A house that can grow from a one-bed starter unit to a flexible family home, offering buyers a long term investment that will re-pay the additional cost of its renewable energy generation. The compact box has a sophisticated heat exchange unit at its heart, bore hole heating underneath, and is topped by an innovative “brown roof” promoting biodiversity.

Design

On a tight plot, the design provides a generous internal landscape with a light-filled airy double-height living space. The design follows the guidelines of the Swiss Minergie system to reduce heatload and elimate draughts. Heating, cooling and ventilation are mechanicaly controlled, creating a perfect year-round ambient temperatures. Using timber as the primary building By putting the house’s services – electrticity, water and ventilation – in a central core, owners can add an extra room to the side or create it by flooring over the air double-height space above the living room.

Technical

A flat roof means that the photovoltaic panels can be set at any pitch or angle for optimum solar collection.
An open fire burning wood pellets that emits only 10% of the fumes of a solid-fuel fire
The house uses a German heat-exchange technology – the Zehnder Comfobox – that heats the house in summer, cools it in winter and provides hot water

Innovations

Site waste used on the brown roof, providing insulation and a richer habitat for plants and insects

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