The Construction Technology Centre (CTCON) has begun work on its new Experimental Laboratory for Sustainable Construction in the municipality of Fortuna with the aim of leading R+D+i in building and habitat, and in order to implement developments that will place it at the forefront of Europe in technology transfer to companies.
Following the agreement reached with the City Council, a plot of land of about 750 m² has been ceded... The installation of about 100 square metres of plant, and its adjacent facilities, has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Regional Ministry of Enterprise, Employment and Social Economy, through the Business Growth Loan Programme launched by the Instituto de Fomento de la Región de Murcia (INFO) in 2023.
The centre's ultra-qualified staff will focus on designing and executing an innovative construction that will serve as an experimental laboratory for materials, techniques and full-scale construction solutions in the Region of Murcia.
Efficiency and sustainability
The implementation of this infrastructure is essential for the construction sector, which is one of the major drivers of the economy and has a vocation to be at the forefront of sustainability and business efficiency.
For the sector, both from the research and the business side, it is a competitive breakthrough to have a building where prototypes can be implemented, evaluated and shown, and even to be able to train in assembly activities.
This installation makes it possible to simulate the real conditions of a building in both passive systems (structure, enclosures, partitions, cladding...) and active systems (HVAC, renewable energies, green roofs...), with a totally innovative installation design that maximises the adaptability, interchangeability of components and modularity of all its elements.
This system makes it possible to test and evaluate a multitude of innovative construction solutions and combinations developed in the Region of Murcia by companies and research entities.
Objectives for the regional, national and European context
The specific objectives to be achieved with this facility will be:
- Build a space where prototypes and products can be installed Murcian companies at different stages from first developments for evaluation to products recently launched on the market.
- Enable a space for collaboration between companies and other organisations: engineering companies, specifiers, product designers, manufacturers, installers, constructors, research groups, etc.
- Create a a space to showcase the innovative capacities of the Murcian sector to Spanish and European organisations..
- To make available to the sector an infrastructure that facilitates a more effective incorporation of Murcian entities into national and European R&D&I programmes, generating a competitive advantage.
- Advancing research on the built environment in hot and dry climatic zones as our own, as a strategy for adapting to climate change.
- To prepare the Region of Murcia technologically for the Renovation Wave, the energy renovation programme for buildings promoted by the European Commission for the coming years, which plans to renovate 75% of European buildings.
SDGs from construction
The construction sector is key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and key European policies. Four of the 17 SDGs directly involve the construction sector (Health and Wellbeing, Energy, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Sustainable Consumption and Production).
The building sector is undergoing a digital transformation through innovative processes that are being developed with new technologies (Building Information Modelling, use of drones, IoT, blockchain, Big data, cybersecurity in infrastructures, robotics, etc.) to increase competitiveness and improve opportunities by implementing Industry 4.0 in the construction sector.
In CTCON we see that there are 4 major current global challenges defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The global challenges identified are:
- Energy transition and decarbonisation
- Digital transition
- Circular economy and industrialisation
- Built environment oriented to user needs
These challenges determine 5 R&D technological lines that CTCON tries to promote through the different actions developed in its technological areas. The R&D technological lines defined are:
- Energy transition
- Sustainable materials and circular economy
- Digitalisation and production processes
- Infrastructures for sustainable and smart mobility
- Urban environment
According to the report of the Construction Industrial Observatory of the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción on the construction sector, innovation activities are mainly carried out by large companies, which represent only a small percentage of the total number of companies in the construction sector. 0,1% of the total number of companies in the sector. This new infrastructure in Fortuna favours research development for all companies in the Region of Murcia, whatever their size.
The fields of research and development to be covered will be the major domains where the challenges of the construction and habitat sector are encompassed. Fundamentally:
Urban ecosystem: Integration of the building into its environment (mobility networks, energy, water, waste, etc.).
Industrialised construction: New materials, circular economy and advanced manufacturing.
Energy transition: Positive energy balance buildings.
Digital Transformation: Smart Buildings.
Health and quality of life: Healthy buildings
