The Valldaura Labs is a research centre for self-sufficient habitats, located on a historic 130-hectare farm, 20 minutes from downtown Barcelona. As part of IaaC’s commitment to promoting habitability on the basis of ecological principles, making the fullest use of all available technologies and resources, IaaC has created a research centre focused on the idea of self-sufficiency. Valldaura Labs is a testing ground allowing to learn directly from nature in order to apply this understanding to the regeneration of XXIst century cities.

Vision

To be an international centre of education and research on the self-sufficient human habitat in order to bring influential technologies and solutions to bear on the production of energy, food and things and contribute our territorial vision to the transformation of Barcelona and the cities of the world.

Mission

Make a centre financially self-sufficient, from educational, research, and events, developing the full potential of the property functional related to the core of the farmhouse, the restaurant, the palace and the whole natural system.

Values

IaaC’s Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs campus and its three laboratories — Food Lab, Energy Lab and Green FabLab — allow researching the production of key elements involved in self-sufficiency: food, energy and things, combining ancestral knowledge that connects us to nature with the latest advanced technology.

Energy Lab

The Energy Lab of Can Valldaura is intended to develop a new model for the management and distribution of energy in buildings from renewable resources; biomass, solar, wind, working in partnership with Endesa.

Using this system we will be able to evaluate energy use, timing, intensities etc in order to effectively reduce overall consumption.

Food Lab

Humans need the energy we get from food. Valldaura was an agricultural area in the early twentieth century and now recovers an activity that generates biodiversity in Collserola Park. Food production is based on different culture formats, including organic gardens, orchard plantations, edible forest products that come from farm animals, and is run entirely by students and researchers.

Green Fab Lab

Valldaura’s GreenFabLab subscribes to the same open and enabling philosophy to explore the frontier between technology, environment and people. Creating a local manufacturing hub involved in providing products and solutions to all aspects of humans daily needs from the materials that can be found only on site; and propose to add the ancestral knowledge of crafts to new technologies bringing together artisans, artists and artificers, working together to investigate, improve and innovate the tools required to build a self-sufficient community within the Collserola national park of Barcelona.