Aldabe civic centre to cut energy use 45%

A civic centre is the kind of building people barely notice until it stops working well. That is basically the story at Aldabe in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The city has now moved to start contracting a €6.1 million renovation that is not just cosmetic — it is meant to slash energy use, fix long-running building problems, and bring the centre up to current fire-safety and accessibility rules. The big headline number is a 45% cut in non-renewable primary energy use once the main works are done. ### What actually changed this week? On May 8, the Etxebarria city government approved the start of the procurement file for the works at Centro Cívico Aldabe. That matters because it turns a long-discussed retrofit into an active public project with a budget, a scope, and a path to construction. The city tied the renovation to three things at once — energy performance, accessibility, and fire protection — instead of treating them as separate fixes. (blogs.vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### Why Aldabe? Aldabe is not some tiny side building. It opened in 1996, has 2,178 square meters above ground plus a 433-square-meter basement, and sits right on the edge of the medieval quarter. That location is part of the point — the city wants the building to work better for users, but also to present a cleaner face to the old town. After roughly 30 years of use, the structure also shows the usual aging signs: corrosion, dirt on metal elements, and deterioration in rooftop solar-thermal components. (blogs.vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### What will they physically change? The most visible move is a new main facade. The plan is for a ventilated facade with vertical wooden slats, high thermal insulation, and low environmental impact. Photovoltaic panels will be integrated into the facade and oriented to the south to improve renewable generation, and the installed solar capacity is set at 11 kilowatts peak. So this is not just “better insulation” — it is a full rethink of the building envelope plus on-site generation. (vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### Where does the 45% figure come from? The 45% number refers to non-renewable primary energy consumption, which is a broader metric than just the electricity bill. It tries to capture how much outside energy the building ultimately needs once heating, cooling, and generation are taken together. In plain English, the city is saying Aldabe should need much less imported energy to do the same job. That is the kind of target that starts to matter for operating costs and emissions, not just for a sustainability press release. (blogs.vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### Why mention EnerPhit Passivhaus? Because that tells you the ambition level. EnerPhit is the retrofit standard in the Passivhaus world — basically the hard version for existing buildings, where you do not get to start from a blank sheet. Hitting that standard means the project is aiming for a building that is much tighter, better insulated, and more efficient than a normal refurbishment. It is a signal that the city wants a deep retrofit, not a patch job. (blogs.vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### Will the building stay open? Probably not in normal use. Local coverage says Aldabe will close during the works, which are expected to last about 18 months. That is the catch with this kind of intervention — the deeper the retrofit, the harder it is to keep daily services running around it. But doing it in one serious push is also how cities avoid spending years on piecemeal repairs that never solve the core problem. (blogs.vitoria-gasteiz.org) ### Why does this matter beyond one building? Aldabe is one of 26 actions inside Vitoria-Gasteiz’s integrated renewal plan for the Casco Medieval, backed in part by €7.3 million in European regional development funding for the broader package. So the city is using one civic building as a lever for a bigger old-town strategy — lower energy use, cleaner public assets, and more durable infrastructure in a historic area where upgrades are usually trickier. (gasteizberri.com) ### Bottom line This is a building retrofit story, but the real point is municipal triage done properly. Aldabe needed repairs anyway. Vitoria-Gasteiz is using that moment to fold in energy savings, code compliance, and renewable generation all at once — and if the 45% cut lands, it becomes a pretty concrete example of what a serious public-building upgrade can look like. (vitoria-gasteiz.org)