Sustainable projects

29 8 2022

Catching Sun House by Studioshaw in London

Blanka de Far 2022, Architecture, Energy renovation of buildings, Interior design, Living comfort Architecture, lighting, Living, Living comfort, masonry, mixed construction, pitched roof, Single-family house, Sustainable projects

A single-family home on a leftover inner-city lot

Architecture: Studioshaw
Client: Mark Shaw
Location: Walthamstow, London (GB)
Site area: 135 m²

It was a great discovery. When Mark Shaw came across a building lot with a decommissioned car repair shop and found out that it had been approved for the construction of a single-storey residence, he decided that he would live there. Along with his architecture office, Studioshaw, he planned a new building for the 135-m² parcel, a structure that would feature an open living and dining area and two bedrooms with bathrooms on the ground floor. On the upper level, he put in a smaller living and working area. This was possible because the old garage had had two storeys in exactly the same area.

© James Brittain

A narrow driveway leads to the lot, which is surrounded by a newly added garden wall. The wall alone required 27 different agreements with the neighbours to allow the removal of existing fences and walls. The building permit stipulated that the neighbouring gardens would not be visible from the interior of the new home.

However, daylight floods into the house, primarily through the skylights and floor-to-ceiling glazing in the foyer and via the two small inner courtyards in front of the living area and the bedrooms.

© James Brittain

To save on building expenses, the architects wrote to and coordinated all 14 trades individually instead of hiring a general contractor. According to their calculations, this made the building 30-40% cheaper than a comparable conventionally built house.

© James Brittain

The architects’ choice of materials clearly differs between the upper and lower portions of the house. The walls surrounding the garden and forming the ground floor, some of which consist of double-wall reinforced-concrete masonry with core insulation, act as the base for the wooden construction of the upper level and roof. For the sliding doors and the windows, the architects chose eloxated aluminum. A playful, orange-coloured samba stairway leads up to the first upper level; a storage and laundry room is hidden beneath it. The shower in front of the larger of the two bedrooms is extraverted, yet sheltered from view. It is in a completely glazed addition in the yard, but can conveniently be reached from the interior of the house.

Source

Galerija

01-t-wohnsolitaer-bei-turin-von-archisbang

27 8 2022

Residential Solitaire near Turin by Archisbang

Blanka de Far 2022, Architecture, Energy renovation of buildings, Interior design, Living comfort Architecture, Energy renovation of buildings, Flat roof, Interior eqpipment, Living, Living comfort, Plaster, Renovation, Roof terrace, Sustainable projects

Fortress on a rock

Architecture: Archisbang
Client: privat
Location: Ivrea (IT)

Structural engineering: Marco Cuccureddu
Contractor: Perino Costruzioni

In the small Piedmontese town of Ivrea at the northern edge of the Po Valley, the architectural practice Archisbang has turned a house that had seen better days into a solitaire that can be flexibly adapted to various residential requirements. Their work involved energy-efficiency upgrading, structural alterations to the interior and substantial transformation of the outer appearance.

© Aldo Amoretti

The planning team had all overhangs removed from the house from the 1960s and pared it down to its cubic volume. Now lightweight cement panels plastered in lime mortar conceal the newly-installed exterior insulation, while large square openings provide interior spaces with abundant natural light. The windows on the southern side look out onto rock, staging the architecture’s relationship to the site.

The building is divided into three living units accessed by external stairs, while an interior staircase and elevator can also be used to link the apartments if required. The ground floor acts as a communal area featuring a laundry room, a rock cellar and parking space for two cars.

© Aldo Amoretti

On the first floor, two small apartments share a living area, whereby a wooden partition wall can be used for flexible allocation of the space between the two, or for combining them into one floor-sized unit. The main apartment comprises the second story and the roof above it.

The walls in the private areas are in exposed concrete, while the rough stucco of the facades is repeated on the interior walls of the communal areas. Floors in polished concrete are punctuated by sections of parquet. Custom-made furniture as well as doors and window frames out of wood soften the stark architectural language.

© Aldo Amoretti

A special feature of the house concerns the roof terrace, which is accessed from the large apartment on the second storey. Surrounded by the crowns of trees, it offers views of the Serra d’Ivrea moraines at the foot of the Alps and also has a swimming pool – an amenity for which the load-bearing walls were especially reinforced.

Source

Gallery Fortress on a rock

29-solo-demonstrationshaus-vancouver-perkins-will-grafik

25 8 2022

SoLo Demonstration House near Vancouver by Perkins&Will

Blanka de Far 2022, Architecture, Interior design, Living comfort Architecture, Interior eqpipment, Living comfort, sustainability, Sustainable projects, Wood

© Andrew Latreille

Architecture: Perkins&Will
Client: Delta Land Development
Location: Soo Valley (CA)

Structural engineering: Glotman Simpson
Building services engineering: Integral Group
Facade planning, building physics: RDH, Perkins&Will

The name says it all: amid the forests near the ski resort of Whistler, Perkins&Will have erected a holiday home on behalf of a property developer. The structure will set new standards for energy efficiency and sustainability. The client, Delta Land Development, states that it would like to test technologies and construction methods that may be used in larger future projects set in the urban environment.

© Andrew Latreille

In terms of scale, SoLo is in a completely different, significantly smaller league. However, for a weekend house the new building is quite impressive: it is nearly 30 m long and measures 380 m². To keep the house from being snowed in, the structure stands conspicuously above ground on a steel framework.

© Andrew Latreille

The (ground-floor) basement accommodates only a technical room for the ventilation system, the geothermal pump that heats the house and the water treatment unit. Because its location is remote, SoLo is self-sufficient with respect to energy and water supply. A well beneath the house provides potable water, while grey water is recycled and waste water passes through a small treatment unit before it seeps into the earth.

© Andrew Latreille

The main source of energy is a 32-kW photovoltaic array mounted on the southeast longitudinal facade; a wind-power system is slated for future installation. An ancillary building a bit away from the house contains battery storage and, should there be periods of no sunshine, a fuel cell.

© Andrew Latreille

For the self-sufficiency concept to work, the house’s energy requirements first had to be lowered. The building was planned according to passive-energy principles, which in this particular location meant around 60 cm of insulation inside the building shell. From the inside out, the shell consists of dowelled solid-wood panels, a vapour barrier, the insulation layer between the timber cross-pieces and a second, independent wooden framework that bears the exterior covering of the house. The latter consists of the above-mentioned PV modules on the southeast facade, wooden boarding on the northeast side as well as a standing seam cover on the shed roof. On the east-facing end, the house opens onto the terrace with floor-to-ceiling glazing. Behind this, visitors enter a two-storey living room and continue into the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. A sauna and storage space are located in a small annexe on the north side of the structure.

Gallery

14 8 2022

Lycée Simone Veil near Montpellier by Hellin Sebbag

Blanka de Far 2022, Architecture School, Sustainable projects, Wood

Energy-plus building with a terracotta shell

Architecture: Hellin-Sebbag Architectes Associés
Client: Région Occitanie Pyrénées-Méditerranée
Location: Avenue Arnaud Beltrame, Gignac (FR)

Structural engineering: Terrell
Landscape architecture: Guillemet
Building services engineering: Adret
Budgeting: Egis Bâtiments

A wooden construction, power generated by a photovoltaic system and heating and cooling with geothermal pumps make the Lycée Simone Veil, a high school in the southwestern French town of Gignac, an ecological showcase. For the community of 6500 inhabitants located around 40 km northwest of Montpellier, the new building is akin to a rejuvenation treatment: 1000 pupils can be taught in the complex, which measures 145 000 m², while 80 can be accommodated in the adjacent boarding school. Moreover, there are 8 living units for teaching staff.

If one does not consider the residential buildings, the overall plan of the complex is shaped like a parallelogram. The two long tracts, which face east to west, are home to the classrooms, special-subject rooms and administrative offices. The two transverse wings, which feature vaulted green roofs, contain the teachers’ rooms, a documentation centre as well as the cafeteria and locker rooms for the sports field directly to the west.

The entrance façade to the north is divided into three storey-high, undulant bands that mediate between the course of the access road and the north-south orientation of the main facades, which are optimal in terms of energy efficiency.

For the facade covering, the architects chose in favour of a small-scale, pixel-like structure of glazed terracotta elements in various shades of grey and blue. Bilious-green facade panels mingle intermittently among the grey and blue; on the front of the classroom wing, they form the background for the portrait of the school’s namesake.

Two-thirds wood, one-third concrete: this was the architects’ recipe for the supporting structure of the new building. For instance, the prefabricated Y-shaped supports that bear the canopy and protruding upper level of the building’s wings are of high-performance concrete. The ceilings, which are of cross-laminated timber, have been treated with a coating of grout topping to improve soundproofing. In contrast, the inner walls and façades consist primarily of wood panelling.

Electricity for the school is supplied by around 1650 m² of conventional photovoltaic modules and 200 m² of modules that have been integrated into the glass roof of the entrance tract. Among other things, the power is used by a heat-pump system with 32 geothermal probes, each of which is 120 m deep, that heats and cools the building. Thanks to its low energy consumption and generation of solar power, the Lycée Simone Veil has achieved the French energy-plus standard known as BEPOS (Bâtiment à Énergie Positive).