This paper describes the implementation of a series of ventilation strategies in a nursery and primary school from September 2020, when the government decided to resume the students’ face-to-face activity in the middle of a COVID scenario. Air quality and hygrothermal comfort conditions were analysed before the pandemic and compared for different ventilation configurations in a post-COVID scenario. Ventilation strategies included the protocols issued by the Public Administration, while others were developed based on the typological configuration and use of the school. Results revealed that it is advisable to implement certain strategies that reduce the risk of infection among the occupants of the spaces, without a significant decrease in hygrothermal comfort. Given the importance of maintaining better IAQ in the future within classrooms, and regarding the pre-COVID situation, these strategies may be extended beyond this pandemic period, through a simple protocol and necessary didactic package to be assumed by both teachers and students of the centre.

Air leakage and its impact on the energy performance of dwellings has been broadly studied in countries with cold climates in Europe, US, and Canada. However, there is a lack of knowledge in this field in Mediterranean countries. Current Spanish building regulations establish ventilation rates based on ideal airtight envelopes, causing problems of over-ventilation and substantial energy losses. The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology that allows the characterization of the envelope of the housing stock in Spain in order to adjust ventilation rates taking into consideration air leakage. A methodology that is easily applicable to other countries that consider studying the airtightness of the envelope and its energetic behaviour improvement is proposed. A statistical sampling method has been established to determine the dwellings to be tested, considering relevant variables concerning airtightness: climate zone, year of construction, and typology. The air leakage rate is determined using a standardized building pressurization technique according to European Standard EN 13829. A representative case study has been presented as an example of the implementation of the designed methodology and results are compared to preliminary values obtained from the database.

The hasty changes in the curricula that have occurred in recent years in the School of Architecture of XXX have generated some problems in the subject of Descriptive Geometry that have been added to others that had been ongoing for many years. A Teaching Innovation Project (TIP) seeks to provide a solution to the problems raised with new methods of teaching inside and outside the classroom and greater interaction between the students and the professor. This way, geometry is no longer something abstract, unrelated to the professional practice of the architect. Thereby, it is intended to structure a new subject that provides students not only with graphic and spatial techniques but also with teamwork, cooperation, training, sufficiency and autonomy resources that help them in the development of their future career. In order to carry out this new methodology for teaching, a course based on gamification has been designed, which allows the students to focus on the subject from a more playful point of view with the aim of motivating and involving them. Based on a three-year experience of comparative work between the traditional and the proposed systems, the conclusions obtained with regards to the withdrawal rate, academic performance and perception of the teaching method are presented in this paper. The incorporation of techniques based on games had a motivating effect on the students, who discovered a way of learning by playing what they previously perceived as a tedious subject.