The protagonist of our interview on this occasion is the company Evowall Technology, Members of the Barcelona Contech Hub.

Evowall Technology is a Catalan company based in Sant Fruitós de Bages that was born as a start-up and that, today, continues to keep alive the entrepreneurial, innovative and constantly evolving spirit. They have patented an industrialized construction system for high-quality, faster, more efficient and sustainable homes. Thanks to the industrialized model and the digitization of the process, including BIM, they manage to reduce construction time, minimizing errors and reducing the environmental impact.

Welcome Eloi, to our interview space.

1. Could you briefly introduce the company EVOWALL TECHNOLOGY and its role in the construction sector?

Evowall is a Catalan deep-tech based in Sant Fruitós de Bages that promotes a new paradigm of industrialized construction: we manufacture the envelope and key elements of the building in a factory environment, combining digitalization and industrial capacity to deliver homes of the highest quality, speed and sustainability. We have a European ETA/ATE certification, even for multi-family homes, and we have developed with ITeC a Life Cycle Assessment tool to quantify and reduce the environmental impact of each project.

2. Can you briefly explain what industrialization is in the construction sector and why it represents such a major disruption in the way we will build?

Industrialization means transferring a large part of the added value of the work to the factory with controlled, traceable and repeatable processes. This reduces deadlines and cost variability, improves safety, and allows maximum sustainability to be integrated throughout the process. The sector, with a serious shortage of qualified personnel, is moving towards higher quality, more sustainable solutions that can even be more competitive than traditional construction. In addition, the accident rate can decrease by between 50% and 70% compared to the current model.

3. Can you explain how your industrialized construction technique allows you to achieve fast project times, quality and certifications such as PassivHaus and A+?

The key is the system of custom-made “All-in-one” 2D panels: with a mortar 10 times more insulating than traditional concrete, with inherent airtightness thanks to the interior finish of natural plaster applied in the factory. Integrated openings and preframes, planned installation passages already incorporated and forged with a compression layer executed in the factory to work on a firm floor from day one. All this speeds up assembly and ensures millimetric tolerances. This control makes it easier to achieve standards such as PassivHaus with demand reductions of up to 90% and high-energy ratings (A/A+), because the envelope is continuous and without thermal bridges.

4. What are the key innovations in your own system that differentiate you from traditional construction and conventional prefabricated solutions?

Our differential value is not only to build faster, but we combine the solidity of traditional work with the precision and advantages of industrialization and the flexibility of architectural design.

• Design without limits: the architect can maintain his original project: shapes, ventilated facades, SATE, cladding, or various roofs, without having to adapt to a closed catalogue.
• Traditional materials: we defend the use of these materials linked to our construction culture. Elements such as steel, cement, sand and plaster have been used historically, and we want to continue to do so.
• Details solved at the factory: airtightness, preframes, installation steps and compression layers arrive at the factory, guaranteeing millimetric tolerances and reducing unforeseen events on site.
• Comprehensive digitization: we work with digital twins and BIM tools that allow us to control the process from start to finish, from design to life cycle analysis (LCA), always choosing the solutions with the lowest carbon impact.
• Focus on sustainability: the system is designed to achieve high-efficiency standards such as PassivHaus, and to turn each home into a “positive home”: comfortable, healthy, and with minimal emissions.

In short, we are not just a prefabricated system: we provide a new paradigm that combines creative freedom with the highest construction and environmental quality.

5. What are the main technical and project challenges you have overcome thanks to digitalisation, BIM, or other Industry 4.0 tools?

Digitization has allowed us to leave prefabrication behind, we can industrialize 100% to measure each project thanks to modeling (BIM/digital twin), which allows us to work collaboratively with architects in the design phase from the first moment. Working with these BIM environments allows us to coordinate structure, openings and installations within the system so that they “fit the first time”, avoiding improvisations on site and repetitions of work.

The challenge is, with digitization and traceability, to increase the incorporation of components into the system to deliver residential buildings in just over two months.

6. How do you evaluate and incorporate new technologies or startups into your development process (pilot initiatives, field trials, scalability)?

We work in two clear directions, internally enhancing, training and digital programming together with the development of Evowall technology (materials and manufacturing system), always looking for a continuous improvement of the product, which is surely already one of the best construction systems today.

But we can’t do it alone, we need the ecosystem: universities (UPC), technology centers (ITeC, CEA) and European partners in programs such as REN+HOMES, where we deploy positive energy housing methodologies and package reproducible hardware/software solutions.

This “test-measure-scale” approach minimizes risk and accelerates the adoption of the new technology in the market.

7. Can you describe how you maintain quality, sustainability, and energy efficiency throughout the product lifecycle, especially to comply with regulations such as PassivHaus and earn A+ energy certifications?

At Evowall we understand quality and sustainability as a process that covers the entire life cycle of the building. Therefore:

• From the design: We use the digital twin and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate alternatives and reduce the environmental impact before starting the work.
• In manufacturing: We work 100% with photovoltaic energy, our industrialized process reduces water consumption by 60% compared to traditional construction, minimizes waste, and allows recycled materials to be incorporated in a safe and traceable way.
• In home use: Our enclosures are designed to achieve almost zero energy demand (PassivHaus), with guaranteed airtightness, high-level thermal and acoustic insulation, and integration of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.

This approach allows us to meet the most demanding standards, such as PassivHaus, and achieve A+ energy ratings, but above all, to guarantee comfortable, healthy homes with minimal environmental impact for decades.

8. Within the framework of a ConTech startup HUB, what benefits and challenges have you observed in collaborating with other start-ups?

The main benefit is the speed of learning: sharing use-houses and relationships with suppliers, companies, or other competitors often facing the same problems helps to improve. In addition, the fact of being linked to the spearhead of the sector helps directly or indirectly to integrate reproducible solutions in the future.

9. What trends and innovation paths do you consider to be the most disruptive for the sector in the next 3–5 years (materials, training techniques, artificial intelligence, prefabrication monitors, etc.)?

In the next 3 to 5 years, the construction sector will undergo profound transformations driven by the need to increase productivity, reduce environmental impact and improve the quality and efficiency of buildings. We highlight the following trends and innovation paths as the most disruptive:

• Deep industrialization of the construction
  process The use of panels with integrated installations, fully finished facades, and 3D elements such as prefabricated kitchens and bathrooms will allow the delivery of stairs of homes in just over two months, drastically reducing execution times.
• Sustainable materials and life cycle assessment (LCA)
  The use of materials with recycled content will increase, and design decisions will increasingly be guided by carbon pathway data.
• Digital Twin and predictive quality (QA)
  The incorporation of digital twins will make it possible to control tolerances, ensure the traceability of components, and plan the maintenance of buildings from the same digital model.
• Positive housing and smart energy management: combining high-performance envelopes with renewables and active energy management and building management.

10. What does your participation in the Barcelona ConTech Hub mean for Evowall Technology as one of its members?

It is a platform for connection and scale: visibility for our system, access to talent and partners, and piloting opportunities with actors who share a vision of sustainability and an industrialized product. For Evowall, it is consistent with our purpose: to democratize “positive homes” with alliances that accelerate the impact on the residential market.