A lot of Passive House design look foreign, portraying origins in central Europe. We want to show that you can design a compact house to this standard, look modern but also within the Irish housing idiom.
The timber frame house has a simple compact plan. The south elevation is 45% glazed (to maximize solar gain) while glazing on the other elevations is minimised (to reduce heat loss). It is an Irish interpretation of the central European Passive House design.
It faces exactly south to avail of stunning views over the Dublin hills and to gain maximum value of free heat and light of the sun. Circulation space has been minimised to ensure the client’s money is spent where it matters. There are four bedrooms upstairs, and a separate office with open plan living/dining/kitchen downstairs.
The walls, roof and intermediate floor are made of airtight insulated pre-fabricated panels. The cladding is white-rendered aquapanel boards, timber panelling and `Eternit’ cladding panels. The choices of materials and construction systems ensure a fast erection time on site: they also ensure that quality of airtightness and insulation are very high.
See `Passive House’ page on website for more information on how we build this standard of house.