International experts gather at the Alhambra to debate about energy efficiency in historic buildings

This week the Alhambra will be the stage for debate and reflection within the framework of the European EH CMaps project on the Improvement of Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings. This debate will take the form of an intensive course which aims to improve the skills of professionals in this field using an interdisciplinary approach.
This afternoon the Director of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife, Reynaldo Fernández Manzano, welcomed the committee of international experts who will be participating in the course and presented the programme of events at the Casas de la Mimbre, the Alhambra’s educational area. In his speech, Fernández Manzano also addressed the students who had signed up for the course from the Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture of the Universitá La Sapienza (Italy) and from the Department of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer at the University of the Algarve (Portugal), to whom he stressed that “these actions improve the skills and abilities of professionals working in the heritage field with regard to energy efficiency and its application to heritage. We support these initiatives, which undoubtedly contribute to striking a balance between sustainability and heritage conservation”.
The Alhambra is joined on this ‘European adventure’ by the Istrian Regional Energy Agency (Irena, Croatia); the Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture of the Universitá La Sapienza (Rome), the Maltese Intelligent Energy Management Agency and the Department of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer at the University of the Algarve (Portugal).
With a budget of 296,972 euros, the EH_CMaps project, which has an estimated period of execution from September 2014 to August 2016, will be of great benefit to the Alhambra Group of Monuments as energy efficiency is a key factor, as is “cooperation with further education institutions in Open Educational Resources (OER) at a European level”.