César Martín-Gómez

• PhD Architect
• PhD Architect at Universidad de Navarra

This study investigates the severity of fires involving electric vehicles (EVs) and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in car parks by utilizing a probabilistic design fire approach. Leveraging data from 34 fire experiments, including 16 EV and 17 ICE vehicle fire cases, this work develops comparative heat release rate (HRR) profiles to anal...

This study provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of heat release rate (HRR) profiles in electric vehicles (EVs) and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, addressing fire safety challenges in performance-based design. Using experimental data, key parameters such as peak heat release rate (PHRR), time to peak heat release rate (TPHRR), t...

We all want to make our buildings more efficient and reliable. Artificial solutions abound, but evolution also holds the answers to many of our problems. Some animals and plants ingeniously adapt their bodies to environmental conditions like light, temperature and air quality by changing colour or filtering out harmful gases. A branch of scientifi...

Electric vehicles (EVs) bring not just environmental promise, but also raise critical safety questions – chief among them, the fire risks posed by their lithium-ion batteries. While indispensable for powering EVs, these batteries present unique challenges, especially in confined spaces like parking garages, where the potential for fires carries sig...

Beyond the design of the system components, the potential application of thermoelectric (TE) systems is influenced by various factors in the control process. To understand the effects of these control factors on TE system performance in buildings, computational models for a TE window frame are established. In this work, two different numerical meth...

This chapter reviews 20 cases that the authors, architects and biologists involved in research about biomimicry-inspired architectural prototypes (some of them actually built), selected as significant for their actual or potential application either as sensors or control systems in building services such as fire safety, water management, electricit...

Este ensayo está dirigido a todos aquellos a quienes les atraigan los retos intelectuales en su más amplio sentido. "La vida intelectual es un gozo, pero también un gran servicio. Se proporcionan ideas y análisis a los que no tienen el tiempo de procurárselos por sí mismos. Se piensa por otros y para otros. Por eso, no viene mal imaginar cuál es e...

Este ensayo está dirigido a todos aquellos a quienes les atraigan los retos intelectuales en su más amplio sentido. "La vida intelectual es un gozo, pero también un gran servicio. Se proporcionan ideas y análisis a los que no tienen el tiempo de procurárselos por sí mismos. Se piensa por otros y para otros. Por eso, no viene mal imaginar cuál es el...

https://theconversation.com/poor-indoor-air-quality-isnt-just-making-us-sick-its-also-polluting-our-cities-238952

As cities continue to grow, developing mitigation strategies is crucial to minimize the corresponding increase in air pollutants. One source of potentially controllable air pollution is the emissions from residential buildings. We conducted a literature review to systematically examine air pollution emissions from residential buildings in urban are...

Building heating and cooling systems using thermoelectricity appear to be a feasible alternative, as it presents several features including versatility and high reliance. While most applications of thermoelectricity in buildings are found in wall systems, window integration shows excellent potential for enhancing the thermal performance of building...

Although widely used for energy production, fossil fuels pose a challenge in the fight against climate change. They are used in various sectors, with construction accounting for 40% of total energy demand.. To address this issue, the article looks at alternative technologies and fuels that can effectively reduce our dependence on fossil fuel-based...

Compared to conventional air-conditioning systems, Thermoelectric (TE) window systems exhibit a lower coefficient of performance (COP). To improve their COPs for practical use, it is essential to establish and validate a numerical model for optimizing the system in the pre-design phase. This work develops a thermoelectric window frame (TEWF) and va...

Research report writing in the social sciences has acquired a tough reputation, and quite deservedly so because in many cases, supervision amounts to letting the student swim or sink. This manual takes the opposite approach - it is rooted in the belief that research supervision has its own pedagogy, and the application of a pedagogical approach can...

Background In the near future, the rapid adoption of electric vehicles is inevitable, driven by environmental concerns and climate change awareness. However, this progressive trend also brings forth safety concerns and hazards, notably regarding the risk of EV fires, which have garnered significant media attention. This necessitates the need to stu...

Thermoelectric (TE) systems are used in different fields for temperature control, thanks to their characteristics of transferring electricity into heating and cooling. The TE systems can be driven by the direct current produced through solar systems. Therefore, TE applications to enhance energy efficiency in buildings have drawn more and more atten...

El pabellón de España para la Feria Mundial de Nueva York de 1964-1965 constituye un hito en la carrera profesional de Javier Carvajal Ferrer (1926-2013). Recurriendo a las fuentes originales de archivos y a diversas entrevistas con varios de los técnicos que participaron en su diseño y construcción, en este artículo se explica y contextualiza el d...

Considering the time spent in enclosed environments, it is essential to study the relationship between pollutants and building ventilation systems to find whether the types and levels of pollutants and greenhouse gasses, which are expected to be exhaled through ventilation systems into the atmosphere, have been adequately evaluated. We propose the...

It is known that indoor air is affected by outdoor air, thanks to the various studies that have been conducted in this area, the causes can be varied, from infiltration of buildings, natural or mechanical ventilation. Although it is known that transportation is one of the major contributors to this problem, studies have concluded that there is a pr...

Existing educational buildings built with old normatives suffer a lack of technology, even though they are the frame of reference for our future society’s architects(/builders). These buildings, usually promoted by the public sector, don’t have significant economic investment, even if they are going to affect our children’s world perception. The ob...

Research interest in the integration of thermoelectric systems in the building envelope have increased during the last years. Studies show that regardless of a low COP compared to vapor compression systems; thermoelectric systems present other remarkable features for heating, cooling and ventilation on buildings. Among those studies, a few prototyp...

Electric mobility is expected to increase in the following years motivated by environmental awareness and government targets, therefore, a great number of combustion engines cars will be replaced by electric ones. In addition, urban space has become scarcer to house a large number of existing vehicles increasing the number of underground parking. L...

Thermoelectric systems (TE) have been studied for years as a potential energy efficient system in buildings due to its good integration with solar system and building structures. However, compared to the conventional air-conditioning system, the TE has lower COP, which negatively affects its applications in buildings. To improve the COP of the TE,...

La Cátedra Fundación Saltoki nace de la colaboración entre la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Navarra y el grupo Saltoki-Dicona desde el año 2011. El objetivo de la Cátedra es la formación e investigación en la edificación en su más amplio aspecto, de la rehabilitación a la eficiencia energética, de los modelos digitales a la implement...

The issue of air pollutants from livestock buildings is prevalent in the literature. Because they and their emissions impact both animal production and livestock building users as well as the outdoor environment. This paper aims to compile and review data available in the scientific literature on the types of pollutants for a better understanding o...

La publicación del Real-Decreto Ley (RD-Ley) 15/181 supuso el primer paso para el desarrollo del autoconsumo en España, modificando la regulación existente con el fin de que la sociedad pueda beneficiarse de las ventajas de la generación distribuida. Así, este RD-Ley define nuevas modalidades de autoconsumo, permite el autoconsumo colectivo y simpl...

Among the sources of urban air pollution, the gases and airborne particles coming out from residential buildings through normal ventilation outlets are often neglected or poorly understood. Yet, it carries the potential to deeply affect urban air quality, given the universal ubiquity and function of dwellings. The climate emergency declaration appr...

Thermoelectricity applied to thermal conditioning of buildings presents an alternative to conventional HVAC systems. Researchers at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain) have been working since 2009 on the development and application of thermoelectric systems. This paper summarizes the experiences and work done up to date in regard to thermoelectric i...

https://theconversation.com/ucrania-y-la-energia-la-historia-se-repite-181436

The issue of air pollutants from livestock buildings is prevalent in the literature. Because they and their emissions impact both animal production and livestock building users as well as the outdoor environment. This paper aims to compile and review data available in the scientific literature on the types of pollutants for a better understanding o...

The issue of air pollutants from livestock buildings is prevalent in the literature. Because they and their emissions impact both animal production and livestock building users as well as the outdoor environment. This paper aims to compile and review data available in the scientific literature on the types of pollutants for a better understanding o...

The authors of the article work on the integration of thermoelectricity in facades since 2009. The purpose of this article is to review the possibilities that this technology offers for its incorporation as a building air conditioning system, focusing on the description and analysis of the behaviour of the last prototype made within a research proj...

En un periodo marcado por la escasez y las dificultades económicas, se apostó en España por la realización de un gran plan sanitario que afectaría a toda geografía española, llamado el Plan de Instalaciones Sanitarias. Promovido por el propio Gobierno de la época, se propuso la construcción de una red sanitaria fundamentada en la construcción de ho...

The leather industry is an example of circular economy, as it uses meat industry wastes (hides and skins) as raw materials. However, the process of tanning also produces a substantial amount of organic waste. This research project studies the case of a tannery located in Navarra, in the North of Spain, committed to a circular economy and environmen...

The use of thermoelectricity in buildings represents a disruptive alternative for indoor thermal needs as it is a technology that allows the elimination of refrigerants. In this line of research, authors of this study have worked on the design and construction of several Ventilated Active Thermoelectric Envelope (VATE) prototypes. A VATE is an indu...

With people trying to keep a safe distance from others due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the way in which pedestrians walk has completely changed since the pandemic broke out 1,2 . In this work, laboratory experiments demonstrate the effect of several variables—such as the pedestrian density, the walking speed and the prescribed safety distance—on the...

We report experimental results of the speed-density relation emerging in pedestrian dynamics when individuals keep a prescribed safety distance among them. To this end, we characterize the movement of a group of people roaming inside an enclosure varying different experimental parameters: (i) global density, (ii) prescribed walking speed, and (iii)...

TheGarcimartín, A.Pastor, J. M.Martín-Gómez, C.Echeverría, I.Zuriguel, I. placement of an obstacleObstacle before the exit has been put forward as a plausible mechanism to alleviate flow interruptions. Whenever a dense flowDense flow of discrete particles goes through a bottleneck, arches can form there and restrict the flow. The driving force tend...

El principal objetivo de este trabajo es determinar la utilidad docente de la maqueta en dos posibles formatos, material y virtual, teniendo como campo de estudio el Taller Integrado de Proyectos (TIP) de quinto curso de la ETSA de la Universidad de Navarra[1] , y a la luz de la experiencia del estado de alarma a causa de la pandemia global por COV...

https://www.eunsa.es/libro/instalaciones-electricas-en-edificios-para-arquitectos-e-ingenieros_113198/

https://www.eunsa.es/libro/water-and-sanitation-hub-in-mali-reasons-for-an-architecture-seminar_112303/

Conventional cooling systems in large office buildings typically incorporate evaporative cooling towers, despite the drawbacks of direct evaporation. An alternative approach is based on highly selective innovative surfaces capable of daytime radiant cooling, however, prototypes of these cooling radiators have not yet demonstrated a system capable o...

We report experimental measurements obtained during the evacuation of 180 soldiers through a narrow door. Several conditions are analyzed in the evacuation drills, such as the degree of competitiveness (from rush to shove) and the influence of an obstacle placed before the exit. From the data, we compute the flow rate through the door and the veloc...

Las instalaciones y sistemas energéticos en edificios y urbanismo se refieren en la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Navarra a las materias protección contra incendios, gestión del agua (entrada y salida), electricidad, redes de voz y datos, acondicionamiento higrotérmico, gestión de residuos, comunicaciones verticales, integración de e...

En el V Congreso Nacional de I+D en Defensa y Seguridad (DESEi+d 2017) cele- brado en Toledo, los entonces responsables de la base española en la Antártida ‘Gabriel de Castilla’, expusieron los trabajos que allí se realizaban, así como la necesidad de seguir contando con investigaciones civiles que contribuyeran al co- nocimiento científico que una...

Leather industry is an example of circular economy, using meat industry wastes (hides and skins) as raw materials. However, it also produces a big amount of organic waste in the process of tanning. This paper presents an experimental study of several proposals to reuse the weekly tons of left-overs (both shavings and hair) issued by a tannery, as n...

This lighting cabinet was created with the main purpose of underlining the importance of the lighting learning for architecture students. It is a solution in-between the traditional showroom and the technical case, able to provide the aesthetical and technical values of architecture. Its multiple didactic possibilities, as well as, the little space...

Esta publicación tiene su leitmotiv en un viaje que la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Navarra organizó con los alumnos de cuarto curso en septiembre de 2018. El autobús, en el que los alumnos y profesores compartieron tantas horas, pasó por León, Braga, Porto, Lisboa, Mérida y Madrid. ¿Cuál era el objetivo académico? Que los alumnos...

The strategies for thermal regulation and environmental control found in nature are countless. In this article, a parallelism between animals and building energy systems is defined in order to identify and emphasize the immediate opportunities that biomimicry offers for future research. The motivation was the need to find alternative solutions to t...

El aire acondicionado supuso un evidente impulso a la arquitectura española del siglo XX como diversos estudios ya han demostrado. Pero este avance se centró en edificios complejos como auditorios, cines u hospitales que representaban la vanguardia tecnológica de su tiempo. Pero también los miles de viviendas que se construyeron en España después d...

¿Cómo deben ser las instalaciones para un edificio de uso polivalente que será utilizado por miles de personas simultáneamente? Comencemos por la lógica (arquitectónica): Un espacio de estas características ha de permitir el movimiento de las personas y el desarrollo de sus actividades con libertad, sin que las servidumbres de las (numerosas y volu...

En octubre de 2003, en el archivo del Departamento de Edificación de la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Navarra, se encuentra una recopilación de planos y documentos escritos que llevan por título “Anteproyecto de Calefacción Urbana en Pamplona”, firmada por el ingeniero industrial Joaquín Castiella en junio de 1961. Esta documentación...

La estructura tiende a pasar desapercibida, encontrándose debajo de los suelos, detrás de las paredes, pero posee la capacidad de liberar o coartar al proyecto arquitectónico. El desarrollo del hormigón armado supuso un cambio fundamental en el desarrollo de nuevas estructuras, generando nuevas tipologías arquitectónicas y aportando flexibilidad a...

The placement of obstacles in front of doors is believed to be an effective strategy to increase the flow of pedestrians, hence improving the evacuation process. Since it was first suggested, this counterintuitive feature is considered a hallmark of pedestrian flows through bottlenecks. Indeed, despite the little experimental evidence, the placemen...

Son numerosos los sistemas termodinámicos, estructurales, de procesos... que pueden simularse para anticiparse a lo que sucederá en la realidad pero ¿cómo se simula la presión de una masa de personas que sienten pánico y quieren evacuar un edificio? Existen experiencias con animales vertebrados (ratones, ovejas...) para analizar parámetros como la...

The present study is focused on the analysis of the performance of a Peltier cell integrated in an adiabatic box in order to work as a heating and cooling unit. The box is a reproduction in small scale of the room of a building where a specific comfort temperature must be accomplished. This experimental setup is part of a continuous work which has...

The use of thermoelectricity in buildings represents a significant alternative for indoor thermal comfort necessities avoiding the use of refrigerants. One of the possible application options of this technology is the integration of thermoelectric modules in a building façade. Even though several studies have ex- amined the technology for this appl...

Una de las dificultades de los alumnos de Arquitectura en las asignaturas de instalaciones y concretamente en las que reciben conocimientos de acondicionamiento higrotérmico, es comprender los procesos de transferencia de calor y sus afecciones en el edificio. De forma simplificada, puede decirse que deben interiorizar que existe una fuente de ener...

Researchers have spent decades exploring strategies for reducing energy consumption in buildings worldwide, proposing passive solutions and optimizing active systems. However, no breakthrough tech- nology has been developed. The use of thermoelectricity in buildings for heating, cooling and ventilation has been proposed as an alternative solution t...

The use of cooling panels as heat dissipation elements integrated in buildings has been previously investigated by the authors. Those elements would be connected to the condenser and would dissipate the heat in a passive form. Following the research, this study analyses and compares the thermal performance of two heat dissipation panels as part of...

Los hospitales son organismos en constante evolución, con una larga vida útil en la que deben adaptarse y buscar soluciones a los retos propuestos por las sociedades del momento, los tratamientos y las técnicas médicas. Estas actualizaciones implican un proceso de planificaciones y reformas continuas sobre elementos arquitectónicos, constructivos y...

Año 2017. Un arquitecto, tras confirmar que los captadores solares de su casa han sido reparados y activar la alarma antirrobo, sincroniza los contenidos del móvil con su vehículo eléctrico, mientras acude a una reunión guiado por el GPS. Quisiera finalizar pronto la jornada laboral para coger el tren de alta velocidad que le llevara a la ciudad ve...

Nowadays, there have appeared a lot of innovative strategies that one way or another try to improve theoverall energy performance of buildings. There is no doubt that all of these new strategies are really greatfor that purpose, but, in some occasions, some of the results achieved when they are installed in a buildingare not as expected. The vast m...

When a sizable number of people evacuate a room, if the door is not large enough, an accumulation of pedestrians in front of the exit may take place. This is the cause of emerging collective phenomena where the density is believed to be the key variable determining the pedestrian dynamics. Here, we show that when sustained contact among the individ...

La superación de la crisis que caracterizó la economía española en los años veinte permitió que pudiesen construirse más edificios y que fuese posible seguir los conceptos de las corrientes modernas europeas. Los cines fueron uno de los géneros más dados a ese intento de modernidad. Existen pocos ejemplos de verdadera calidad arquitectónica, y la m...

Occupancy schedules in building spaces play an important role in evaluating a building’s energy performance. This work seeks to identify disparities between different occupancy estimation techniques; standardised occupancy profiles found in literature, business processes’ based profiles through interviews and accurate profiles from real on-field me...

A Thermoelectric Cooling-Heating Unit (TCHU) is an innovative technology that uses the thermoelectric phenomena as a heating–cooling system for buildings. In TCHU, a direct current (DC) electrical current supplies the power to a Thermoelectric Equipment (TE) heat-pump system, which can transfer heat in one direction or another depending on the curr...

The use of Opaque Ventilated Façades (OVF) has considerably increased in recently years as an envelope solution in a variety of building types, climates, and design configurations. It is considered an appropriate solution not only for renovation of existing buildings but also for new buildings. The influence of ventilated façades in buildings is a...

The amount of energy consumed for cooling purposes is increasing and expected to rise in the following years. The active cooling mechanisms used to meet these requirements can be partially replaced by harnessing environmental conditions and developing passive solutions. Through the multidisciplinary knowledge offered by biomimicry, a bio-inspired s...

The energy used for cooling has increased in recent decades and the predicted future rise in consumption is driving a pressing need for more efficient technologies. Some technologies use environmental sinks as heat dissipation alternatives. This paper presents a model validation with experimental data from a passive vertical cooling panel. The nove...