R3PANOT

The new panot of the XXI century.

In 1906, Barcelona City Council ran a tender, which Escofet won, to standardise the designs of its “panots”, the paving stones that have fundamentally shaped the image of Barcelona’s streets.

One hundred and fifteen years later, through the BIT Habitat Foundation, it is launching a new challenge: “Rethinking the panot for the 21^st century” to make it more sustainable while keeping its iconic design intact.

The R3PANOT proposal, one of the three finalist projects presented by Escofet and Promsa, both companies from the Cementos Molins Group, and Eurecat, is based on two different types of products that follow the same strategies to reduce environmental impact: a panot for pedestrian areas, with a thicker section that increases its reusability, and a cobblestone for traffic areas, which ensures proper drainage of rainwater.

Both models ensure a low CO₂ footprint thanks to the use of cement from steel slag, which has an 80% lower impact than conventional cements and thus representing a paradigm shift in carbon footprint, as well as the use of recycled aggregates in a proportion of over 30%.

R3PANOT will carry out a pilot test as part of the transformation of the green axis of the second section of Almogàvers street, between Badajoz and Roc Boronat, thus consolidating the “Superilla Barcelona” model of Poblenou, where the behavior of these new panots will be monitored.

Eurecat participates in this challenge launched by contributing with its vision on innovation and sustainabilitythrough the Product Innovation & Multiphysics Simulation Unit with the participation of the Waste, Energy and Environmental Impact (WEEI) and the Metallic & Ceramic Materials Units.