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THE GREAT BLACKOUT AND LITHIUM BATTERIES
Posted on 27 February 2022
You may remember that at the end of 2021 the news of the "real possibility" of suffering a major blackout hit the press. From the Austrian government it was said that "the question is not if it would happen or not, but when". (more…)
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HOW TO HAVE PRODUCTIVE SITE MEETINGS
Posted on 21 November 2021
I have to admit that I used to get very nervous, that I was unable to go to a work visit trustful and relaxed because I was afraid of that technical detail that appeared suddenly at the meeting and for which I, after all, could not go well prepared. Others, however, arrived excessively calm, with their hands in their pockets and their sandwich under their arms. It took me years to assume that many of them didn't care about those meetings, that they were just going to hang out. And I didn't want to see it like that, because that would have been confessing that I was wasting hours of my time. Systematically, as if I had excess. (more…)
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THE FIVE PILLARS OF SUSTAINABLE DREAMHOUSES
Posted on 18 October 2021
Talking about building a house and minimizing the environmental impact is somewhat contradictory, since the mere fact of building on land implies its alteration. The incorporation of materials, technologies and systems oriented towards sustainability is to advance to alleviate, as far as possible, both the damage caused by the work and that resulting from the daily use of the house. This is the principle of the sustainable dreamhouse. This concept is also supported by five fundamental pillars that are designed to maximize the comfort and safety of its inhabitants. Impossible? Expensive? Utopian? Let's see it… (more…)
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SURGEONS AND QUACKS
Posted on 20 September 2021
I have a mantra: Well-built houses are beautiful for what you see and for what you don't. I like it because I think it is forceful. It demands and reminds me of one of the maxims that justify my work. My friend Adam (who makes houses for celebrities) always says that a house is like a living being. It is born, it is built and it is in constant change. It generates its story and it ends up being demolished. (more…)
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WHY A LUXURY HOUSE PAYS LESS ELECTRICITY THAN YOU
Posted on 12 September 2021
Pawel works in international trade. He always reminds me that, unlike today's youth, he left home at a very young age, when he decided that he saw no future where his parents lived. (more…)
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THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY JOB, MAYBE
Posted on 7 September 2021
I was in the meeting room in front of the 65-inch TV, speaking through the microphone with the clients. We in Spain, they in another country, thousands of miles away. Beside me, the architect shared the plans and infographics on the screen with AirPlay from his MacBook. (more…)
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FIVE ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS IN A LUXURY HOME
Posted on 1 September 2021
A luxury home is not defined only by the size or the quality of the construction elements. It is because it has by itself the ability to transmit to its inhabitants comfort, security and the pleasant feeling that there is nothing it lacks in it. (more…)
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PLAN IN A “CASADENSUEÑO”
Posted on 21 February 2021
You may think that a house is always a house. Dining room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms. And, apart from placing designer lamps, configuring Alexa to turn on the air conditioning or incorporating hi-fi speakers to listen an amazing sound, installing in a luxury home should not be more different from doing it in a conventional home... Nothing could be further from the truth. Even if you have been in construction your whole life, even if you have done a thousand and one buildings, the level of attention you have to pay when developing a luxury home is unmatched. Cause everything is in the small details. In the millions of small details that must be attended and linked with others ... When the first plans reach your hands and you have to draw the measurements on it, transport them virtually from a CAD to a DIALUX or a RENDER, share everything in BIM…. Value the functionality of each element and the part of the comfort in which it will act and if its installation in this or that place (or form) improves its usefulness. When you have to integrate a device into the system and into the environment, study how the lighting source will behave in that corner, how and where the climate grilles will be camouflaged so that they do not interfere with the decoration and continue to fulfill their function, or adjust the ducts and smooth their tracing to silence the air supply without varying speed or pressure ... When you have to calculate the layout, sections and typology of the kilometers of wiring that will transport energy and information. Or the location of the WiFi antennas so that they reach every corner ..., without being seen, of course. And so I could spend hours writing examples. And when all that is clear, someone comes and reminds you that the casasdensueño are designer houses. They evolve as you go. And many times, the majority, you have to rethink the calculated over and over again because new elements appear to incorporate in the middle of the work, when the property and its emotions come into play. Imagine how difficult it would be then if you didn't plan. It is definitely not the same or similar. Building a house is not building a house. Not in a casadensueño.
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DESIGN vs NORMATIVE
Posted on 7 September 2020
When you work on singular projects, you usually receive proposals that are complicated to execute, mainly in lighting, but also in other types of installations. (more…)
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WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR PHOTOVOLTAIC INSTALLATION?
Posted on 31 August 2020
I like to return from holidays with my batteries charged and that implies putting on the table of our company ATRAE some other interesting topic. This time I am going to share it with you in case you want to comment. (more…)