Cal Guerxo

A recent profile introduced Cal Guerxo, my home, this way: “Secreted away in the Spanish Pyrenees, three hours from Barcelona and one hundred kilometers from the French border, an ambitious renovation has brought a medieval residence to life and to the center of international green building conversation.

In a February webinar that attracted 900 registrants, Emmanuel Pauwels, founder of Green Living Projects, detailed the regenerative features of the 250-sqm masia: Cal Guerxo is net positive for carbon, water, and energy. “In our first year, we produced 112% of our energy,” he notes.

Last year, Cal Guerxo also certified LEED Platinum, achieving the second-highest score in Europe in 2020 with perfect water, energy and material scorecards. “Cal Guerxo shows that renovation projects can reach net positive targets,” Emmanuel says. “We can change the paradigm from reducing negative impacts to making positive contributions.”

I am proud of Cal Guerxo. The process has been challenging but the journey with my collaborators has been an ultimate reward. Together we achieved 92 LEED points and blazed a trail for net positive homes.

Six highlights:

• The project respects the vernacular architecture while at the same time proofing for the future crises our society faces. Net positivity ensures no negative environmental impact. Biophilia and permaculture form an ideological core.

• The land has been restored intentionally to create spaces to connect with nature: tend gardens, harvest food, enjoy a sauna ritual, plunge in an organic pool and stimulate biodiversity.

• Straight lines are minimized in favor of round ones; wood, clay, straw and sand create warm textures. The organic forms and materials render a peaceful atmosphere and a positive, vital energy.

• Passive solar is used for heating while active capture with rooftop PV array creates an energy surplus.

• Rainwater is our only source for water. We closed Cal Guerxo’s hydrologic cycle and consume 44 liters per person per day. All effluent is filtered by a constructed wetland and returned to the land, watering fruit trees and vegetables along the way.

• The total carbon footprint for the renovation was reduced to 2,000 kg CO2E by reusing as much on-site material as possible.

I relish discussing the project’s sustainability features, but I am full of joy when describing its social impact. So far, we’ve hosted 24 volunteers. All have contributed to Cal Guerxo’s design and construction. At the same time, they have engaged in education sessions focused on living systems thinking and regenerative project development so the lessons from here move on to the next generation of homes. The sun, wind, water and earth may be the building blocks of Cal Guerxo but the hands which helped put those blocks in place are an equal part of the story.