Founded by José Antonio González archive in 2007, 16 years agoconvinced”wood is the material of the 21st century“, among other things, because “in terms of sustainability no one can handle it”. So this industrial engineer decided to do what he does best: industrialize processes. And he started a family business to build houses (and equipment, facades, envelopes) . , hotels and residences). no one believed him. “He was the crazy guy with the wooden houses,” he recalls, “but everything I saw then, everybody sees now.”
At Arquima they design, industrially manufacture and assemble “turnkey” projects. Whether they work with exterior architects or not, they can take care of the whole process. In their newly opened 6,000 square meter factory in Abrera (Barcelona), they mainly buy wood from Germany and Austria. They build houses there in a week. Later, a shipping company takes all the pieces to the destination of the residence that Arquima continues to build. It can be ready in three or four months. “At a time when there is an obvious labor shortage and displacing it is expensive and difficult to control, industrialization is the way to make construction viable in the future,” says González. “Less delay in the factory. It is a guarantee for the client and the architect,” he adds.
Overcoming Barriers
They are building under the criteria of sustainability because “the industry It is responsible for 40%. CO2 emissions all over the planet“They are taking it and will continue to do so,” he says. Replacing a concrete structure with wood “provides a very significant reduction in the carbon footprint.” On the other hand, construction is also passive, in other words low energy consumption “The energy is not infinite and houses as efficient as possible you have to build,” he continues.
González boasts of being responsible for the construction of the first wooden multi-family building in Barcelona. Also from the first nursing home in Camarzana de Tera in Zamora. It hasn’t been easy. Since he founded the company “overcome a thousand obstacles“. Customers question a rare material in home construction. “But together with stone, it is the most durable. There are wooden buildings that are more than 1000 years old. On the other hand, there is no concrete that is over 100 and still standing,” says the CEO. “People are afraid that the wood will burn. However It is the most noble material in fire situations.. The metallic one drops instantly when burned. The wooden one, no.” Everything revolves around “a false sense of insecurity created in a world designed for brick and concrete,” he repeats.
One million euro houses
It is true that the will of this CEO is not in any case. democratizing access to wood for the construction of houses. The company currently has an average revenue of between 500,000 and 600,000 euros, and González wants to increase that to one million “to implement all the improvements and build houses that have it all”. “We don’t want to cover everything, instead we pick the projects that interest us the most,” he says. That is, the supporters they find serious and above all ” high esteem private clientWho wants that quality and is ready to pay for it”.
And with its wooden houses, Arquima has billed six million in 2021 and eight million in 2022, and plans to close 2023 with numbers between 15 and 20. To achieve this, they took action this year. About 50 people work in the new factory (between offices and production). “We had very limited capacity and we tripled that,” González says. They were able to build 25 houses last year; east 75. They are currently running a 16-house project in Llucmajor (Mallorca) for developer Aedas Home, and they plan to close another 26 development along with it.
Valsaín sawmill
This year they also won the tender for the Valsaín sawmill Segovia. The concession will run for 25 years and will be operational in 2024. Thus, all of the wood they use about 4,000 cubic meters per year will be of domestic origin. “Spain is the second country in Europe in terms of forest mass, but there is no such culture here.“In addition to the fact that they had many supply issues last year, it prompted them to take this decision, and they calculated an investment of one million euros for it. It’s a manual vertical integration,” he proudly concludes.