In 2023, authorities from the School of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico approached the School of Architecture. The purpose was to ask for our consulting services regarding a series of problems in the main library called Enrique Rivero Borrell. Located in Mexico City and built in 1996, the library presented overheating problems, lack of internal ventilation, carbon dioxide concentration, and intense solar radiation transmission through the roof and the facades. These challenges were presented to us as ‘the library is too hot for most of the year’, ‘it is impossible to tolerate the heat without fans’, and ‘students get sleepy, particularly during the exams period in May and November’.

Thus, the main task of the Sustainable Infrastructures team was listing a series of challenges and metrics that the users could easily identify and relate. We monitored variables such as humidity, internal temperature, and carbon dioxide levels. Considering the results, we proposed key sustainable strategies for the sustainable rehabilitation of the main library of UNAM´s School of Engineering. These were:

1. Strategies for natural ventilation with the intervention of existing windows
2. Strategies for the mitigation of solar radiation via light green roofs and waterproofing coatings of the main roof with a white layer
3. Openings in the existing skylight structures located on the roof

The project respects the existing conditions and geometries of the building, particularly in the facades and the main roof. In July 2024, the following actions were implemented in the library:

1. A ramp-elevator for universal accessibility was built on the first two levels

2. Openings in the roof for the circulation of exhausted air

3. Waterproofing of the roof with a white plaster layer to dissipate solar radiation

Through the monitoring and evaluation of these actions, it was confirmed that the interior temperature decreased by 2 degrees Celsius and that the relative humidity has been stabilised on all three levels.

Due to the results, the School of Law approached in 2024 the School of Architecture of the UNAM to request a sustainable rehabilitation project for the Alfonso Caso Library.

I am proud of our intervention in the main library of the School of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. It demonstrated that we can intervene existing buildings with small scale actions that consider energy efficiency and thermal comfort with passive strategies. That is the approach of sustainability in construction that we promote at the Sustainable Infrastructures Initiative.

Official video of the proposal