An Introduction to Passive House

Justin Bere

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000708073
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Throughout the world, Passive House is now recognised as the best method to create comfortable, healthy, low energy buildings and it is a key component of the 21st century's green economic revolution.

Written by one of the UK's leading passive house architects, this book contains essays that reveal the technical and creative secrets of Passive House design, as well as containing case studies of some of the world's best examples of beautiful, technically excellent buildings that still feel great even when the power supply is turned down to almost nothing.

Whether you are an architect, client, student or construction professional, this book is an enlightening introduction to Passive House and a valuable source of inspiration.

Case Studies

Introduction

The case studies contained in this book are all certified Passive House buildings selected for the convincing illustrations that they present. A few buildings that I would have liked to include were not fully certified. An example of this is a beautiful little house on Rhode Island, US, designed by Zero Energy Design architects. I almost included the house anyway because it is so encouraging that such a beautifully straightforward little house can also be a Passive House. It has all the spirit of a pioneer New England house to me. Other pioneer projects in the end could not be included because, while in many senses key projects, particularly in the UK context, they lacked the necessary photographic images.

Passive House is relatively new in the UK and Ireland, with the UK’s first certified buildings completing in 2009 and 2010. In a few short years, Passive House is already recognised as a supreme method to achieve high-performance buildings and to reduce carbon emissions – and nobody would deny that the UK needs much better buildings. But for these buildings to have the greatest impact, they need to be beautiful examples of design – either traditional or contemporary – in order to encourage more architects and building owners to choose Passive House for mainstream, affordable, comfortable and healthy solutions. This means that they need to be architect designed.

This chapter is primarily an analysis of case studies from around the world, but it starts with a short review of some of the UK’s first Passive Houses.

In 2009, John Williamson – who combines the skills of qualified architect, services engineer and carpenter – delivered the first building in the UK to be certified as a Passive House. The local authority training offices, Canolfan Hyddgen, in Machynlleth, mid-Wales was closely followed by a domestic Passive House project, also in Wales. The Canolfan Hyddgen office building won the New Build Project of the Year in the highly respected CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2011 given by the UK’s Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers.

In 2010, several further Passive House certified projects were completed. They are:

• Denby Dale Passivhaus, built using traditional masonry construction by Bill Butcher and the Green Building Store with Derrie O’Sullivan, architect
• The Centre for Disability Studies in Essex by Andrew Simmonds
• 4 Ranulf Road, a timber-framed dwelling in London by bere:architects
• Larch House and Lime House, timber-framed affordable-housing prototypes in Wales by bere:architects
• Underhill House, an earth-bermed masonry construction by Helen Seymour-Smith
• Hadlow College Rural Regeneration Centre by Eurobuild

  

In 2011 and 2012, further Passive House schools, office buildings and “Retrofit for the Future” projects were completed.

The Princedale Road project by Paul Davis and Partners was the UK’s first domestic full Passive House retrofit. It also incorporated an exciting new development: a UK manufactured Passive House window suitable for historic buildings and approved by conservation planning officers.

In 2011, a 28-unit residential bungalow development was completed by the Gentoo Group at Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland according to designs by Mark Siddall, then of Devereux Architects. Twenty five of the bungalows are certified Passive House dwellings built to look like traditional bungalows. However, for their Passive House reincarnation their redundant chimneys have been given a delightful new 21st-century purpose – to suck in fresh air rather than belch out noxious, polluting gases! This was one of the first projects to test Passive House solutions in the UK at the scale of terraces.

Also in 2011, a development of 14 certified Passive House homes was built by Hastoe Housing at Wimbish in Essex to designs by Parsons + Whittley architects at close to the build cost of ordinary social housing. As well as being concerned about the health, wellbeing and comfort of their tenants, Hastoe also want to give their tenants the best possible opportunity to pay their bills in the long run – including their rent. With average household energy costs probably reduced to just a few hundred pounds a year, Hastoe are forthright in their view that renting Passive House homes is a factor in their sustainable business plan.

Similar motivations were behind Orbit Housing’s desire to build 18 flats and five houses at Sampson Close, Coventry. For their first Passive House project, the timber-frame wall and roof panels were manufactured in Germany. Other pioneer UK projects include Viking House offices, Dover; Nash Terrace, Aubert Park, London; Interserve offices; Oakmeadow Primary School and Bushbury School; the Totnes Passivhaus Retrofit by Janet Cotterell and Adam Dadeby and the Mayville Community Centre retrofit.

Architype completed two primary schools in 2012 which are said to achieve Passive House certification without additional cost, thus sweeping aside the only real impediment to the uptake of the standard for all new schools in the UK. One of these schools, Bushbury, is featured as a case study. Architype’s uptake of Passive House has been swift and comprehensive, and they are now one of Britain’s most prolific Passive House practices.

Grove Cottage, designed by Simmonds Mills Architects, is the first Passive House Enerphit retrofit in the UK. The Enerphit standard helps achieve significant energy savings in existing buildings, while recognising that affordable retrofits may not easily achieve the full Passive House standard. Elliott Drive, Coventry, by ID Partnership for Orbit Heart of England, is the second Passive House Enerphit retrofit in the UK. The adjoining building was designed to a lesser quality and Orbit’s intention is to compare the performance of the two houses, albeit with different residents with their own particular habits.

There are numerous other exciting projects completing in 2013 and 2014 in the UK, and at the same time a number of design-led and mainstream architectural firms are being asked to incorporate the Passive House approach in some larger projects. Camden Council’s Chester Balmore Housing by Rick Mather Architects will be completed in 2013, not without challenges for the design-and-build team that includes Architype. Cartwright Pickard, who first made headlines with their Murray Grove prefabricated housing scheme in London, are in 2012–13 attempting their first Passive House residential block: Sulgrave Gardens in London for Oct...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Copyright
• Title
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• What is Passive House?
• Why Passive House?
• Case studies
• Conclusions
• Further Information
• Picture Credits