PHBdW: Passivhaus Bau der Woche 17

I became aware of the work of Mojarrab Stanford Architects, co-founded by architects Vahid Mojarrab and Jonah Stanford, through a Passivhaus Consultant training classmate. A few months later, when inhabitat published their story on MoSA’s Balance House, we were immediately enthralled. Combining affordability, high design sensibilities and Passivhaus into easily the best-designed PH in the country – we felt it deserving of a closer look. Luckily, I ran into both Jonah and Vahid in Hannover, as they were there presenting their built projects at the PHI conference. Not only are they rocking some phenomenally sharp projects, but they’re also quite funny.

Jonah was in the first round of Passivhaus Consultant training offered in the U.S., and the Balance House is the first Passivhaus built in the Southwest – completed in spring of 2011. The project consists of a 240,7 m² (2,590ft²) residence with a 67 m² (723 ft²) office, accessed via a covered breezeway. Incredibly, there are only two interior doors in the entire house (bathrooms, obviously). The project incorporates a solar thermal system paired w/ in-floor radiant heating that supplies both the office and the residence. Due to an efficient envelope and HRV,  the temperature only drops a degree at night, and subsequent solar gain of the energy positive windows requires the use of the radiant floor heating only a few days per year.


Though Santa Fe is at an altitude of 7,200 feet – the abundant sunshine makes for a perfect match w/ Passivhaus. The 5,773 HDD climate does require the utilization of triple pane glazing to meet the standard. A high percentage of glazing paired with high winter insolation allows a larger variation in surface area than similarly cold climates – but also required the incorporation of manually operated and fixed shading to prevent summertime overheating. The shading strategies incorporated on this project are some of the better ones we’ve seen.

The house sports a cellulose jacket surrounding the walls and roof. Roof decks offer views of an adjacent mountain range. The project also incorporates a green roof.

Airtightness: 0.46ACH50
Heating Demand: 4.0 kWh/m²a (1.26 kBTU/ft²a)
Primary Energy Demand: 72 kWh/m²a (22.8 kBTU/ft²a)
Windows, Optiwin 2holz, Uf =0.95 W/m²k (R-5.8)
Glazing: Ug=0,6 W/m²k (R-9.5), g-wert = 0.63


Above-grade wall assembly, U-value=0.102 W/m²k (R-50)

  • GWB
  • 2×6 framing w/ cellulose insulation
  • 1/2″ plywood sheathing (air barrier) fully taped from exterior
  • 23 cm (9”) larsen truss w/ cellulose insulation

Ground slab assembly, U-value=0.185 W/m²k (R-36)

  • 12,7 cm (5”) Concrete slab
  • 19 cm (7.5”) EPS

Roof assembly, U-value=0.052 W/m²k (R-87)

  • 76 cm (30”) cellulose insulation

MoSA has taken the lessons from Balance House and simplified their approach to reduce overall costs and increase marketability. The recently completed VOLKsHouse ditched the cellulose ‘outsulation’ for an EPS jacket. They also switched to Zip panels for the air barrier – allowing a more seamless integration of window installation, and reduced labor. These changes resulted in VOLKsHouse achieving an insanely low blower door test of 0.24ACH50! Balance House is presently being prepped for monitoring, and eventually Los Alamos National Labs will submit a white paper comparing PHPP modeling with actual results. Definitely looking forward to their next works. Massive respect, guys.

Additional info:

  • MoSA’s PHI Conference Proceeding from Hannover, with additional info on their recently completed (and similarly impressive) PH, VOLKsHouse  (pdf)

 

 

Bravo Bruxelles

The pace of presentations in Hannover was significantly faster than I would have liked. There were several instances where conflicting presentations presented a conundrum. The biggest – I really, really, really wanted to catch Sebastian Moreno-Vacca’s presentation on PH and high design architecture, but ended up elsewhere. Granted, IAQ and ventilation behavior were interesting, but let’s face it – designers love design porn – or at any rate, this one certainly does. Immediately after the IAQ prezi, I had to sprint to catch Thibaut Hermans’ presentation on the blossoming PH scene in Brussels.

There is something magical underway in Brussels (having lived outside Mons for 4 years, I kind of always felt that way anyway…) – and it’s no accident it was granted Passivhaus front-runner region status. Public buildings had been directed to be Passivhaus compliant by 2010. The region passed an ordinance in 2011 requiring new constructions and retrofits to meet PH levels of efficiency by January 2015 – a full 6 years before the E.U. Energy Performance of Buildings Directive for nearly zero buildings by 2021. Considering the average existing building’s insulation is equivalent to what you would see in Italy, this is really an impressive undertaking.

rendering: a2m

Thibaut presented an overview of the Batiment Exemplaire program of the institut bruxellois pour la gestion de l’environnement (IBGE), where he works. It should be noted that Hermans was trained as an architect, and that this seems to be a recurring theme in cities with a high number of Passivhäuser. There are 4 criteria to meet the B.E. program:

  • Energy: high performance buildings/PH or near PH & renewables
  • Eco construction: emphasis on ‘green’ practices, rainwater harvesting/management, waste, etc
  • Profitability/reproducibility: projects utilize known or innovative technologies, which can be readily duplicated
  • Architectural quality: a focus on strong/well-thought out design and interaction with public realm.

From those that qualify, there is support in the form of:

  • Grants: €100/m² (roughly $12/ft²), paid upon completion with a 90/10 split to developers/architects
  • Technical support: expert guidance throughout development of project
  • Promotions: brochures, websites , pamphlets and exhibits to promote the project

There are presently 44 built projects, representing about 100,000m² of floor area (1,076,000ft²), with another 44 under construction, with a planned total floor area of 82,900m² (892,000ft²).  Thibaut expressed that buildings meeting Passivhaus, but not necessarily qualifying as Batiment Exemplaire, are expected to exceed 250,000m² (2,690,000ft²) by 2015. Yup, at this point, I watched no less than three American jaws simultaneously smack the floor – a massively impressive number, given the fact there were no PH projects in 2007. Add in that this is a completely voluntary program (well, for at least 2.5 more years…) and it only looks more impressive.

The program appears to be ridiculously successful, as many of the projects are easily meeting the space heating demand. The number of projects submitted and meeting Passivhaus increases every year. It’s proving to be applicable across several typologies – detached housing, social housing, offices, schools and even skyscrapers. Architects are dialing it down to PH levels, including renowned names like Christian de Portzamparc and Jean Nouvel.

rendering: Jean Nouvel and MDW Architecture

I ran into Mr. Hermans after the APHN dinner, where he mentioned that it was the Minister for Environment and Energy, Evelyne Huytebroeck, who has been a huge driving force in the rapid adoption and implementation of Passivhaus in the Brussels region. As Brussels is significantly harder to achieve Passivhaus than Seattle, my next goal is to get a delegation from the City of Seattle to Brussels for their September Passivhaus conference to talk with the Minister, city reps and to get inside these exemplary projects. For many of us in the PH community, government-run buildings and Passivhaus are (as we like to say) kind of a no-brainer: ultra-low and predictable operational costs, high levels of occupant comfort, and building durability.

One of the things not presented that I had previously come across, was IBGE’s green project repository. It is kinda nifty, as one of the search toggles is max space heating demand. If you input the Passivhaus maximum of 15kWh/m²a, a number of results are listed with a brief summary and PH (HRV) or other green features (rainwater harvesting, recycled materials, PV, etc.).

Each entry also includes a link to a PDF with more information (FR or NL). The repository ties into the presentation I (unfortunately) missed, as several projects discussed appear in it. There certainly are some beauts, and the Belgians are very quickly showing that there does not have to be a design ‘hit’ when optimizing for performance – design and performance works just as well (if not better) as design v. performance. Considering the region’s climate difficulties compared to ours – the amount and quality of work is just simply staggering. Bravo Bruxelles.

Additional Info

  • Slides from 2011 UK Passivhaus conference on the success of Brussels (pdf)

 

16th PHI conference recap

In what was one of the whirlwind-iest of whirlwind weekends, the Passivhaus conference in Hannover was – by all accounts – inspiring, amazing and successful. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be adding posts on products, people and presentations – including a couple of ideas that could completely revolutionize Passivhaus design. Though the post-conference haze/funk has definitely settled in – visiting Hannover was both rewarding and enriching. I was (finally) able to connect with people I’ve been in contact with via twitter/email for quite some time, and even enjoyed a weiβbier… or several. And Hannover was a much more fascinating city than I thought it would be, and we spent a lot of time in the evenings debating, chatting and just enjoying the weather in the fussgangerzone.


One of the key takeaways for me was that we in the North American PH community need to be reaching out to cities like Freiburg, Hannover and Brussels to replicate their policy and commercial successes. One of the highlights for me (which was especially sweet coming off the discovery of the be.passiv magazines) was how rapidly Passivhaus is being adopted into commercial and public projects in Brussels. I attended a great session by Thiabaut Hermans on how within 4 years, the city will have over 250,000 m² (2,690,000 ft²) of Passivhaus or near-PH qualified buildings. That several of these are by renowned starchitects and are architecturally inspiring only further excites me. Brussels will be hosting the Belgian PH conference on 5 October, 2012 (info here). Next question – how do we get delegates from the city of Seattle to these cities? This as an imperative if they’re going to ever take the energy (and economic savings) side of green building seriously.


There was a large focus on zero energy/plusenergiehaus – that is, passivhaus + renewables to meet net zero (site). We’ve discussed this several times in the past, and as the EU moves towards carbon neutral buildings, the construction of buildings that produce more energy than the need (thereby reducing carbon of their poorly-insulated neighbors) has increased. Also, in many climates, achieving net zero isn’t feasible economically without hitting PH. There were a number of presentations meeting this goal, though from an aesthetics standpoint I usually find these installations a little depressing – for one thing, I think most PVs installs are horribly integrated. From an energy standpoint, I just don’t believe that site generation of energy should be a focus for designers and planners – though I do see how it makes financial sense for corporations, especially with FITs and such. There was also an interesting round table on net zero energy, which unfortunately featured only one opposing viewpoint. The floor was opened up after brief presentations, but unfortunately most of the conversation didn’t revolve around energy. We are in complete agreement with the lone contra-argument, so we’ll definitely write a summary in the next few days.


A new tool was rolled out at the conference for the planning side of a PH project, especially relating to insulation levels and window types for each climate. The PHI has been doing much evaluation of regional climate issues, including a heavy focus on Asia, including Korea and China which seemingly had more delegates than North America. One of the nicer focuses of these presentations was a validation of what we’ve been saying about PH in America – that while we’re significantly colder than the EU in heating-dominated climates, the insolation actually makes achieving PH a lot easier. This seemed to turn the idea that we should be ‘tweaking’ the standard on its head.  The tool has been incorporated into the passipedia website – you click your site on a google map, and the PHPP climate data (general, not microclimate) is generated. So here’s to hoping PHnw becomes an affiliate member soon enough.


The last highlight for me, and I’ll definitely do a summary post on this in the next few days, was the superwindows presentation from the idea generators at Kostka & Paszkowski (RU).  They presented a series of conceptual ideas that literally had my jaw on the floor and caused me to murmur, ‘no f*cking way!‘ every 2 minutes. Let’s just say it was a good thing I was in the back of the room. Though far from production ready, this outside the box thinking verifies why we need to keep the standards for Passivhaus stringent – this is really what is driving innovation. The superwindows presentation took the idea of innovation to an extreme, bypassing incremental steps to a whole new concept of glazing. In modeling, it’s appearing to achieve U-values of 0,1 – 0,3W/m²k (R-56 to R-19) – which makes the whole wall v. glass debate completely moot. A Miesian glass Passivhaus could be realized in Russia. Game. Set. Match!

Finally, while a number of us were hoping the 17th PHI conference would be in Brussels, it is set for Frankfurt on 16-17 May, 2013. We look forward to seeing you then!

a stunning PH quarterly


Though it has been a long time since I’ve even attempted to read (Belgian) French or Flemish – I recently caught sight of a fabulous Passivhaus resource from Belgium. It’s a stunning quarterly put out by Plate-forme Maison Passiv (pmp) and passiefhuisplatform (php). Titled be.passive, there are 10 newsletters (±100 pages, w/ adverts) and features an array of projects, interviews, critiques and errata on regional PH goings-on. They can be viewed online, or downloaded as a pdf. It’s also available in Flemish (which I can stumble through much better than French…)

To be honest, I’m completely floored with the quality of these releases, and even more impressed that it’s put out there for free. Maybe they can be convinced to syndicate in English. Makes me want to…

a. move to Belgium (as a youngster, my family lived near Mons for several years)
b. learn French (Aaron’s got the Quebecois thing going on, though)
c. convince the PHI to hold the 17th Passivhaus conference in Antwerp or Ghent

Issue 7 (pdf) features some nice details and glossy photos of the Flemish Environmental Agency office (VMM) by evr architecten that scored 0.45ACH50, and a specific space heat demand of 14kWh/m2a. Case study here.

Worth it.

 

 

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