Livia Tirone

Career

Between 1989 and early 2005 she was CEO of the company Tirone Nunes SA, founded together with Ken Nunes, that designed and built more than 200 Bioclimatic housing units, office and commercial areas in the Lisboa Region. Consisting of 41 flats, Torre Verde (Green Tower) is one of the best-known sustainable construction demonstration buildings in Europe and is located in Parque das Nacoes, Lisbon. After 15 successful years, the real estate activities were halted due to a considerable delay in the approval of a large sustainable urban block project in Lisbon, named Parque Oriente, where all the company’s resources were invested. When, after 8 years, the project was finally approved, the real estate market had entered into deep recession and in 2013 the company was declared insolvent.

Devoted to mainstream sustainable construction and aware of the fact that, more than ever, the acquired body of knowledge and expertise became more and more relevant among professionals, repositioning to become the change agent for sustainability in the construction sector resulted in the launch of the Sustainable Construction Initiative in 2007. Reaching directly, every year, about 4.000 people in Portugal in the approximately 30 promoted events the initiative’s activities include the publication of the book (Sustainable Construction for the Mediterranean Climate Region) in Portuguese, which has since become the reference for professionals in the field and lay people (over 10.500 copies sold in three editions), operating dynamic web sites (reaching over 2 million hits per month), promoting a series of lectures, workshops and seminars, editing and publishing the Sustainable Construction Magazine (in Portuguese) and promoting other on-going professional training initiatives. In partnership with the Lisbon Oceanarium, Livia hosts the Human Habitat Lecture series, inviting renowned speakers to share their powerful visions on how to make the world a much better place.

By political assignment, between 2004 and 2009, she set up and managed the Lisbon Local Energy and Environment Agency. In 2009 she became an elected councillor for the opposition in Lisbon Municipality and was devoted to the specific challenges of the homeless, the elderly and social housing.

For the European Commission’s Directorate General Environment she chaired the Working Group “Sustainable Construction Methods and Techniques” during 2003. She also accepted the invitation of the Vice-president of the European Commission, and became a member of the European Design Leadership Board and contribute to the creation of the European Design Innovation Initiative and the report “Design for Growth and Prosperity”, published in September 2012.

She is also a member of the Lafarge Stakeholder Panel and consultant of large and very large enterprises in Portugal and world wide.

Current projects

After creating the flagship and demonstration buildings that proved the concept of sustainable construction for the Mediterranean climate region, Livia shifted her focus on mainstreaming good practices in construction. No longer competition for design teams, she has become a leader in the field of sustainable construction and works on several fronts simultaneously, including ongoing professional training, coordinating knowledge networks, strategic content development in urban resilience and sustainable construction, policy recommendations and future and strategic visions for an increasingly resilient and sustainable urban reality.

The projects Livia Tirone is working on currently are:

Selected Projects

Built and inhabited since 1998, the Bioclimatic tower in Lisbon’s Parque das Nacoes has become a reference for sustainable construction in the residential sector for the Mediterranean climate region. The 12 storey residential tower has 41 apartments, half of which are voluntarily “unplugged” from central heating system, with indoor temperatures ranging entirely within the comfort range all year round (rigorously monitored during 12 consecutive months). Measures include: Continuous external insulation, high quality double glazed windows, high thermal inertia, mass walls, external shading to South, East and West windows, central solar thermal system, optional central heating system, green roofs, among many other sustainability oriented characteristics.

Completed in 2002 this office building was a development designed and promoted by Tirone Nunes, in partnership with the investment fund Finimus. Set in the core of the Parque das Nacoes business centre, the building integrates many energy efficiency measures and has a green roof and podium connecting it to all the surrounding office buildings.

Located on the edge of Parque das Nacoes and on top of an underground station this project for a state of the art sustainable, large scale urban block has yet to be built. The fact that the approval process lasted for 8 years and coincided with the 2009 economical crisis, caused Tirone Nunes to bring their real estate promotion activities to a halt. Beyond the Bioclimatic measures that were thoroughly tested in various preceding projects, Parque Oriente integrates a full scale local grey water recycling system as well as a rainwater harvesting system and photovoltaic systems in most of the buildings. Many other innovative measures were negotiated and incorporated in the urban plan awaiting a better economical context.

By political assignment, between 2004 and 2009, during consecutive mandates, the Municipality of Lisbon nominated Livia Tirone Delegate Administrator of the Lisbon Municipal Energy and Environment Agency. The challenges were mostly local and included setting up, widening the scope of and positioning the agency among the leading non profit organizations addressing environment and energy issues at local level. Among the most relevant achievements during this commitment were: commissioning and coordinating the Lisbon Energy, Water and Materials matrixes, involving the relevant stakeholders every step of the way and, on the basis of these, defining the energy environmental strategy for Lisbon with specific performance targets, that were politically validated in 2008. Also, relevant at a national level, were the kick off of the local electrical vehicle charging grid, the first secondary water supply for urban hygiene and watering of green areas and various on-going open continuous professional development initiatives – all developed in partnership with the relevant institutions and actors.

Livia Tirone was elected councillor for the opposition in Lisbon Municipality for the mandate of 2009 until 2013, in the team of former Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes. During two and a half years contributed to local policy by presenting proposals and positions, some of which were actually adopted: scaling and fine tuning the sustainability dimension of the Lisbon Urban Master Plan revision and new strategic approaches on unresolved urban challenges such as social housing, the homeless and elderly people. Introduced the local political arena to innovative strategic concepts, including urban resilience and to innovations such as integrating green roofs and facades into storm water management strategies at the level of urban planning.

Accepting the invitation of the Vice-president of the European Commission, Antonio Tajani, Livia Tirone became since 2011 a member of the European Design Leadership Board, asked to contribute to the creation of the European Design Innovation Initiative and the report “Design for Growth and Prosperity”, published since September 2012

The publication of the book (in Portuguese) Sustainable Construction in the Mediterranean Climate Region, that has since become the reference for professionals and lay people in the field, with 10.500 copies sold in three editions resulted in the launch of the Sustainable Construction initiative in Portugal. Reaching between 2.500 and 4.000 people directly every year, this initiative includes the following activities: a dynamic web site (reaching over 2 million hits per month during many months of the year), a lecture series, workshops, seminars and periodical publications such as the Sustainable Construction Magazine.