Apartment building in Bennau

“Kraftwerk B” (Power Station B), the architects’ name for the 7-apartment building, is in the middle of the village next to St. Sebastian’s church. Shortly after completion the new building became nationally known as a pilot project for solar self-sufficiency. According to the architects’ calculations it derives 10% more energy than its occupants need from the sun. A monitoring programme measuring total consumption and yields and the temperatures in every inside room is not yet complete. But early results suggest that the energy forecasts are proving accurate. And “Kraftwerk B” is one of the first Swiss buildings to meet the Swiss Minergie-P-Eco standard. As well as prescribing energy efficiency comparable with a passive building this standard also defines upper limits for resource use by building materials and minimum levels for interior climate, sound insulation, daylight use and other factors that are often not paid sufficient attention by a purely energy-based evaluation.