We were tasked with designing a residential building to achieve the key principles of Passivhaus; not only to radically reduce overall energy consumption and therefore residents’ bills, but to create comfortable and easy-to-run homes. From the outset, our client was committed to this as a flagship project for environmental performance.
Our challenge was to deliver high quality energy efficiency to a large-scale apartment building. Walls became thicker to allow necessary levels of insulation; homes were carefully oriented to gather natural warmth from the sun and reduce heating needs; shading devices were fixed to windows and overhanging balconies to help prevent overheating; and an effective air tightness strategy entailed triple glazed windows. Once residents had moved into their homes, we carried out a post-occupancy evaluation on the building – not only to ensure it was performing as it should, but also to help us learn lessons to inform future housing work. We found that our efforts to make the building airtight and highly insulated have paid off – residents are enjoying highly efficient and comfortable homes.
Pushing the boundaries of design to deliver sustainable, low energy homes on a large scale.