For the seminars, the President of World SB14 Conference Albert Cuchi and Prof. Raymond Cole from University of British Columbia presented speeches on the topic of “Building facing global environmental challenges”. The speakers explained how the global environment change is becoming exacerbated, including: loss of biodiversity every year, reduction of usable energy and global warming. Regional problems discussed include: deterioration of water resources (decreased usable fresh water resources), land pollution by heavy metal or damage by other factors (desertification due to climate change), as well as the tremendous pressure faced by renewable resources. With the increasing global population, the imminent problem faced by buildings is “By 2050, the building sector alone would emit all permitted global emissions to reach a 2℃ increase in world temperature, how to improve people’s quality of life while minimizing environmental impact will be one of the most daunting challenges encountered by sustainable buildings.” 　　During intermission between 11:30 and 12:00, a poster session was arranged. In the afternoon, 36 oral sessions were conducted and followed by a poster session during 16:30~17:00. 　　Before the end of the meeting, German UNEP/DTIE representative Arab Hoballah, Spain’s Herrero Yayo from Co-coordinadora estatal de Ecologistas en Accion and Andreas Rudinger from Institute du Developpement Durable et Relations Internationales in France presented their arguments on the topic of “Beyond the critic: the transitional perspective applied to the building sector”.　 　　As far as cultural survey was concerned, some of the team members visited Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic, El Poble Espanyol and Fundacio Joan Miro in the afternoon. Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic was designed by Spanish architect Pere Domenech i Roura as the venue for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition; it was later selected as the main stadium for the 1992 Olympic Games. Between 1989 and 1992, the stadium underwent modernization by renowned Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti; after completion, the seat capacity increased to 55,000, and there is a 40m wide, 130m long dome over the rostrum. The stadium hosted the opening/closing ceremonies and track and field events during the 1992 Olympic Games. El Poble Espanyol was built to welcome the 1929 International Exposition and was originally meant to be dismantled after the expo, it became so popular however that it was retained instead. Architects and designers involved in the project at the time visited 1,600 villages in Spain and southern Portugal to select the most iconic buildings. The park features 114 individual buildings demonstrating the most characteristic folk sentiments of different provinces and cities in Spain. Miro, Picasso and Dali are all iconic figures of Catalonian contemporary art. Inaugurated in 1975, Fundacio Joan Mirois is situated on Montijuic and houses a collection of nearly 10,000 artworks. The fine arts museum boasts the most comprehensive collection of Miro’s artworks ranging from paintings, sculptures, textile, wood prints, posters and sketches. This is also the epicenter of contemporary art often hosting exhibitions by avant-garde artists. « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 »

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