalahari sink, low impact ceramic floor tiles, CFL light bulbs and white containers made from recyclable plastic (IKEA, see photo above)…

Martí Guixé's "MADE OF PVC" shower curtain.

Kitchen cupboards made from recycled wine boxes

2009-05-15T14:43:00.001+02:00

You might think it was just an excuse for drinking lots of boxes of nice wine, but this project is all about recycling, restyling and skilled handy work. We recycled old wooden wine boxes and turned them into kitchen cupboard doors. What might look easy actually required very good carpenter skills. We were lucky to have Rodrigo Díaz make our ideas come true. The doors open with a push system so we didn’t have to add extra handles except for the drawers.

Apart from the look of it, we like the fact to have memories embedded into our kitchen. One box for example contained a bottle of organic beer, a gift from Hernani and Loida, and another one contained Olga’s nice wine she decided to open one evening in a tapas place in Barceloneta…

How to make furniture from recycled wooden wine boxes

Once you have taken of the sides of the wooden boxes and removed all the nails, lay them out flat to design the layout. By overlapping and mixing different kinds of wood layout the desired design. Mark the pieces with a pencil and start cutting. To give the doors the necessary structure, nail them on to a 8mm wooden board. Cut out the shape of the doors, attach the hinges and install them. If the wood from the boxes isn’t varnished already, we recommend you add a layer or two of for example Livos eco oil so that possible fingerprints from cooking can easily be removed.

The countertop is from IKEA. We chose NUMERÄR: solid wood from a certified source.

The R3project on TV, "Medi Ambient" Program by TV3

2009-05-14T14:50:00.000+02:00

Here is the video and interview Xavier Duran and his team did for their program "Medi Ambient" (environment) for TV3. Thank you for the visit!

How to harvest worm-compost

2009-04-20T17:23:00.000+02:00

Since we installed the Can-O-Worms vermicomposting bin on our balcony in August 2008, we have had 2 harvests. The first one in January this year (so after 6 months but it can take up to 12 months), resulting in 8 kilos of natural worm compost (worm castings) that served us as fertiliser for the plants. The second harvest took less time (less than 3 months) as by then the worms and other organisms had reproduced, which helped speed up the composting process. So our second harvest took place in March and resulted in 9 kilos of compost.

Here is how you harvest the worm-compost:

Recycling your organic waste with the Can-O-Worms is easy: start by feeding the worms with food leftovers and plant clippings in the first tray, and when it fills up, start adding a second tray on top of the first one. Once you filled the second tray, add the third and last tray to the urban compost bin. When this last tray is full up [1], it’s time to harvest your first natural, home-made compost.

It is amazing to see that when you extract the bottom tray [2], what before has been pieces of vegetable, eggshell, etc. has been converted into brown, homogeneous compost, similar to coffee ground [3]. The worms have moved from one tray to another, leaving behind mature compost to feed on the fresh organic waste.

So take the matured compost out of the bottom tray and add the compost to your plants or save it for future needs. Then, simply add that empty tray to the top, add a bit of compost and worms and start adding food scraps like before [4]. It is a cyclic process where you simply keep adding the empty tray to the top.

Here some additional tips:

• Always make sure to fill up the trays enough so that the top of the food scraps touches the tray above so that the worms can migrate later on to the one above (they are not good at jumping).

• Don’t feed the worms any meat; they are vegetarians and would explode if they ate any meat!

• If your compost is too humid, add bits of paper or shaving from untreated wood.

• To avoid attracting fruit flies, always cover the new leftovers with matured compost from the same tray.

Although you might think you produce a lot of organic waste, we were surprised to see the compost absorb ALL our kitchen waste; 2 people eating regularly at home, with at least 5 kilos a week of organic vegetables from Recapte, our local vegetable box service. The reason why we don’t end up with masses of compost is because most of the kitchen waste consists of water and is released through the tap of the Can-O-Worms, which serves as liquid fertiliser. That way the volume of the waste is reduced by 70% in the compost bin. We have been using the compost as fertiliser for our 20 pot plants but if you really produce too much, make a friend or neighbour with plants happy by giving the compost away.

For more information about vermicomposting, check out our previous article and video about how to get started with the Can-O-Worms. And in case you wonder about the lion head behind the Can-O-Worms; it is a protective cover to shield the worms from too much sun and rain, made from a recycled advertisement banner from Barcelona’s Zoo.

Recycled Car Tire as Flower Pot

2009-03-12T13:53:00.003+01:00

We like plants and although we have little space for them, we manage to fill up the balconies with greenery, such as our urban vegetable garden by Leopoldo. For our Kentia in the living room, we found these cool flower pots made from recycled tires.

The pots are flexible and shock-absorbent which makes them particularly suitable for children playgrounds. The black round pots come with holes in the bottom for water drainage and are very durable. They have been designed by Catalan designer Curro Claret and are locally produced by Zicla, where our recycled bathroom tiles are from. The flower pots cost 25€ and the smallest size is 30 litres; 20 cm high and 40 cm diameters. More information on zicla.com.

Photo by Stefano Buonamici.

The R3project in the NYTimes

2009-03-12T12:59:00.003+01:00

Last week the NYTimes did a report on the R3project.
Some weeks ago, writer Penelope Green visited us for a 3-hour interview, the result of which you can read in her article "Carbon Neutral on a Shoestring" in the NYTimes. Here you can also see the photos Stefano Buonamici took of our home.

A big thank you to both for this fantastic report!

Visit of the Cabaret Elèctric, an interview with CatRadio

2009-02-09T17:32:00.002+01:00

Last week I visited the Cabaret Elèctric of CatRadio, which was a whole new experience with microphones, huge headphones, and a live web cam in the glass cube of the studio on Diagonal. We had a nice chat Txell Bonet and I, which you can listen to here (in Catalan and Spanish).

The Bidon Lamp

2009-01-25T19:38:00.011+01:00

You have probably seen the Bidon Lamp (“bidón” meaning “barrel” or “can” in Spanish) in photos and videos of the R3project. Here is how you can make your own.

You need:

-a used translucent plastic container
-a CFL bulb
-a bulb fitting with plug
-a sharp Stanley knife

In Barcelona, you can easily find these vessels near the plastic recycling containers or unfortunately just dumped in the streets. They are normally made from HDPE (High-density polyethylene), a recyclable plastic (number 2 recycling symbol) but we prefer to reuse it as a lamp before recycling it.

First, you need to give it a thorough wash, inside and outside. We recommend you wear gloves as some may have contained toxic products, like photo-chemicals, or just cooking oil.

Then you unscrew the lid and mark the diameter of your bulb fitting on the inside of the lid. With a sharp Stanley knife cut out the circle. Then you screw the light fitting to the lid so that the cable is on the outside of it. The energy efficient light bulb is to be screwed on the inside of the lid just before you put it back on. It is important that you use a CFL light bulb because incandescent light bulbs give off too much heat and would cause a hazard with this design. Et voilà, plug in the bulb and enjoy!

Here a few different versions of the Bidon Lamp:

As a ceiling lamp:

A cut-up wall lamp:

As a seat…

The Bidon Lamp has been designed by Petz Scholtus, but is open source design, for all of you who like DIY.

Petz likes to thank Julien Gressier, her ex-flatmate when she used to live in London, who made a similar lamp back then that was used as stool or low table depending on what was needed.

A new look and Happy 2009 from the R3project

2008-12-23T13:57:00.007+01:00

We have changed our look just in time to enter 2009, and we hope you like it. Thank you for being with us throughout 2008, we would like to wish you a Happy New Year. May it be a good one for people, planet and profit!
(If you like the Happy 2009 video, please send it on to your friends.)

R3project on TV3 Silenci?

2008-12-20T15:09:00.003+01:00

Silenci? from TV3 visited us, now that our apartment is (almost) done. You can see the flat with its worms and everything after the interview in the episode eco designer Petz Scholtus (in Catalan and Spanish). Thank you Ramón and Oscar, and congratulations for the program and the book about Silenci?. Let's see what you will do next, now that Silenci? is no more...

R3project in Silenci? Part 1 (January 2007)
R3project in Silenci? Part 2 (December 2008)

Save Resources – Go Second Hand

2008-11-23T17:02:00.008+01:00

Some objects just don’t have a very eco-friendly alternative, like mirrors for example, which are difficult to recycle, especially if we are talking about upcycling rather than downcycling (see Cradle to Cradle). Using second hand objects saves them from becoming obsolete and ending up as landfill, and, saves new resources and energy from being used to make new objects. Recycling processes can be pretty energy intense (manufacturing, transport, etc.), so why not use what already exists. We should therefore focus on re-usability, rather than recycling whenever possible. And re-use can be fun (as well as inexpensive) too; we found some very nice objects in second hand shops, have a look:

Second-hand 60ies bathroom mirror, found in Gracia, Barcelona, 25€.

Original PH lamp by Poul Henningsen (1894-1967), found in Copenhagen, Denmark, 35€

Second hand lamp, found in Copenhagen, Denmark, 25€

Second hand rocking chair found in the street in Barcelona, coated with recycled newspaper, 0€

Massive mirror, found in the street of Barcelona, re-used as sliding door, 0€ (image above)

You just have to be patient and keep your eyes open until the right object for you comes along. Have a look at Barcelona Forever, a recycling interior design installation by Mette Bak Andersen.

Good Rugs by Nani Marquina

2008-09-30T12:00:00.000+02:00

Today, we would like to tell you the story of our rug. It was love at first sight when we saw it at a Nani Marquina sample sale in Poblenou some 2 years ago. Its warm, bright yellow colour and its corn-on-the-cob-like texture make a great contrast with our lush tea-coloured cork floor. But there is much more to this Barcelona-based designer’s rugs than great designs that meet the eye (and toes). What we love about them are 2 more things: the fact that they are fully made from renewable and biodegradable materials, and, the social responsibility the products account for.

Nani Marquina rugs, hand-made in India, Nepal or Pakistan, carry the Care & Fair label, an organisation that since 1995 acts against child labour and helps improve education and health. All the carpets made in India also bear the label of KALEEN, issued but the council of India to guarantee again that no child labour was employed during carpet production. A great way to link East and West.

Our yellow rug is made from natural materials such as jute or wool, materials that are fully renewable unlike petrol-based materials, and fully biodegradable at the end of their lives. A good way to make sure your rug lasts you a long time is to clean it properly. On Nani Marquina’s web site (under Info > Looking after and cleaning) you have great (and very cute) tips on how to deal with different stains from coffee to wine.

You can see more gorgeous designs on the Nani Marquina web site and check out where to buy them near you.

We’ve Got Worms on the Balcony: Vermicomposting at Home

2008-08-29T10:52:00.006+02:00

A few weeks ago we started a Can-O-Worms, a vermicomposting bin, and we love it; no smell, no hassle. What it does is it turns all your kitchen waste into rich compost for your plants.

Having a compost bin at home also saves unnecessary “waste” from being transported (which again uses petrol and produces CO2 not to mention the packaging waste) to landfill or incinerating plants where the nutrients are lost. The Can-O-Worms lets you recycle your organic waste plus saves you from having to buy fertiliser for your plants. Of the waste you add to the compost bin, only 30% will be left as compost- the rest is water and comes out through the tap in the bottom. This fertilising liquid (also called "worm tea") can also be added (1/4 fertiliser, 3/4 water) to the plants.

The Can-O-Worms works without electricity and has hardly any maintenance to it. Thousands of red earthworms do the work by turning your food scraps into compost. See the short video above on how to get started.

A few additional tips:

- Place the Can-O-Worms into the shade.
- Leave the tap open to avoid the lower tray from flowing over or smelling bad.
- Always cover the fresh food scraps with mature compost, saw dust or coconut fibre to avoid attracting fruit flies.

More stories from our worms soon! In the meantime check out Reln, the Australian Can-O-Worms producer, and, FullCycle and Abundant Earth who both have good information about Vermicomposting. In Spain, Compostadores are the national distributors of the product (some 120€), and their web site has plenty of information in Spanish.

The Canary Project Visited Barcelona

2008-07-29T14:39:00.002+02:00

It was a pleasure to meet Ed and Susannah here in Barcelona a few weeks ago. They are the founders of the Canary Project, a US-born organisation that creates a better public understanding of climate change and motivates solutions towards the same by producing visual media, events, and artwork.

Canary has nothing to do with the islands but rather with the birds that were used to warn miners of deadly methane levels. The Canary Project works similar: it warns us of the severe changes to come by for example photographing changing landscapes. Another of their projects is the Green Patriot Poster campaign, that motivates individuals to act against climate change, with posters inspired buy the imagery of World War II.

Read here what the Canary Project has to say about the R3project, and watch the video to get another glimpse into our eco-flat Lab.

Thank you Susannah and Ed, it was nice meeting you. Come back soon.

Eat Local! It is better for you and the environment

2008-07-01T08:23:00.002+02:00

We had been looking for quite a while for a local organic vegetable box service like Able & Cole we knew from London. Finally Josep recommended the company Recapte to us, we tried it out and are very happy with our choice.

Here is how it works: Every week (or every 2 weeks if you’re only 2 people like us), you get 10 kg of chemically free grown vegetables and fruit delivered to your home. Recapte even lets you choose what vegetable and fruit you like from the ones available, depending on the season. In every box you find around 10 different products. Last week for example we received beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, silverbeet, lettuce, asparagus, cherries, apples and beetroot.

You can really taste the difference and probably learn to cook a few new recipes along the way. Their gardens are in Lleida (around 180 km from Barcelona), and they deliver all over Spain, using an ordinary messaging service, which means transportation is optimised. 4 boxes cost around 120€ including transport, which equals 3€ a kilo. Prices go down if you order 26 or 52 boxes.

Apart from the better quality vegetables and the fact that they are free of chemicals, we love that they come in a simple recycled cardboard box and are locally grown. This saves a lot of packaging waste and transport emissions. And we get to enjoy the seasons again- right now it’s cherry season here in Catalonia. Enjoy!

R3project video report by Tendenciastv

2008-06-30T13:33:00.004+02:00

Tendenciastv visited us last week. Have a look at the video (in Spanish) to see what the R3project really feels like. Thank you Francesca for a great report!

THINK, Like Our Office Chair

2008-04-27T20:34:00.003+02:00

We have indeed decided to get a rather clever office chair: one that thinks about the environment as well as our body posture. Plus it is a beautiful chair. Its name is THINK, by Steelcase, specialists in office furniture. The company commits to applying Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), Materials Chemistry and Recycle/Reuse strategies to the design of all their products. Their environmental transparency is what made us trust in Steelcase’s products and convinced us that they are truly eco-friendly, and, although a little pricey in the beginning (460€ + IVA), well-priced if you look at it long-term. We are not planning on ever getting another office chair.

So why the THINK chair?

It’s locally produced in Sarrebourg, France, which reduces the impact of the transportation (petrol, CO2, packaging…). In fact, the chairs are made close to the client in Europe, Asia or Northern America, and only put into production after it’s been bought. This brings with it that you have to wait up to 3 weeks for your chair, but on the other hand, only as many chairs as needed are being produced.

THINK has been designed considering the environmental impact of each stage of the product’s life cycle: from what materials are being used, to the production, the transportation involved, its use as well as what happens to it at the end of its life.

Regarding the first stage for example, Steelcase managed to reduce the weight of the chair to 15 kg. 40% of the materials of THINK are recycled materials, it’s completely PVC-, lead-, chrome- and mercury-free and 99% of the materials are recyclable. This is made possible because the chair has been designed for easy disassembly. Apparently, you can take it apart in 5 minutes using ordinary house tools. We haven’t tried that yet, but this again results in other advantaged such as the possibility to exchange, replace or repair the different part of the chair easily, increasing its lifespan drastically.

All this obtained Steelcase quite a few environmental certifications, amongst which the Cradle to Cradle certification ‘gold’

So now you want to know if it is comfortable? Oh yes it is! Its seat and back flexors make it move with the body for extra comfort, and the seat, back, and armrest are fully adjustable.

To see Steelcase’s whole collection of chairs and other office furniture, please visit their web site.

Wooden Board Upon the Wall, Who is the Greenest Green of All?

2008-02-08T12:33:00.000+01:00

After we wrote about our FSC-certified MDF shelf ‘Never Empty’, we had quite a few readers contacting us about more eco-friendly alternatives. To close of some storage space and to build more shelves in the studio, we went out hunting again for the greenest engineered wood options, the disadvantage of which is mainly the high amount of toxic resins they contain.

OSB (Oriented Strand Board), as suggested by Terra Foundation, ended up being the best material for us to build some sliding doors in order to close of a storage area on top of the bathroom (see photo). We like the visual effect of the unevenly layered flakes of wood and appreciate its strength. An environmental advantage of this board is that any kind of tree and even the smallest branches of a tree, can be shredded and used. The amount of resin in OSB is very low (less than 5%) compared to other engineered woods (up to 85% in MDF). However, we recommend you check that they don’t contain formaldehyde. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get this kind of information from your regular wood dealer. In fact, we found it almost impossible to have our order cut to size and delivered due to the small amount we needed. In the end we obtained everything at Servei Estaciò in Barcelona, who do free deliveries in the city centre and are willing to cut any given amount. The price per m2 is 26,90€ for 10mm thick boards. For more information and the technical specifications of OSB, click here.

A cheaper option is chipboard at 13,80€ / m2, which we used for the shelves in the studio (see photo). This is one of the weakest fibreboards (hence cheaper) and, unlike OSB, is not recommended for outdoors use or in moist areas like kitchens. Due to the larger pieces of wood shavings used to make chipboard, it’s not as attractive-looking as other fibreboards. You can however paint it afterwards. Most of the wood particles used to make chipboard are recycled (75% in Canada and the US) and the amount of resin used during the manufacturing is also low (between 4 and 10%). At Servei Estaciò they even assured us their chipboard didn’t contain any resin- but we don’t quite believe them…

When you are looking for boards, make sure you use formaldehyde-free chipboard and preferably made of 100% recycled or recovered wood fibres.

Jaga Low-H20 Radiators to Heat Our Home

2008-01-14T11:30:00.000+01:00

Just on time for the colder months we had central heating installed. To take advantage of our condensing boiler and to save as much as possible when turning on the heat, we went for the Low-H2O radiators by the Belgian company Jaga, called Energy Savers.

Low-H2O stands for low water, meaning that the radiators contain less water than traditional ones. They function on average with only 2 instead of 20 litres. If you run your central heating system like us on a condensing gas boiler, we don’t recommend traditional radiators (as you would not be able to save much energy despite the efficient boiler) but endorse Low-H20 ones or radiant floor heating. The latter was not an option for us due to the weight that would have had to be added to the floor and could have caused structural problems to the over 100 year old building.

The Low-H20 system brings with it the advantage of warm radiators immediately. A newly developed heat exchanger made from aluminium and copper (instead of heavy steel plates that take longer to warm up) lets the heat immediately into the room. Another advantage is the cost savings. A scientific study by Jaga has shown that Low-H20 radiators consume at least 12% less. This is because less water needs to be heated up and the radiators react sooner to the heat; both when starting and stopping the heat. Jaga also claims that ‘homes with Low-H20 radiators annually emit as much as 1000 kg less CO2, and Low-H20 is therefore much less polluting for the environment”. For those of you with kids, there’s no need to worry about burned fingers anymore; the Low-H20 heaters release the heat evenly and therefore don’t need to be super hot. This also results in a greater comfort for everyone at home.

Something that surprised us was the way the radiators arrived at our house. They came flat-packed with one of the radiators measuring 10 x 60 x 120cm in a 10 x 10 x 120cm box for example. A bit worried at first, we realised that the assembly was very straight forward and quick. From an eco point of view we love flat-pack: it reduces the transport and packaging impact drastically. We would also like to mention that Jaga produces in Spain, which is perfect for us in terms of keeping the transportation impact as low as possible.

To give you an idea about pricing, the wall-mounted model 'Strada' measuring 10 x 60 (height) x 100cm (wide) costs 170€. It is suitable for rooms of around 12 m2. In total, our 5 radiators with their installation pieces cost us 1500€ IVA included, and their full installation 1360€. For those of you who have a bit more money to spend than us, check out the Knockonwood series with gorgeous FSC-certified wooden panels as decoration for the radiators. More about those on TreeHugger.

Last but not least, it’s not just the type of heating system that saves you money and is kinder towards the environment, but also the way it is used. Insulating your home (more on double glazing here) or simply putting on another sweater is all part of wise heating. “Each degree Celsius less will save about 10% on your energy use”, says TreeHugger. For more tips, check out How to Green Your Heating.

Our Thoughts for the New Year

2007-12-27T16:18:00.001+01:00

Thank you to all our readers for sticking with us through 2007. It was definitely an exciting year for us as we finally got to move into the eco-flat lab, as Epi called it. Although a bit slow in posting articles at times, we were able to share some more green achievements with you.

We installed recycled plastic slate in the bathroom, appeared on TV with Silenci?, put down a gorgeous cork floor, reduced our water consumption and installed double glazing, applied real eco paint, hunted down some furniture, started urban gardening and built FSC shelves. All this while eco design became more and more mainstream, big businesses decided to go green(er) and people’s climate change awareness grew drastically not least because of An Inconvenient Truth, Live Earth and Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change winning the Nobel Price.

We hope that in 2008 this awareness grows in order to eliminate green-washing and even plastic bags, and make us all more responsible consumers, and that more and more people achieve the win-win-win (for people, planet, profits) scenario by making their business sustainable. On a more local scale, the R3project will look into the most eco-friendly heating system, water filtering systems, cradle to cradle office chairs, analyse our electricity, gas and water bills, find out where our recycling goes and hopefully, throw a huge Open House Party for everyone who has been involved with the project.

A Happy New Year to all of You,

Petz & Sergio

Not All Christmas Trees are Green

2007-12-18T20:06:00.000+01:00

In case you are wondering whether a real Christmas tree is eco-friendlier than a fake plastic tree- here is the answer.

Despite some obvious advantages of having a fake tree, like re-usability (one tree can serve many years), non-prickling and perfect shapes, the fact that fake trees are almost always made from PVC does definitely not make them an eco option.

If you have to have a tree, go for the real ones. After all, Nature’s trees have been fully cradle to cradle designed and come with a special CO2-reducing feature. However, since having a Christmas tree implies chopping down a living one, make sure they come from somewhere where new trees are planted every year. Your local small-scale grower is definitely the best option. After the festivities, make sure your tree gets disposed of correctly. If you live in a city, watch out for Christmas recycling facilities that turn the trees into compost. In Barcelona you can find over 218 collection points between January 7-14 all around town.

Living in the Gothic area in Barcelona, we went to the flower stalls on Las Ramblas and bought a tree branch we put into a pot with water for it to keep its needles longer. We asked the flower vendors if they new where the branches of the Christmas trees had been gown. Most didn’t know, some guessed they came from Catalonia and only two could confirm they were locally grown. Our branch is from Espinelves, around 90km north of Barcelona.

Read Grist’s in-depth article about Christmas trees here. “There’s always the option of not having a tree at all”, says Umbra Fisk from Grist: “Have you thought about having no tree and living vicariously through the trees of others, decorating a living exterior tree, decorating a house plant, or making your own tree as an ambitious crafts project?”

Also check out TreeHugger’s How To Pick A Christmas Tree and, in case you are still shopping for presents, the TreeHugger 2007 Gift Guide.

Special thanks to Anita and Julia for hand-making our Christmas tree decoration.

And Merry Christmas to all our readers!

A Condensing Boiler for Hot Water

2007-12-14T12:01:00.000+01:00

After a lot of research into different methods for obtaining domestic hot water, suitable for our home, we decided on a condensing gas boiler. In Barcelona, where we don’t have access to an alternative energy source (yet?), we concluded gas would be the most efficient way to heat the water for our shower, kitchen and central heating. The condensing boilers are especially environmentally friendly because of their efficient use of the gas and their considerably lower CO2 (responsible for global warming) and Nox (responsible for acid rain) emissions. We needed a combi-boiler in order for it to provide hot water for central heating as well as domestic hot water all year round.

In the wall-mounted boiler Cerasmart by the German brand Junkers, widely available in Spain, we found what we were looking for. The advantages: gas saving and low emissions.

How does it work?

The condensing boilers recycle the energy that is normally lost through the duct into the atmosphere. It catches the water vapour produced by the burning of gas for it to condense back into water. This way the heat, produced as water vapour, is recovered and the boiler uses less gas. Image by Junkers

“Typical condensing boiler efficiencies are around 90%, which brings most brands of condensing gas boiler in to the highest categories for energy efficiency. Condensing boiler manufacturers claim that up to 98% thermal efficiency of fuel conversion can be achieved in normal domestic use, compared to 70%-80% with a conventional design." (Via Wikipedia) Junkers claim the boiler Cerasmart to be 21% more efficient than standard ones, due to the fact that it can work at lower temperatures.

Condensing boilers are especially recommended if you have under-floor heating, low H2O radiators (like us) or other energy saving heating solutions.

A slight drawback is that you need to install an extra draining pipe to get rid of the condensate. This can either be installed vertically through the roof, or diagonally through the wall to the outside. (see photo on the right)

Another disadvantage might be the fact that condensing boilers are generally more expensive than conventional ones. It is estimated that “as of 2006, at UK prices the extra cost of installing a condensing boiler should be recovered in around 2-3 years” (via Wikipedia).

The Cerasmart boiler, for a 4-people flat with central heating by Junkers will cost you around 2268€ in Barcelona (you might be able to get a standard one for under 1800€). We bought ours at Tuysa.

Why we didn’t go solar.

Solar Hot Water Panels would have been the most eco-efficient solution, but all the companies we contacted turned us off the idea. Technically, so they say after visiting our flat and roof, it would be very difficult due to the distance (2 floors) the water would have to travel to and from the roof. Plus we would have to give up 2 of our precious 58 m2 to make space for a not so beautiful water tank.

The initial first cost didn’t help make our decision easier as it would have been at the very least 2000€ for the panels to which we would have to add the installation cost and a back-up boiler. Moreover, we would have to get the approval of the fellow property owners of our building to install the solar panels on the communal roof. This shows again that eco-renovating a flat within the city is a very different story to building an eco house in the countryside where space and neighbours are less of an issue.

WASTE, Our Recycled Pouf

2007-10-08T11:28:00.000+02:00

We already wrote about options for eco-friendly chairs but one of our seats is special. He’s very comfy, good-looking, from Barcelona, recycled and ethically produced. His name is WASTE; he’s made from waste deriving from the car textile industry. He’s a beanbag (or pouf).

So what’s so eco about these? Well, they are made from discarded automotive upholstery. Benjamin Mordoh, the designer behind these luxury poufs, is shocked about how much car textile ends up in landfill, and decided to save some by turning them into furniture. He admits “ideally, no waste would be produced, but as it is, we are committed to transforming the reality of waste into something positive”. The durability and high quality of his final products certainly saves them from being chucked out too soon. Because the material is hard wearing, fire- and UV-resistant, these beanbags are quite popular in chill-out bars and around swimming pools.

But not only is the material eco-friendly, the production is too. First of all, they are produced locally here in Barcelona (not China), which saves a lot of transportation emission, packaging, eliminates the risk of unfair trade and boost the local economy. Because all beanbags are hand-made, each one is unique. Furthermore, Mordoh works with a tailoring workshop dedicated to women’s social reintegration.

And are they comfortable? –oh yeah!

Read more about WASTE on TreeHugger and on the WASTE web site, from where you can order them. There are plenty of pictures too.

The Never-Empty Shelf, FSC of course

2007-08-03T15:22:00.000+02:00

Last week we finished our shelf! As you can see it’s never sad and empty. The boards are MDF made from recycled sawdust from FSC-certified wood. The paint is eco-friendly, more about that here and here. It’s designed by Petz Scholtus.

We chose MDF over natural wood because of the pricing, the fact that we were going to paint it anyway, and for its strength (longevity) and size (trees have limited dimensions…). We know that because MDF contains resins, it’s not the ideal solution from an eco point of view. We came across recycled plastic boards and some made from hemp, but those options are mostly too expensive for a simple shelving application. Manolo from the Foundation Terra suggested using OSB boards because they contain very little resin. In Barcelona however, nobody could guarantee us that the boards were made from certified woods- very dodgy… So we are still looking for an alternative to MDF for our next piece. Please send us your comments! Or maybe we find some old doors we can reuse…

A Green & Tasty Balcony with Leopoldo

2007-07-17T12:01:00.000+02:00

Since this month we are the proud owners of an urban vegetable garden. Leopoldo’s clever tubular structure of anodised aluminium and growing trays of waterproof artificial raffia make it possible to grow your own herbs and vegetables in the city. The advantages (apart from it looking gorgeously green) over the classic flowerpot are that you can grow on 2 different heights (saves space) and that it has wheels (can be used indoors and outdoors depending on the season). Pep from Leopoldo suggested to start with growing herbs (mint, basil, thyme, etc.) and edible flowers but strawberries and tomatoes are also happy citizens of this 100% recyclable product. It comes in an easy to self-assemble kit and is produced entirely in Spain. You can buy it in various shops around Europe or online. Prices range from €45 to €150. 4 different sizes are available of which the small version (XS) is a fusion product together with the Barcelonian company Vaho, who do Trashion (fashion out of trash), and are famous for their recycled PVC bags.

We specifically love using our Leopoldo as an experimental veg-lab by planting all sorts of things we come across. Last year Anna, Sergio and I planted Nispero trees (or Loquat apparently in English), a weird Spanish fruit unknown to me before I moved here.

For Leopoldo, it’s about much more than growing tomatoes on a balcony. They know that having a garden "makes life a little bit nicer, funnier, happier" and are currently introducing horticulture into home, schools , elderly people’s homes and various psychiatric homes where Leopoldo is assessor and supplier. “The application of gardening as a therapy is deeply-rooted in many countries. By caring for vegetable and reaping the fruits, people with physical and mental disabilities can obtain great emotional benefit.”

For more information check out the Leopoldo web site.

Eco Furniture To Sit On

2007-06-19T19:14:00.000+02:00

Although Sergio and I moved into the eco flat early spring, we are still hunting down furniture. A fairly slow process if we want to find objects that are beautiful, comfortable, eco-friendly and affordable as well as locally available. Here a few of our purchases that will reflect the general ideas of how to hunt down eco furniture. Here our tips:

Making sure a chair is eco comes mainly down to its material. Look for FSC-certified wood (which means it’s from a sustainable source) or wood that has been reclaimed from old furniture or other carpentry.

Apart from wood, some designers use other recycled materials like plastics or metal to create furniture.

If you buy a new chair, make sure it can at least be recycled (and disassembled) at the end of its life. If an object is made from lots of different materials that are for example glued together, recycling is often impossible.

There is also some lovely Bamboo furniture; you know that fast-growing beautiful grass that has become quite a trendsetter recently.

And then there’s that furniture which always finds an owner for whom it is in fashion, so buy vintage furniture. That way no new energy or materials are used and you can find true beauties hidden in second hand-shops.

Here in Barcelona, where there are no local eco design stores like in London or New York, the second hand shops have been our best bets so far. Whatever furniture you buy, make sure it’s long lasting and that you can adapt it over the years. This includes that it is easy to fix and that you can for example change the fabric of the cushion to match them with possible new curtains.

Since furniture often ways quite a bit and hence results in heavy transportation emissions, we recommend flat-pack furniture (IKEA being a specialist in those, and offering certified wood) and more importantly local furniture.

We found quite a few nice pieces at TROC, a second hand dealer where prices go down 10% every month if the object is not sold. So be ready for some great bargains (thanks Pep for the tip!). Our sofa, we must admit, is from IKEA because of its sustainably harvested wood, its 100% cotton textile, its multi-funcionality (it’s a sofabed) and especially the price for which you can nowadays get a designer sofa. Especially the latter one was hard to beat. So far we are using some wooden folding chairs, also from IKEA until we fall in love with some proper dining room chairs. Soon to come: a recycled & ethically produced local beanbag and a cradle to cradle office chair.

Check out TreeHugger’s Green Guide for more in depth ‘How to green your furniture’.

Petz & R3project at Renacer, powered by Infonomía

2007-06-13T20:12:00.000+02:00

Infonomía, the Spanish network of innovative people and businesses, is hosting their third Renacer (Reborn in Castilian) event on the 5th and 6th of July in Barcelona.

And guess who they invited to stand up in front of 250 (very special) people to prove that ‘eco is possible’? – me! You will be able to try eco products at the event and get quick solutions to live a sustainable lifestyle. I will have the honour to share my slot with Eloïsa Mattheu with whom you can experience the sounds of the forests of the world and, the sustainable experts from Arup and their project of building the first ecocity ever.

But that’s only one part of this unique event that is all about connecting and being up-to-date with what is coming. Alfons Cornella, founder and president of Infonomía is convinced to think of a Rebirth in the organisation; ‘a mix of business, science and art to define a new economic value’. Other speakers include Silvia Langa, a graphic designer who talks about how to be touched by the history of beauty, Sergi Jordà will give a session on his crazy new instrument the reacTable (check out a video here) and Jordi Llompart who observes the diversity of citizens across the planet, to only name a few.

The event is aimed at professionals from the business, science and art sector. If you want to bring new energy into your life and work, come to the Renacer and listen, connect, learn, imagine and discover new ideas and people. All you have to do is sign up at the Infonomía web site to book your place. But please note that the event as well as the web site are so far only in Castilian. The price is €950 for 2 days and includes lunches, a dinner and coffee breaks at the Hesperia Tower in Barcelona. Oh, and Infonomía will compensate all the CO2 emissions of both speakers and audience created for the event with the collaboration of the company ceroCO2. See you there!

July 23rd: You can now see the conference online! (in Castillian)

Happy Birthday to Us

2007-05-11T12:37:00.000+02:00

There’s reason to celebrate as today 1 year ago, we started the R3project Blog on May 11th 2006.

It started with an ethical mortgage, an eco move and since then we have finished the renovation, we have moved in and now we are busy with the interiors, furniture, composting and spring gardening on the balcony. More soon…

Thank you for following our project with such a big enthusiasm and all the nice comments we received throughout the past year. We hope we can keep inspiring you and we are looking forward to your feedback.

Best wishes to all of you!

Petz & Sergio

Kalahari, our Bathroom Sink

2007-05-04T11:00:00.000+02:00

There are so many new things in our Eco-flat Lab, as Epi called it, that we are a little behind with our articles. This week, we’d like to introduce our sink to you. Everyone, this is Kalahari, a slick Spanish object well-known for its lightness of being.
The Kalahari has been designed by Ramón Benedito for Roca and is hence a truly local product (produced also in Spain, so no transport guilt for us here). It won the ADIFAD Delta price in 2001 and has since been very successful. When I first saw it in the book ‘ecoproducte ecodisseny’, I thought it wouldn’t work because the shape is so flat. But, after living with it for quite a few months now, we can honestly say that it is very comfortable and oh so stylish. The real reason why we chose the Kalahari for our bathroom is its eco-friendliness. Designer Benedito decided to do something when he realised that many perfectly intact sinks are being thrown out just because their owner fancied a different design. This is how he came up with the Kalahari, a sink made from one single piece of ceramic. The fact that it is a shelf and a sink in one piece minimises the material used drastically. Whether the aesthetic end of life is prolonged as well is arguable but it definitely creates less waste than the standard sink. The price for a Kalahari (65 x 45) is €156.
Other eco sinks we came across are the ones made from recycled glass available from Zicla. We also came across this innovative product called Toilet Lid Sink, a toilet and a sink combined, to recycle the water… but we weren’t quite ready to sacrifice aesthetics! After all, I am an eco designer, and both words are equally important.

Other eco features in our bathroom are recycled Slate Tiles on the wall, water saving devices for toilet, shower and tabs, a restored bath tub, our second-hand/recycled mirror from the 30ies, double glazing for the window, local and fairly sustainable tiles for the floor.
Soon to come: Shower curtain or glass wall? Do incandescent light bulbs make sense in a bathroom? Natural toothpaste? Bath towels made from bamboo fibres? Any other suggestions, email us!

Real Eco Oils & Paints

2007-04-11T17:59:00.000+02:00

After painting the walls with Lepanto paint that bares the EU eco label, two of our readers pointed out (comments in Spanish here) that even though they are labelled as such, the paint is really not that ecological. No wonder, because as we checked out the pain we discovered the paint is fossil fuel based. I guess it would have been too easy to get away with just buying an eco product in your local shop!
So, for our wood finish, we researched a little better and found the sustainable options we were looking for in Germany at the company Livos. Livos produce all-natural wood treatment products (like sealers, stains, finishes, thinners, etc.) that are based on renewable raw plant materials. All their products are harmless to humans, animals and plants which to me is proven by the fact that the oil we used, doesn’t hurt your hands at all. In fact, the oils smell so nice, you almost want to eat them. If you don’t believe me, read the ingredients of one of the products and you find things like orange oil or rhubarb roots. In fact, Livos have all the raw materials they use listed on their web site for total transparency. The products are environmentally friendly and completely recyclable. For the interior carpentry like doors and beams we used a transparent oil called Kaldet and for the outdoor balcony doors we used a chocolate-coloured (typical for Barcelona's fincas) natural gloss paint Vindo. To give you an idea about pricing, 2.5 litres of Vindo cost €76,98 but the application is really efficient and one thin coating is more than enough. For the exposed brick wall we used the transparent oil Dubno for absorbent bricks, which costs €14 for 0.75 litres.
All the oils were very easy and quick to apply and left us with a great finish and without a nasty smell in the house. In Barcelona, Livos products are available from ProyectoBio (contact Cristina Rueda +34 934516927) and other international distributors are listed online.

Our Interview in 'if...', Spain's Leading Innovation Magazine

2007-03-27T18:05:00.000+02:00

Thanks Epi Amiguet from the Spanish magazine 'if...' by the company Infonomía for a fantastic interview! For all of you Spanish reading folk, check out 'if...', the Innovation Magazine, and find us here, in the 'eager/restless people' (Gente Inquieta) section.

Double-Glazing, the Nuts & Bolts of Any Eco Flat

2007-03-14T12:21:00.000+01:00

Before installing central heating or air conditioning, the most important part is insulating the flat 100%. This will reduce energy waste and save you heating and cooling costs in the long run, plus works very well against noise pollution. If a house has single-glazed windows, then these can be responsible for about one-fifth of the heat lost from the building. Double glazing should cut this loss in half. (via CAT)

First we exchanged the old and broken glass from our French windows for double-glazing. We went for double-glazing with a 12mm air gap (you probably get away with less in Spain) by the Spanish company Climalit for they produce locally and offer good quality. The price was also ok: for 18 windows (9m2) we paid €400. We also made sure the gaps between the doors and the doorframe were well sealed by putting a rubber self-adhesive foam strip which compresses and forms a tight seal when the door is closed. There’s not much point if you install double-glazing and loose your heat through other gaps. The draught-proof installation of our windows (3 doors with 6 windows each) was done by David del Blanco Rey and the company MOREL and came to roughly €1540.
All in all we can only recommend changing to double-glazing as we notice a big difference in temperature and especially noise (we live in the barrio Gótico, remember!). Plus the government is giving subventions of up to 50%. For more information, click here!* Our insulating cork floor is adding to the overall insulation of the flat.
If you are looking for a cheaper way to improve the performance of your windows, CAT recommend fitting ‘secondary glazing, which can be an additional window fitted on the inside of the existing frame, or a magnetic or adhesive pane to fit to the frame, or even just some clear plastic film stuck to the interior frame’ as an alternative to double-glazing. Here some facts:
'U-values' are a measure of thermal performance - the lower the value, the better a material or building element is as an insulator.
Specification : U-value
Single glazing : 5.5
Standard double glazing : 2.7
Double glazing, low-E coating : 1.8
Double glazing, low-E coating : 1.6 to 1.3
Triple glazing, multiple low-E coating and argon-filled : less than 1.0’
(via CAT)

Other ways to insulate your home are installing wall panels (lots of eco materials available like hemp, cork,...) for thin walls or just hanging thick curtains during the winter months. The old cosy sweater is obviously the most eco-friendly option as are sun blinds (preferably those who let the air circulate) against the heat in summer!

Related Links:
CAT- Center for Alternative Technology
Barcelona governmental aid for improving urban landscape
Climalit
TreeHugger green insulation
TreeHugger guide on how to green your heating
Why insulate?

* 4 months later, we received €194,24 (13%) towards the total of €1540 we spent on double glazing and installation. The government's way of calculating the subventions is quite artful and disappointing for us. And beware of the paperwork!

Taps & Tools To Save Water

2007-03-02T15:54:00.000+01:00

We told you about the recyclable pipes and tubes we used for the water installation but what about the water that runs through them? How can we REDUCE our water consumption?
We looked into actually REUSING some of our water, like for example the water from the bathtub to flush the toilet. Or other waste water to water the balcony plants. The trouble with recycling your own water in a small apartment is that you need a deposit to store it, taking up quite a bit of space. And then you need a pump due to Newton’s law on gravitation and the fact that water doesn’t flow upwards. The pump needs more space and energy to run, so not such a great solution. You might say we should use the water from the flat above us and we have thought about that too. The trouble is that our dear neighbour would not be very happy if we started building works in her home and for a start, her bathroom is right on the other side of the flat to where ours is situated… So, that leaves us with more humble solutions but no small results nevertheless.
The secret lies in the tabs. You can get a low-flow faucet aerator for your existing taps or get a tap which has one built-in if you’re buying a new one. This small and easy to install device costs around €3 and saves you up to 50% of water by mixing the water with air bubbles. You won’t notice any difference as you brush your teeth or rinse the dishes but filling up the bathtub might take longer. Our bathroom taps are from the Spanish brand Roca and are all equipped with low-flow faucets.
In the kitchen however we installed a truly eco-friendly tap by another Spanish company called Tehsa. Tehsa specialise in water saving taps and water systems for hotels. Apart from having built-in low-flow faucets, the handle helps saving water in the sense that it opens first half way and only if you flip it up harder does it release the full amount of water. That way you don’t end up with wet trousers and can control the flow much easier. The other difference to ordinary mixer taps is that when the handle is in the middle, it doesn’t power the hot water. This is because we automatically open the tap with the handle pointing straight out, even if we don’t need hot water. With this tap, the hot water only starts running when you point the handle to the left. These three features make the Tehsa tap the best tap for saving water.
Now the other big one to save water on is the toilet. Here we went for a Stop Flush system, which means you can control the water you need to flush the toilet. You flush once, the water runs; you flush again, it stops. Another option would have been the half button system, where you can choose between using 12 litres or 6 litres to flush. And then there is the ‘Conscious Tank’ by the Terra Foundation. A clever piece of technology (a rubber band), which costs you €0,02 and provides you with 2 years of less water down the toilet.
Last but not least we have the washing machine which depending on its use and model, can save you more or less water. We went for a Fagor one (Model FT-309) since it’s a local brand, and found a washing machine with eco-fuzzy system, meaning that they adjust the water and energy consumption depending on the wash load. And of course it has been rated an ‘A’ for efficiency.
So much for tools but the rest is up to you… ‘brushing your teeth with the tap running wastes almost 9 litres a minute; just taking a five minute shower very day, instead of a bath, will use a third of the water, saving up to 400 litres a week; you can use less water by turning the hot tap down, rather than the cold tap up, if you require cooler water; a dripping tap could waste as much as 90 litres a week’ (from the BBC's A to Z of water saving tips).
And check out TreeHugger for 50 Ways To Save Water!

Walking on Cork

2007-02-12T21:51:00.000+01:00

After being able to restore the original tiles in one of the rooms and putting down ceramic tiles in the bathroom and kitchen area, we were left with a very uneven and broken floor in the rest of the flat.
Consequent to levelling the floor with cement and Arlita (an expanding and insulating grainy material made from ceramics which gives you great weight reduction) we went shopping for an eco-friendly flooring solution. The first option that grabbed our fancy was wooden parquet. We looked hard for a local FSC certified one made from pure wood and no plastics in the middle.
Kährs offer a great selection of FSC-certified floors at affordable prices all over Europe, the US and Canada. Another brand we came across and really liked for their high quality and eco-friendliness, although a little pricier, is the Italian company Listone Giordano.
Surely there are more eco wooden floorings out there but the problem we encountered was that the different wood types (mainly oak if we wanted to keep it local) available were difficult to combine with the existing carpentry, such as balcony doors and structural beams. Plus, Petz loves cork (even Martha Stewart has it in her home) and so we decided to look for a high-quality cork flooring with a modern edge to it.
Grown and produced locally in Portugal, cork is one of the ultimate sustainable materials; fast growing, renewable and natural with properties such as thermal insulation (reduces the need for heating and cooling), sound reduction and elasticity that leads to durability and in the very end it’s biodegradable.
Wicanders, specialists in cork flooring, have a fantastic range of beautiful cork finishes that have nothing to do with the hippy-dotted floorboards from the 80ies. Wicanders’ floating floorboards have a click system for easy and quick installation. The great thing is that you don’t need any glue or foam underneath if your existing floor doesn’t contain any humidity. Each board is covered with a high wear resistance varnish called Xtreme WRT (different layers of ceramics, sand, veneer,…) which makes it non-slippery, scratch- and stain- proof without taking away from the natural feel of the cork. Beneath the protective layers is the cork layer which comes in many different colours from dark brown to reddish or white as well as a selection of patterns to choose from. In the middle is a High Density Fibreboard made from cardboard and the bottom layer is again cork to make it extra insulating and sound reducing.
Having lived with the floor for a couple of weeks now we can say that it feels great, is very easy to maintain and the price was right too. At Pavimentos San Eusebio (T:+34 934153917), we paid €42,50/m2 for the model IDENTIY, colour TEA with the installation included. San Eusebio is a family business and apart from doing a neat and quick job of installing, they have a large range of eco-friendly floor solutions to offer. These include the Wicanders floors, Tuka Bambu (interior and exterior), other FSC certified parquet floors and fitted carpet made from algae and other natural fibres. Our carpet in the entrance for example is made from coconut fibres.
For cork flooring suppliers elsewhere in Europe, Canada or the US consult the Wicanders web site.

R3project on Greenbuildingworldwide.com

2007-02-12T21:24:00.000+01:00

This month we found ourselves as a case study on Greenbuildingworldwide.com, a web site that, as the name suggests, is home to 'case studies of buildings displaying elements of sustainability that can be applied to your next project'. A great resource for architects, developers, planners with eco-solutions from many different countries. Have a look here.
Thank you Joe Karten for visiting our project and best of luck with yours.

Recycled Plastic Slate in the Bathroom

2007-01-25T18:19:00.000+01:00

We got them to stick, the slate imitating tiles made from recycled plastic.

This has been quite an experiment we’ve done with these imitations of slate that so far have only been used to cover roofs, but not in interior design. (Read previous article here)
We are proud to announce a second use for this high quality eco product. Quite a few people send us tips on how to attach them to the wall and Fabian, our Master worker at the flat, tried different ways to attach them to the bathroom walls, around the sink and bathtub. The third one worked but turned out not to be very eco-friendly. We had to use a silicon glue to make sure the tiles resist the water and humidity. Hopefully someone finds an eco-friendlier glue but we know they are rare. Despite this we are very pleased with the end result. The tiles are firmly stuck to the walls and look stunning. More than one visitor have been surprised to hear they were not real slate but made from recycled plastic.

A big thank you to the company Zicla, who donated the slate to us so we could try it out.

Silenci? Interior Design on TV3

2007-01-14T19:31:00.000+01:00

The guys from Silenci?, a weekly program about artistic and cultural tendencies on Catalan TV3, did a report on new trend jobs and found the eco interior designer a good example. So here we are, on TV again... Thanks Jotha, Xavi and the whole Silenci? crew for a great documentation of our work in progress. (the clip is in Catalan & Castilian)

We’re in Barcelona Metropolitan Magazine

2007-01-10T15:51:00.000+01:00

The guys from Barcelona Metropolitan Magazine have written a great article about the R3project in this month’s edition. You can read the full article here. Thanks Alice Ross for telling our story.

Support BarcelonaWantsMyspace!

2006-12-21T11:43:00.000+01:00

As part of the creative industry, of course we think companies like MySpace should settle in Barcelona as their Spanish city. MySpace is the sixth most visited website and biggest social network of the Internet. Its users upload photos and videos, recommend music or communicate with other users.
If you think MySpace and others should settle in Barcelona, go to Barcelonawantsmyspace and share your contribution!
Here's what we think:

Well done you guys from BarcelonaWantsMyspace for spreading initiative!

!Check out the BarcelonaWantsMyspace Video (and us!) on Spanish Television HERE.

A White Season with Eco Paint

2006-12-19T23:19:00.000+01:00

We gave ourselves a white Christmas by painting the flat. Of course we used an ecological paint: Lepano. Lepano Paints are a local (Spanish) product and have an eco range which has been awarded the EU eco label. We found the paint very efficient and were happy with a quick result without having to put many layers. The paint is available from most paint shops and it really doesn’t smell.

We also found the Ecoblock by Norai a handy tool to make painting a little eco-friendlier. It’s basically a roller of which the round brush is exchangeable. That way you don’t have to buy a whole new tool each time the brush dries up, saving you money and waste.

Choosing Tiles

2006-12-10T18:35:00.000+01:00

At this point we’d like to point out that yes! it is more difficult to do your flat up in green. The main problem is finding the right material with no lesser quality or higher cost and the same availability. Our hunt for the right tiles is a good example.
Over a month ago we were delighted with a sample of light grey, nearly white high-quality tiles made from recycled TV screens, which the company Zicla found for us. The price was also right (€10/m2) and so we ordered 8m2 for the kitchen area and the bathroom floor. When they finally arrived, shock horror! they were skin coloured, not white and not very sexy! Zicla called up the company to find out what happened. They told us that this is now the only colour they do, it’s the ‘natural’ colour and can vary from grey to ‘pink’?! Rather upset that we couldn’t have our recycled TV screens on the floor we started looking for different tiles. As one by one the tile shops turned us down when asking for eco tiles, then sadder we got that the company with the recycled tiles stopped producing the only pretty design they had in their catalogue.
GresCatalan however seemed to have some eco-friendly ones on offer. Being a local product with their factory only 80km from Barcelona definitely reduces the environmental impact related to transporting such a heavy product. So when shopping for heavy materials; shop locally. Grescatalan had a few funkier, 100% natural versions of ceramic tiles with reddish tones that we liked (even though we were hoping for a non-rustic choice…) but unfortunately they didn’t fit our budget, costing €68/m2.
While pondering the tile shops some really nice bright coloured tiles caught our eye by the well-known Spanish brand TAU Ceramics. When we got home we looked into TAU ceramics and were pleasantly surprised when we found a whole page about sustainability on their web site. TAU ceramics are based in Castellón and make tiles from raw materials using a firing process. Their factory coexists side by side the biggest lake and waterpark of the industrial centre in Castellón. TAU are currently developing eco materials, have set up a water purification system as well as managed to minimize the use of water during the production process by reusing the water. They also have a strong waste management, have reduced their emissions into the air and the noise pollution. All this obtained them the ISO 14.001, well explained on their web site.
Ok, they might not be made from the most eco friendly material but they are highly durable. Most importantly for us, the company seems to make a difference by applying tougher eco criteria to their production and is still very competitive in the market, offering a wide range of designs. And the latter is as important as being environmentally friendly because if the economics don’t work, there’s no point having an eco product that doesn’t sell. We went for juice apple green and white tiles in the kitchen and bright red for the bathroom, both from the collection Collage. Here in Barcelona, Dani Casado (Tel: 935751359) amongst others sells the full range of TAU Ceramics.

Aquatherm PVC-free Piping System

2006-11-17T13:49:00.000+01:00

As with the electrical installation we fought hard again to stay PVC-free. For the fresh cold and hot water we use copper pipes; long lasting and recyclable. The only draw back is that the price of copper went up quite a bit lately.
Another ecological option are tubes made from polypropylene instead of PVC. Not many builders have switched to use these as it requires investing into special tools in order to install them by soldering (fusiotherm-fitting they call it). Once you have (or rent?! check out Product Service Systems (PSS)- we love those!) these tools, working with polypropylene tubes is much faster and better since no glue is needed and it’s definitely leak-proof. For the small amount of tubes we needed in our little flat it didn’t make sense for us to buy the machinery and we couldn’t find anywhere that lent them to us, hence the copper pipes.
However, when it comes to grey water pipes, we discovered PVC-free ones that don’t need special machines to install them. Instead, you slide the tubes into one another (downhill to avoid leaking) and join them with a rubber band which replaces the screwing system that so often ends up leaking. The Madrid based company AquaTerm provided us with these pipes made from polypropylene which makes them 100% recyclable. Aquaterm have all kinds of piping systems for water and heating installations, all made from polypropylene. There products are TÜF certified and approved by Greenpeace.
Here in Barcelona, they are available at Tuysa.

Plugs and Switches, Wood and Plastic.

2006-10-04T16:54:00.000+02:00

Deciding on something as common as a switch or a plug is not that easy choice to make with such a huge variety of designs out there. The fact that we want ours to be made from an eco material reduced our choices drastically. However, a while ago at Edu’s house I fell in love with his switches, beautifully made from wood with just the actual mechanism being plastic. He told me then that they stopped selling wooden switches but after many google searches and phone calls, I found out they still do.
The company is called EDE, which stands for Decorative Electric Elements Their factory is based near Madrid. Most of the wood they use is from Europe and so we chose a local oak whose colour goes nicely with the wooden beams. Now, the only downside of these beautiful elements is that they are quite pricey. A single switch with its border for example costs around €35! That was a bit too much luxury for our plug and switch budget and so we decided to just choose the light switches in wood.
Back to plastics it was for the plugs. Luckily the Spanish company Simon offer nice and simple designs and all their materials are recyclable. They fulfil the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards. ISO 14001 specifies requirements for an environmental management system. For a detailed explanation of what that means click here.
Another company that do luxury electric components is the Barcelona based company Llinàs. They use exclusively noble and recyclable materials such as porcelain, wood, metals or glass, all natural and fit for sustainable construction so they say. Unfortunately we didn’t quite like their traditional and rustic style but check it out, the round porcelain 3D switch might grow on you…even though the price might not that easily…

There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel- and Electicity!

2006-10-04T15:43:00.000+02:00

A whole month has gone by but we haven’t been lazy. Apart from a whole lot more research into materials we have finished the wiring.
Fabian Vélez is our man. He did a great job in sorting us out with electricity.
In May we wrote down tips of how you can do the electric installation as eco-friendly as possible. From that list we stuck to PVC free plastic tubes. Fabián used corrugated polypropylene (and hence recyclable) tubes that are also organochloride and halogen free by the brand Odi-Bakar (Durango, Spain). He put them in straight 90° horizontal and vertical lines to reduce the electromagnetic fields but we decided not to eliminated them completely. This is because we feel the flat is too small for that system to have an effect and would only result in a lot of cables, which again isn’t eco either.
If you opt for visible tubing rather than build into the wall, you can use metal tubes instead of plastic casings as well. Becasue we like the slight industrial aesthetics of these we considered having the electric tubes visible but in the end the price decided for us; metal tubes are at least 5 times more expensive than plastic ones.
Now we have to decide what switches, plugs and appliances go on the end of these cables…
If you ever need a good electrician in Barcelona (and speak Spanish), we recommend Fabián: fabianeutron@hotmail.com (Mobile: 686 141 013).

How to apply Zicla’s recycled plastic slate to our bathroom?

2006-09-05T15:34:00.000+02:00

The company Zicla (recycled materials for construction) have sponsored us with these fantastic imitations of slate made from 89% recycled industrial waste rubber. It looks very much like traditional slate, is more lightweight, doesn’t break easily, can be cut no problem, is totally waterproof, highly durable and insulating against the cold and the heat. The size: 280 x 240 x 4 mm. Those properties make it perfect to build roofs or to cover façades. We would like to give it a third use however and use it indoors instead of tiles in the bathroom around the shower and sink area. We tested a sample out in the bathroom and the water drops don’t even leave ugly marks on them. So our question to you is:

How would you attach this slate to the wall and have it waterproof?

Please fill in your idea as a comment so we can easily share ideas with all of you. Thanks!

TV3 Ecomove Video online now!

2006-08-18T12:41:00.000+02:00

Dear all,
We were on TV! Last Saturday we featured in A Ritme de Pedal (to the rhythm of the pedal) with our Ecomove we did in June. To see the video click here.
Thank you again to the team of A Ritme de Pedal and all our beautiful friends why came to help!

Finally Without Woodlice

2006-08-15T21:02:00.000+02:00

Once the wood had been sandblasted to clean of any varnish or paint, we started the treatment against the woodlice. The most common methods are:
Anti-return valves
It’s one of the oldest and most effective methods to treat installed woodworks. The valves are introduced into a series of holes previously drilled into the beams. With the help of a pump, the insecticide is injected through pressure into the beams. (Garbi S.L.)
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to strip the beams of any paint but on the other hand the method is quite aggressive and labour-intensive. The holes that need to be drilled into the wood have an approximate diameter of 1 cm and have to be closed up with wax for example, at the end.
Impregnation
This method consists in spraying the whole surface of the wood that needs to be treated. Normally, using special spraying equipment, liquids or gels can be applied. (Garbi S.L.)
The controlled spraying with pressure of a low-toxic insecticide permits a quick and very efficient job in case of well-cleaned wood.

In our case we opted for the impregnation method with a new-generation low-toxic insecticide gel. The company Garbi offered us this treatment with a 10 year guarantee that no woodlice will return. They applied the gel to the wood with a pump capable of spreading the insecticide evenly, which at first leaves a visible layer of a few millimetres but which gradually gets completely absorbed by the wood. This method has a very localised application system without creating toxic fumes but let’s you back into your flat after a few hours. No need for quarantine here.

Cleaning the Beams for the Woodlice with Sand

2006-08-04T14:09:00.000+02:00

A strong advice we can give you is to check any wooden structures in your flat for woodlice, termites or other plagues. In Barcelona's Gothic quarter it is not uncommon to have at least one of them eating your flat and we haven’t been speared! The little holes in the wooden beams have been diagnosed to be the work of woodlice. So we won’t waste any time in treating the wood as the beasts keep feasting and there won’t be much of a Finca left in a few years.
We read somewhere that the most eco-friendly way to get rid of them is to hang chestnuts (or was it hazelnuts?) in a net from the beams. For the woodlice it’s a delicacy so once they are all enjoying the nuts instead of your beams you just throw them out with the nuts. For all eco-friendly we are trying to be this sounds a bit like the tale of the Rat Catcher from Hamelin by the Brothers Grimm so we looked into more conventional methods to save our wood.
In order to treat the wood against woodlice we have to strip the wood of varnish and paint (or you'd have to drill holes into the wood in order to inject the product). Stripping can be done with heat (quite a long, difficult & expensive process depending on how many layers of paint you are trying to get rid of), chemical products (obviously not the most eco-friendly way) or sand blasting.
We opted for the latter since it doesn’t involve any chemicals and turned out to be fairly economical as well (€12/meter). We did it with the company Sorrejats Huracá who did a great job and cleaned the 130 meters of beam plus the brick wall in one day. More about the remaining woodlice and wood treatment in the next article.

Recycling made fun!

2006-07-31T17:50:00.000+02:00

Look at this amazing recycling system we found at Eduardo’s house today. Eduardo Sentís is the man behind Modular, the bike parking design company in Rubí near Barcelona. He also built this recycling system that makes recycling easier, more comfortable and takes up very little space. No smelly big bins in the kitchen but they fill up outside via a tube you throw the rubbish into; one for paper and one for plastics. Next to the sink is a funnel to collect the used oil and another bin for the organic waste. Great! We like it… but first we have to get the kitchen sorted and a few other things! Thanks Eduardo for sharing this with us.

Choosing the Flooring

2006-07-10T20:17:00.000+02:00

After quite a few weeks researching materials, sanding down the wooden balcony doors and getting estimates for electricity, heating & water installations we are now looking at what type of flooring we can put down. Unfortunately the current floor is beyond restoration, which would of course be the most eco-efficient solution. So things to keep in mind while choosing a suitable floor are weight restrictions (the building is fairly old and has wooden beams), height restrictions (we can’t raise the floor too much or else we’ll have problems with the balcony doors), cost (still haven’t won the lottery and even if…), practicality (nothing too delicate please) and of course eco-friendliness.
So here’s what we found:
Continuous flooring is definitely one of our favourite options after we came across this special mixture of almond flour and natural cement. It’s beautiful as well as practical: lightweight, insulating and resistant. Other possible mixtures are cement with cork or other woods. So let’s see what their technician says when he sees the flat and how much it costs… >Pavindus
Then there is wooden parquet flooring. Of course we love bamboo flooring for its aesthetics and durability plus it grows back fast and hence is very sustainable… but does it make sense to order something from the other side of the world? We could also go for a local parquet floor made from locally and sustainably grown wood with an FSC label… >Tuka Bambu
Another local produce are tiles- easy to maintain and with very cool designs, but very energy consuming in production and transportation… But there are even some made from recycled glass… >Zicla
Speaking of tiles, we came across cork tiles! Now that would be very eco and all but with already cork on the walls for insulation, it might not look so nice to plaster the whole flat with that stuff, no matter how good it is for us and the environment. Let’s not get carried away even if we are cork-lovers! >J.Palet
And last but not least we have recycled plastic floor tiles… not so nice for the living area but probably very useful in the studio and around the kitchen area. >Zicla

I guess mixing them cleverly could be the solution!

Disposing of Debris for Recycling

2006-06-14T21:25:00.000+02:00

As much as we tried we had to get rid of some stuff like partition walls and broken floor tiles. When clearing materials like this it’s important to dispose of them correctly. Here in Barcelona they have a bag service system where you buy 1 m3 bags, fill them with your waste and the company will come and pick them up to dispose of it properly. The price of the picking-up is included in the price you pay for each bag. It has the phone number printed on the bag so all you have to do is call them up for them to collect it. This avoids people dumping rubbish in illegal places. When looking for debris bags, make sure they reuse their bags, minimizing waste. Also check with them what they actually do with the waste they collect. We found ‘Los Sacos Marrones’ (The Brown Sacks), a company that reuse their bags and recycle (in construction for example) most of their waste.

Debris deriving from construction generates 136 million tons of waste per year, which is 1 kilo of debris per person per day, making it one of the biggest environmental problems of the planet. [via TreeHuggerTV]

(images from Ecologístas Valle de Alcudia)

Reusing what we have

2006-06-14T20:01:00.000+02:00

Reusing is one of the 5 Rs in eco-design, so before we chuck everything out we are trying to use as much as we can from the flat or find second uses for certain materials.
Here the things we can reuse:

• the bathtub as bathtub
We managed to take the bathtub out of its previous location without breaking it and will now relocate it to where we will put the new bathroom. There was a risk that the bathtub will crack especially when it sits in a lot of cement but try to convince your builder that it’s worth a try, not just for the money but to avoid unnecessary landfill.

• the floorboards as shelves
The floorboards from the previous bathroom turned out to be quite nice wood (in need for some loving care) and we are thinking of using it as shelving.

• interior doors and windows as furniture
The little window belonging to the previous bathroom can be easily restored and used as cupboard doors for example on self-made furniture. Big doors and be made into tables, shelves,…

• wooden french windows and doors
These we will restore, fit with double glass and add insulation. This way we keep the original aesthetics and save the material.

SOUL Solar Oven available for the Rull3 Community

2006-06-12T19:03:00.000+02:00

SOUL = Sun | Oven | Ultra | Light

Last weekend we took part in the Foundation Terra’s SOUL solar oven workshop and built a solar oven which will live in our flat but is available for everyone in the building to borrow and cook delicious meals with the sun on the communal and very sunny terrace. The idea is to bring friends together and make time to cook and eat together whilst using alternative energy. For more information on the SOUL solar oven visit TreeHugger or the maker’s web site directly: Cuisine Solaire (in French only). Many thanks to Pierre-Jacques for helping building the solar oven and to the Terra Foundation for their collaboration once again.

The Eco-Move

2006-06-06T19:30:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we moved our boxes to the new flat and managed it without any CO2 but had a lot of fun instead.
For an eco-move you need: reused cardboard boxes, a pulley, a rope, gloves, drinking water, a super-bike, friends & beers.

Check out the video of the Eco-Move here!

Special thanks to:
EspaiBici for lending us their fantastic transporter-bike and to Manolo and Jordi from the Terra Foundation for driving it across old Barcelona; to Sergio for helping with the organising and getting the pulley system working and squeaking, to Leonora for taking the pictures, to Anna, Pierre-Jacques, Ben, Luis and Richard for their hard work and to Albert and Abel from TV3 for their interest… we’ll be on TV! Their series A Ritme de Pedal (to the rhythm of the pedal) the bike as way of transport) starts June 10th every Saturday 8.30pm on TV3.
EspaiBici's Super-Bike

from the old flat to the new flat with TV3

Big day for Triodos, big day for us!

2006-05-30T20:41:00.000+02:00

This morning, Triodos Bank celebrated the opening of their second branch in Spain, after Madrid, in Barcelona. An informative organic breakfast was called upon where the press was received by the general director, Esteban Barroso and the director of Catalonia, Joan Antoni Melé.

It is not without pride that we can tell you that they finished just on time to make it down to the solicitors and sign with us the mortgage for our flat! We archived an ethical mortgage thanks to Triodes who took time to listen to what the R3project really is about and who decided to collaborate with us. Thank you Isabel, Esteban and Joan. We now have the key and the flat is ours, let’s make it happen.

Triodos Bank is a pioneering force in the world of sustainable banking.
It aims to help achieve a more decent, dignified and kinder society and a world that respects people, the environment and different cultures.
Triodos Bank finances companies, institutions and projects that add cultural value and benefit people and the environment, with the support of depositors and investors who want to encourage the development of socially responsible and innovative business.
Triodos Bank's approach takes account of people, planet and profit to deliver a positive return over the long term. This social, ethical and financial approach is expressed in the Triodos name itself. Triodos - 'tri hodos' - is translated from the Greek as 'three-way approach'.
In essence, Triodos Bank aims to offer its customers both sustainable financial services and products and a good service. [From Triodos]

Bike Parking for all Tenants

2006-05-29T14:49:00.000+02:00

Part of living the green lifestyle is using public transport or cycling. In Rull Street N°3 quite a few tenants seem to enjoy going for a ride; the only problem: no lift, not very safe in the streets and not enough space for all the bikes in the entrance hall. So we are looking into indoor bike parking solutions and look what we have found last weekend! SLIM by Modular, a vertical bike parking that saves you space.
Last friday the first Slim parking got inaugurated at Terra Foundation’s headquarters in Barcelona (c/Avinyó 44 if you want to have a look).

Slim is a slanting steel rail which holds the parked bike in place without having to use your hands. It’s fixed to the wall and floor and comes with an optional security cable to lock the wheels and saddle to the structure. All you need is your own lock to secure your bike to Slim. Its design allows you to attach the wheels as well as the bike with only one lock as this pushes the wheels into the rail and makes it almost impossible to detach them. We tried it out and it might take a little practice to hold your bike up but the slope makes it fairly easy to fit any kind of bike without applying too much force. Great for small spaces like entrance halls and easy to put up.

Other parking solutions available from Modular are Indoor (foldable vertical support) and Trident (horizontal security support for 1-2 bikes) to attach to the wall and a wide range to attach to the floor.

Apart from designing and manufacturing bike parking solutions, Modular have made it their responsibility to be eco-friendly. All materials and packaging used are made sure to be recyclable. Paper packaging and instruction manuals are made from recycled paper and tell you how to recycle or re-use them again. All products are designed so that the energy consumption and cost of recycling stays as low as possible. Modular developed a service system to take your old product back if you decide to replace it with a different design in order to recycle it. Well, it seems they have just what we are looking for…

Electricity

2006-05-27T14:37:00.000+02:00

If you have to wire your flat from scratch or simply want to save energy, here are some basic tips on how to do it more environmentally friendly and healthier by choice of materials, way of installing, safety and reducing the energy consumption.

• use PVC free (hence recyclable) components
• put the wires in straight 90° horizontal or vertical lines. That way you reduce the electromagnetic fields and know where not to put a nail in the wall.
• avoid putting the wires through the main living spaces and next to your bed. Light switches operating with a cord hanging down from above mean you don’t have to sleep so close to an electromagnetic field in case it affects you.
• to completely eliminate electromagnetic fields, use parallel installations for different voltages (220V and 12V) and disconnectors at each base. Each consumption source has an independent wire. That way if you haven’t got anything plugged in nor the light on in any room, no electricity runs through those cables until you switch the first appliance on. This will result in a lot of wires but if you are sensitive to electromagnetic fields it’s a great solution. The company Klaus in Barcelona (web only in Catalan) are specialists in eliminating electromagnetic fields 100% and they use only PVC free materials.
• Plan to switch to solar energy in the future when you have put up those panels by putting independent circuits from the beginning.
• use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances
• turn off electronic devices (DVD players, TV, computer,…) you’re not using and unplug your charger from the wall when you’re not using it.

More useful tips on how to reduce your impact at home via ClimateCrisis.net Thanks Reinder for the tip!
Image: Genius of Electricity by Evelyn Beatirce Longman, 1915.

the Layout

2006-05-27T12:56:00.000+02:00

So you can start to imagine it too:
• open kitchen & living room
• 1 bathroom
• 2 bedrooms
• 1 studio
• 3 balconies of which one is half used for storage & the washing machine

to heat or not to heat and how to heat

2006-05-27T12:54:00.000+02:00

Not many second hand flats in Barcelona have central heating so instead people use very energy intensive electric heaters or bottled gas heaters (not without danger). We thought since we have to do the whole flat up we might as well use the opportunity to put in a radiant floor.
Why? –Because underfloor heating is supposed to be the most comfortable and eco-efficient form of heating. This is because it heats up the rooms evenly from the bottom to the top (since heat rises) instead of localised heating through radiators that need to produce a lot of heat in order to keep the other side of the room hot too. Plus no heat is lost through ducts. It’s also healthier they say, since it doesn’t dry out the air as much and heats up your feet and hands first (warm hands and feet, cool head). Another big advantage is that it is totally silent and non-obtrusive. It saves you a lot of space and you won’t have to worry about the aesthetics of any radiators. Eco-friendly material is also available such as a cork base (local and fast renewable) and PVC-free tubes (hence recyclable) to conduct the hot water.
Now this all sounds great but after a reality and wallet check it doesn’t seem too efficient anymore since the cost of installing a radiant floor is not worth what you save on energy and in our case it demands some massive construction work. The only possible exception is a water heating system (other types are air-heated and electric radiant floors) used in conjunction with solar heating.
Now we are in Spain so solar heating sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Think again! First you need permission to decorate the roof of the building (which normally is communal and used for sunbathing and laundry drying) with the solar installation (and some people don’t like the look of those). Second, the solar heater needs somewhere to store the hot water and where do you put a big black 2m high and ø1m water deposit in a 55m2 flat?
An alternative to solar heating is one of those new efficient gas heaters that heat the water for the floor and for the rest of the house. But that still leaves us with the actual radiant floor installation whose cork base and water tubes are normally covered with concrete. Now that is a hell of a lot of added weight for an old building like ours which means the old floor would need to go. And that means 2 weeks of picking the floor (and screaming neighbours) as well as getting rid of the rubble by carrying it 3 floors down (! no lift in that part of antic Barcelona). We’d also have to check with an engineer if we can take out the old floor (who knows what’s underneath) and if it’s structurally safe to add a radiant floor to this old building.
Conclusion: So after having a clearer picture of what it would mean to install a radiant floor (money, risks, side effects, time, …) we started wondering if it’s worth it. After all we are in Barcelona where you’d use heating at most 4 months a year. The advantage would obviously be the fact that the rest of the year you don’t have to sit amongst use-less radiators but don’t they do small sexy ones nowadays? And if you operate them with that energy efficient gas heater (that reuses the heat of the gas flame to heat the water, …) until you convince the rest of the flat owners to invest into communal solar heaters? You could still make the whole thing PVC free, insulate the flat properly so no heat is wasted and have a timer on it for more efficient use. We’re still investigating on this but if you have any suggestions please let us know!
More information on radiant floors: EERE (US), Klaus (Spain), Self Build ABC (UK)

Moving House without CO2

2006-05-27T12:52:00.000+02:00

A new home always means packing up your things and moving them into your new space. Here a few tips on how to make the whole job more pleasant and eco (2 things that normally go together).

• reuse cardboard boxes instead of buying new ones.
Find out when the paper gets collected in your neighbourhood and you’ll have plenty of boxes to choose from if you live near shops. Or ask your local corner store or supermarket for boxes.
• Try to avoid bubble wrap
You can wrap fragile objects in your bed sheets, clothes or towels that need to be moved anyway to the new place. For an alternative to bubble wrap check out Geämi. Make sure not to use very large boxes and to mix heavy and light objects in each box to avoid super heavy boxes as lifting those can seriously damage your back.
• Try to avoid CO2 emission
Now, if you move countries or larger distances, are the proud owner of a nice piano or just own a lot of furniture already I don’t suggest you move by bike. Your options in this case would be finding a transport company that rent out energy efficient transport modes (hydro, electric, solar, …) or if that’s not on offer yet, compensate your CO2 emission by becoming a member of for example CeroC02 (Spain) or the CarbonNeutral Company(UK). The mission of these companies is to reduce CO2 by for example investing into anti climate changing technologies or forestry projects.
If you mainly move boxes rather than furniture I suggest using muscle power as your main energy source and no oil. Get all your friends together, put the beers in the fridge for later and action! Bikes with carriages are for rent or what about the always good humoured rickshaw drivers that might not mind touring your pots and pans instead of tourists for a day. We’ll see … any other idea for a contribution against climate change? Be creative!

The Renovation that needs to be done

2006-05-27T12:49:00.000+02:00

Apart from beautiful beams and French windows in need for restoration the flat doesn't have much to offer yet. So this gives us enough freedom to choose and put the most efficient installations from scratch. The most important eco aspect however is to reuse whatever we can. This means for example restoring the woodwork (windows, doors,...) and the floor as well as keeping the bath tub which is in perfect condition. Unfortunately the plaster walls need to be removed to optimise the space. What else needs doing in general:

• electricity & water installations
• remove & put dividing walls
• fix humidity from soil pipe along the outside wall
• replace the toilet on the balcony (!) with a washing machine
• the bathroom
• the kitchen
• painting
• furniture & products for domestic use
• city garden
• ...

21 Tips for a Sustainable Home towards Agenda 21

2006-05-27T12:40:00.000+02:00

This is a list of what you can do to make your home more sustainable. We will step by step develop these further and look for the best solutions for our flat.
Sustainable Living on an Every Day Basis
1. water consumption
2. energy consumption
3. improve comfort
4. better use of domestic equipment
5. recycling
Sustainable Through Maintenance
6. maintenance of the installations
7. maintenance of the facade
8. maintenance of the roof
9. maintenance of the railings and locks
10. maintenance of balconies and windows
Sustainable Shopping for Your Home
11. electro domestics
12. heating and air conditioning
13. furniture
14. new or second hand eco housing
15. products for the home
Sustainable Renovation
16. construction material
17. thermo and acoustic insulation
18. reuse water
19. renewable energy
20. correct management of construction waste
Last But Not Least
21. Make it all happen!
[via Ajuntament de Barcelona & Collegi d’Aparellarors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona]
For more information (in Spanish) : Agenda de la Construcción Sostenible

The 5 Rs of Eco Design

2006-05-27T12:38:00.000+02:00

You may have come across Reuse Reduce Recycle as the key principles towards a Restorative Economy to do ‘less bad’ and most of all ‘more good’.

In May this year however, a discussion on o2-Global about how many Rs an eco design product / service / packaging / man-made thing should cover resulted in 5 Rs. This means that if a design can incorporate Reuse Reduce Recycle Recover and Respect it pretty much deserves a green label. You might argue that there are many more Rs to add but to keep things simple and manageable, o2UMW has outlines them as the following which will guide us towards an eco flat (renovation & living it). R3project examples in orange.

Innovation Checklist: The 5Rs of Great Design

RESTORE
Use materials (and support firms) that help reverse damage or -- add -- to natural capital.

Run all finances through an ethical bank, go carbon neutral, use sustainable materials (such as FSC wood), …

RESPECT
Examine impacts the item will have on stakeholders, as well as eco-systems -- social plus environmental justice, look for the win-win-win scenario (triple bottom line).

Support the local economy (shop local, local crafts, …), respect the environment (aesthetic, neighbours, local plants for the garden, … ), …

REDUCE
Reduce the materials needed to do function, including: less materials used, less weight to transport (reduce fuel demands), less energy to manufacture, less energy to store (aseptic pack vs. refrigerated milk), less energy to use (compact fluorescent bulbs vs. incandescent), reduced toxicity (reduce to ZERO).

Reduce the use of energy & water (alternative sources, smart wiring & plumbing, energy-efficient light bulbs and white goods, efficient use of energy & water, …), noise (insulation,…), CO2 (by compensating and cycling), food miles (by shopping locally), …

REUSE
Reuse something already manufactured, and make item easy to BE reused with minimal remanufacturing (Like wine barrels that get turned into taiko drums when they retired from wine making).

Materials in the flat (bathtub, doors, windows, …), grey water, restore second hand furniture, use plastic containers in the kitchen instead of cling film, …

RECOVER
Create item to be fed BACK into the resource loop (includes Cradle to Cradle), have a robust and easy to use system to RECOVER materials, and USE RECYCLED substrates to make the item (100% PCW paperboard) wherever possible. Under this clause we would naturally tuck the old favourite -- RECYCLE the things you recovered.
From: o2UMW

Use recyclable materials (PVC free water pipes, …) and recycle (comfortable facilities to recycle glass, plastics, paper and organic waste on a day to day bases).
[via o2-Global]

Buying the Flat, Getting a Mortgage & Starting to Go Eco

2006-05-27T12:35:00.000+02:00

We found this flat in November last year and since then it has been quite a fight against the money sharks of the Spanish property market! Prices are high and still rising and the owners are normally estate agencies rather than private owners with a lot more experience than most people in the art of rip-off.
So it happened that the owners of this flat tried to sell it to me with a big fat structural wall right through the middle of it which meant no access to half of the flat without some major building work! I had to get my Spanish man to talk to them as 'pretty blonde female' didn'’t seem to be taken seriously when she said she'’s not going to buy it without a doorway. And oh what a surprise! it worked and this week they are putting the door into the dividing wall. Something to bear in mind when buying a flat is that it'’s easy to follow what others tell you rather than to stop and think. In my case the owner of the flat had a very good connection with a bank. So without thinking twice I went there and they gave me an attractive deal. It was so easy and I felt kind of obligated that I didn'’t even think of who I was going to give my money to. Three months later though this bank realised that the flat doesn'’t have the license (called cédula’ in Spanish) you need by law to live in a flat. I mean how could it have those papers if there isn'’t even a bathroom or kitchen in the flat?! Negotiating started all over again, we came to a new agreement but I wasn't very confident with the bank. Which is why (better late than never) I looked into ethical banking and found Triodos.
Meeting with Triodos in their brand new office was a whole different experience. They actually try to understand the whole project, were interested in who I am and what I do not just to make sure I can pay my bills but because they needed to know where the money goes. Their conditions might not be AS good as those an ordinary bank can offer you but at least you sleep well at night and it'’s certainly about more than Euribor.
All this meant quite a few months waiting with a headache but made time for dreaming up a flat. In the end everything happens for a reason they say and here the reason for me having to wait must have been clearly giving birth to the R3project. The idea was always to make my flat eco-friendly since I am an eco designer, grew up amongst vegetables and cows (thanks mum and dad) and have this passion for greening things. BUT I had my reservations: ‘uh, more expensive?... more time consuming?... can I really do it?'…I thought, well, I can install some solar panels later and use eco-friendly paint but will I research everything from what water tap is the most efficient and which heating system makes the most sense?
So this last month when things started looking more positively and we pretty much had assured the buying of the flat I got my act together and decided to go for a full eco-friendly renovation, and share my experiences with you. You can be as eco as you want but when it comes down to practicality it's often easier to go with the flow which right now is not green. I hope my research will help you though make your home more sustainable.

Only the Beginning

2006-05-27T12:33:00.000+02:00

We found the flat, it's been registered with the government and evaluated so now we 'just' have to buy it! For that we need a mortgage, an ethical one please! Then we'll move our stuff in there, carbon neutrally of course- anyone up for cycling? And then it's shopping for eco building materials...

A quick Welcoming Note

2006-05-27T12:29:00.000+02:00

Hi & Welcome! This is a blog about how to renovate a flat (in Barcelona) in an eco-friendly way and how to live a greener urban lifestyle. Petz Scholtus and Sergio Carratalá Lamarca are the main bloggers but guest writers will be invited. The flat really exists so you can follow the research, analysis, final decisions and practicality of eco concepts and products available to renovate a flat and live in it in a sustainable way. The blog will create a dynamic diary / guide for everyone to participate by commenting (so please do!).
Enjoy the show!