About the project
MUSCLE is a concept created for a study carried out by a group of promoters (architects, universities, municipalities and construction companies) between 2018/2019.
The concept focused the regeneration of depressed urban communities and social housing buildings to meet new, nZERO standards of eco-efficiency and environmental impacts.
The idea was to create an exterior metallic exoskeleton, with new facades and balconies/solariums involving an existing building to reinforce its structure, refurbishing or creating new infrastructures on this process. The new strengthen envelope also allows the construction of more floors (if necessary) and finally new uses for the roofs – not only for the production of renewable energy, but also the build green houses covering leisure spaces or urban farming, and rainwater capture and storage.
Studies of MUSCLE concept eco-efficiency, focusing the materials and building-systems, operation (energy efficiency + water efficiency), and synergies of commentary collaboration between every building working as a whole, boosted the quality of life and reduced the ecological footprint of communities to unprecedented levels, pushed depressed urban tissues for a whole new patterns of urban life.
MUSCLE is a systemic approach to regenerating public housing estates, in their components – urban spaces and buildings, to meet NetZero or A+ standards across all aspects of environmental, water and energy performance.
The project has proven that with an appropriate ecodesign strategy, a regenerative approach that harnesses nature’s ecological services, urban communities can dramatically decrease their ecological footprint