After the Agreement signed in the year 2001 between the Ministry of Defence and the City Council of Zaragoza, the conditions to build in the old Valdespartera Barracks a new urbanization with 9,687 dwellings have been established. 9,387 of these dwellings will be subsidized and 300 non-subsidized.

This new residencial area will be situated between the south limits of Montecanal urbanization and the Fourth Ring Road, and between the present Valencia Road and the future adjacent urbanizations.

One of the main postulates of the area is that "bioclimatic exploitation criteria" to reduce energy consumption will be introduced in its urban design and buildings. Thank to this, the resources that nature offer us such as the sun or vegetation will be used in order to win or lose heat and in this way to increase the comfort of the people living in those dwellings and also to save energy.

This energy saving and an ideal environmental quality will be obtained through three aspects:

The urbanization is structured around a main big axis consisting of a parkway, with abundance of trees and with a winding layout which avoids far-off views looking out over asphalt.

These open spaces will be integrated in a future continuous system of parks which will include the Canal and Huerva river parkways,Valdefierro, the old Caminreal road, Torrero pine forest and Cabezo de Buenavista park.

Valdespartera stretch will include open air services (bicycle track, horse riding, roller skating, aquatic park, auditorium...) and sports facilities with an specific area for a new football stadium.

This big sport park will organize the urban landscape of this residential area between integrated stretches of greenery, equipments and services.

The regulation of this residential area envisages a bioclimatic good use through the following premises:

It has been tried in Valdespartera to reduce to a minimum the presence of houses, much more exposed to the outside than the collective buildings and with bigger air conditioning expenses.

The buildings are arranged forming elongated rectangular blocks with East-West orientation. The model consists of two parallel blocks of 12 metres of bottom with the front always oriented to the South.

The distance between blocks will be 30 m. So, the shadow of a 6-storey block will not prevent the sun reception from the other parallel block.

In the majority of blocks the longitudinal facade is oriented towards the South to assure a lesser consumption of energy.

A reduction of the effect of wind avoids to lose heat inside the dwellings and increases the feeling of comfort. To get this, sometimes it will be necessary to construct in the short sides of the blocks. So, a screen protecting system against the wind will be incorporated to the building.

Wind

The central spaces of the blocks will be considered as green areas for the communal use of the dwellings.

The trees arranged in the communal gardens will be deciduous to favor sun in summer and shades in winter.

Also fountains, ponds and water sheets will be placed to favor a cooling for evaporation, trying to get comfort in summer. The water sheets also will serve to collect rain and to water the gardens.

Summer - Winter

The covers will be flat and their external surface will be finished in light colours to facilitate the capacity to reflect and take in the sunrays. The panels for taking in the sunrays will be placed in the covers which will provide between 30 and 50 % of the annual needs of the dwellings´ hot water.

All the dwellings will have a double facade with opposed orientations North and South to facilitate crossed ventilation, favouring in this way the circulation of hot water between the different spaces.

The bathroom, toilet, kitchen and service room will be placed in the facade oriented to the North since, from a climatic point of view, it is not advisable to place the living room there. So, these rooms can act as insulating limit-spaces between the main rooms of the dwelling and the outside.

Glazed surfaces and windows of a bigger size will be placed in the south facades.

Those oriented to the north will have the less possible hollow surface. Only those windows essential to facilitate an adequate lighting and ventilation will be placed. Insofar as it is possible, the hollow spaces should be landscaped to get the biggest lighting with the less glazed surface.

Closed glazed galleries will be placed in the facades oriented to the south which will act as passive solar recipients. These spaces will be separated from the inside of the dwellings by a wall with thermal mass enough to store the heat and drive it slowly towards the inside of the dwelling. The solar wall will allow to keep the gallery hotter during the night and fresher during the day. The finish of the wall will facilitate the absorption of solar radiation, therefore dark non-reflecting surfaces will be used.

The galleries can open at least a 50 % of its glazed surface to guarantee ventilation and avoid summer overheating.

Large windows, eaves or projections will be placed in the south facades to guarantee shades in summer. At the same time, horizontal positioned metal sheets could also be used.

The quantity of heat that can go in or out of a building will depend on the materials used.

An improvement of thermic insulation represents between a 20 and 50 % less in loss of heat.

Insulation will be specially careful in north and west facades where double windows will be installed. Besides, the curtain sheets should have a thermic insulating filling. The finishing of the drum boxes of the curtains should avoid the filtration of air through them.

The wall separating the interior of the dwellings with the glazed galleries will be designed to optimize its caloric absorption. It will consists of a single panel, without a specific insulating cover and with enough thermic mass to work properly.

When woodwork used, it should prove its origin from sustainable resources. The PVC never will be used if it is not recycled.

The heating system will use a central system and final individual distributions to every user.

A thermostat will be placed in each dwelling to regulate the temperature. This thermostat will not be placed in south oriented dwellings.

The lighting will be obtained through low consumption lamps.

The project studies several possibilites such as pneumatic collection of urban solid waste. The waste is introduced in special pipes buried underground which will allow to collect it in a central point. In that point the waste will be more easily collected or directly treated, recycling or removing it, getting an important environmental improvement.

With this ambitious proposal the City Council of Zaragoza pretends to carry out a project that forms part of the Partial Plan passed by the Plenary of the City Council on the 29 of November 2002.

This is the beginning to carry out a plan to build 32 km. of roads, 7 parks, ponds, green spaces, urban and sport equipments and the construction of 9,687 dwellings, 300 of them non-subsidized. This project will allow many people of Zaragoza to gain access to these services.

The first stage of this project to build this urbanization composed of 9,687 dwellings will deal with the areas situated to the North of the Park Road, the Northeast Area and the first block of the Northwest Area. A total of 74,7 hectares able to contain 5,543 subsidized dwellings. In this stage, all the connection roads of the area, accesses and services will be built.

In a second stage the rest of the area will be urbanized and some sheet lakes able to store 90,00 m3 of water will be built.

The foreseen period to carry out the works will be between 18 and 24 months, with a project proposal of 20 months and a total budget after the two stages of 120,524.079 euros.

After having analyzed all the urban, architectonic and environmental postulates, we are sure that Valdespartera is going to represent a model of residential development able to offer an answer in quantity and quality enough to satisfy the demands of the people of Zaragoza. An urban and natural area of high quality will be created. An area which will perfectly adapt to the challenges of XXI century thanks to its high level of thermic comfort, a better use of sun, a bigger saving in energy, the use of healthy materials and respect for nature.