La revolució energètica aplicada a la masia

Abstract

Masies, or traditional Catalan farmhouses, are isolated buildings conceived as livable and self-sufficient units in all respects. They are minimal population nuclei managing a small specific territory and living off it. Before the Industrial Revolution, the primary sector was the main source of income for their inhabitants. The people of those times lived off resources such as water, foodstuffs and renewable energy from the surroundings usually no farther than 4-5 km. People's way of living has now been transformed, as has their way of obtaining the products they use daily. Their basic needs and biological necessities have not changed, though, and new construction technologies and techniques allow greater advantage to be taken of solar energy. As an isolated building, the masia possesses an extensive surrounding territory, which allows it to obtain provisions as it has always done from nearby natural resources as opposed to the situation in big cities, whose density makes it necessary to obtain the natural resources required for people's daily activities from far away.