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Magazine: The passive house - an outdated concept or suitable for export?

Twenty years ago, a group of clients built the first passive house in Darmstadt. Since then, energy regulations in architecture have gradually become stricter, but the energy use limit for passive houses has remained at 15 kWh of heating energy per square metre and year. Up to this level the temperature in buildings can be regulated solely by means of incoming fresh air, without the need for an additional heating system. If a building uses more thermal energy, this method of regulating temperature is no longer possible without reductions in comfort.

Magazine: The passive house - an outdated concept or suitable for export?
Community centre in St. Gerold, Austria cukrowicz.nachbaur architekten © Hanspeter Schiess

The Passive House Institute in Darmstadt estimates the number of passive houses built around the world to be 17500, 13000 of which are in Germany alone. Given the approximately 200000 homes completed in Germany every year, the proportion of construction work they account for is relatively small. However, the passive house remains one of the goals towards which construction legislation is moving. In Germany and Austria, the passive house has progressed beyond its pioneering phase. Similarly rigorous energy standards have been tried out in Switzerland (Minergie-P) and northern Italy (KlimaHaus Gold) and there are many passive houses in Belgium, Scandinavia and the Czech Republic as well as initial projects in France, the UK, Ireland, Spain, South Africa and the US. The passive house standard has become an export article, with clients and architects from the German-speaking area leading the way. The most recent example is the “Oesterreichhaus” designed by Viennese architect Martin Treberspurg for the Winter Olympics in Whistler, Canada. In Germany, there are many signs that building shells and mechanical ventilation suitable for passive houses will soon be the norm. Then, however, an end of the thermal-insulation race is foreseeable and only renewable energy will enable further improvements. For a long time, critics have complained about the one-sided orientation of regulations towards energy saving and demand that energy generation strategies be given equal consideration. This, they say, would not only result in much greater freedom in architectural design but would also closely accord with the intentions of the European Union to make the “near zero energy” standard obligatory for new buildings as of 2020. In the foreseeable ensuing boom of thermal-insulation systems and energy technologies, architects would be left with one important task, namely to repeatedly remind us of all those aspects of building – such as daylight quality, indoor climate or the longevity and adaptability of the building structure – that are not directly part of the energy calculation but exert a crucial influence on the quality of architecture and its ability to meet the needs of the future.

Gallery

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