Introducing Building Science in Latin America

Nick Maggio signs a Cooperation Agreement with Universidad Nacional de San Martin (UNSAM) in Buenos Aires and Creates a New Course: “Building Science for Weatherization”

The General Agreement was signed with the President of the National University of San Martín (UNSAM) and this semester, our CEO Nicolás Maggio, began teaching the “Building Science” course for advanced students in the Architecture program.

The course is one of the projects we have started to share with the School of Habitat and Sustainability and its Dean, Roberto Busnelli. In both him and the School, we have found excellent partners to innovate and co-construct new practices and knowledge.

In the “Building Science” course we emphasize the importance of studying housing performance as a discipline that combines social and technical sciences to ensure fair and sustainable housing. We address its links to health, safety, economic inclusion, and the climate crisis, including the concept of energy poverty as a concrete expression of housing inequality.

The course’s pedagogical approach presents building science as a practical knowledge, built from and through practice, with a series of planned formative activities: classroom, workshop, and fieldwork spaces that combine conceptual reflection with collaborative, context-based work.

This course is possible thanks to the support we receive from Gary Nelson, founder of The Energy Conservatory.

During this semester and those to come, we hope to join efforts and initiatives, fostering collaboration among students from UNSAM in Buenos Aires, MIT D-Lab in Massachusetts, and Nehuen Peuman in Bariloche.