The house was designed to passive house standards and is fully certified by the German Passive House Institute. A driving factor for the house design was to maximize privacy and orientate on the site allowing the suns path to bring natural light into the house facilitated by the large windows. These areas of glazing allow the capture of passive solar energy, which is then released during the night stabilizing the temperature of the house. This is one of the prominent design features of this passive house. The southerly orientation of living spaces makes use of solar gain whilst the design creates a quiet garden area to the rear, integrating functionality with beautiful architecture.
The house was designed as a simple form, two storey for envelope energy efficiency and with large amounts of glazing to the southwest side of the house. These spaces are also the main living spaces and fortunately offer the best view from the site.
We designed the family dwelling with a super-insulated envelope using SIP (Structural Insulated Panel). Special attention was paid to the detailing of openings and junctions to ensure there were no thermal bridges reducing the amount of heat lost through the building fabric. Conventional double glazed windows were unable to meet the thermal values required for the project and for this reason triple glazing was used along with specially designed window frames that had thermal breaks and a low thermal conductivity.
The house now completed with all systems commissioned and working quietly in the background. The house is being monitored and early tests have shown that the house is performing as designed which is a vindication of Passivhaus design rigour.
