Valldaura has a group of laboratories researching into self-sufficiency that aims to be self-sufficient in the next few years. The group comprises three laboratories: Forest Lab, Agro Lab and the Advanced Wood Workshop. which produce the three things we need to be self-sufficient: food, energy and many of the things essential to the good life, combining the age-old ancestral knowledge that connects us to nature with the latest advanced technology.
The laboratories are geared to investigating the processes involved in the production of energy, food and things locally, using the resources of the immediate environment, and developing technologies and knowledge that can be employed in the construction of a new global human habitat.
Forest Lab
Forest Labs – a concept used by IAAC to describe the expanded research ecosystem of Valldaura Labs, its campus in Collserola Park- functions as a living laboratory for innovation in fabrication, energy, and sustainable living across 140 hectares.
Hosting facilities for digital wood construction, renewable energy research, and food production, the campus supports experimentation and hands-on learning in self-sufficient systems. Research and real-world testing converge to develop ecological and productive solutions for contemporary living environments.
Agro Lab
The Agro Lab supports food production and cultivation research through experimental growing systems connected to surrounding gardens. Facilities include seedling nurseries and hydroponic environments using nutrient-controlled delivery and LED lighting to enable continuous production cycles.
Combining agricultural knowledge with innovative cultivation methods, the lab operates as a living platform demonstrating efficient and ecologically focused approaches adaptable to both local and urban food systems.
Advanced Wood Workshop
The Advanced Digital Wood Lab integrates robotic fabrication, CNC machining, and traditional carpentry for timber architecture and material research.
Combining robotic milling, digital workflows, and hands-on woodworking, the lab produces structural components and full-scale prototypes using locally sourced materials. Linked to experimentation with wood, earth, and mineral-based materials, the facility connects craftsmanship, robotics, and sustainable construction methods for innovative timber systems.
For this reason Valldaura works with the integral management of the cycle of the biomass from the foresty management, and with projects like the EneGrid and its actualization through the block-chain of the energy .
EnergyLab
Valldaura aims to be a self-sufficient environment capable of meet its needs by means of renewables. The keystone of the whole system is the Energrid research project, developed by IaaC for Endesa, in collaboration with the i2Cat Foundation, and being implemented for the first time at Valldaura Labs. Energrid is a kind of energy Internet, a system in which the various Valldaura buildings produce and consume, store or share energy according to strict principles of efficiency. Each electrical node (switch or power point) has a microcomputer (developed in the project) that monitors individual consumption and can avoid demand peaks by actively managing consumption. It is intended to introduce this model in the urban environment over the next few years. At Valldaura, energy comes from a biomass plant that uses local resources, as well as solar panels and mini wind-turbine systems.
At Valldaura we are also developing the HydroGrid project in order to ensure efficient water management, based on the principle of having five different tanks to allow the most appropriate kind of water to be used for each purpose. Clean water, roof rainwater, surface runoff from the plazas, greywater and sewage are recycled for maximum water saving.
Valldaura is also developing the Global Traceability of Matter project, in order to extend our awareness of all the materials and transformation processes involved in the production of any object, including residues and re-use.
